So Many Sick Rats At Once... *2nd update*

[Kathleen]

Several of my rats are sick right now, and I feel totally overwhelmed with caring for and medicating everyone. I have 6 rats on meds, and one seems very sick. Moira, one of the girls that came up earlier this year from Heather (Adventure Rats) is constantly breathing quite heavily and is very hard to medicate. She seems pretty ill, but the vet is optimistic about her prognosis. Most of the others are just sneezy, but I'm becoming concerned about Hava because she seems to be losing weight -- she is positively bony, and I don't know why. The other 11 seem pretty much okay, but some of the baby rats and one of my non-sneezy rats have porphyrin around their noses.

How does everyone else with lots of ratties deal with this? Giving out meds before classes every morning is getting old. And it's so hard to give everyone enough attention when I'm always having to shower between visits to one or another cage. Ugh, I am just so worried about them all.

[pigsandrats]

Oh Kathleen, I'm so sorry you're going through this.
I agree, it is stressful dealing with so many sick at one time.

You're married, right? Have your hubby help.

Good luck. I hope they all pull through.

[KayR]

I'm so sorry you have a bunch of sick little furry ones. I've been there myself and I know it's NO FUN. My biggest concern was making sure that everyone got the right meds and the right ammount and at the right time and the right ones.... it was nightmarish.

What I did was line up 5 little bowls each on an index card with one ratty name on it, put a half teaspoon of baby food into each one, then add the meds to each bowl and mix. Put the 5 bowls into 5 travel cages then put one rat into each cage. No one came out of the travel cage until their bowl was licked clean. I restricted their food for about an hour before each meds time to make sure they would eagerly eat the baby food. It took them about 30 minutes max to lick them all clean.

Good luck! Oh, and when I had one that was having serious problems breathing I kept him in a small cage so he couldn't move a whole lot and put more strain on his body. He was then kept with a humidifier for 3 days and every hour on the hour I gave him 1cc of luquids. It was a really long 48 hours but he pulled through.

 

It was a little tedious, and time consuming, but well worth it.

[DebW]

I definately feel your pain.  I just got done doing this with 15.  Like KayR, I developed a method.  I cut yogurt containers down so they were like little dishes about 1/4" deep.  I put each rat's name along the inside edge with permanent marker.  Everyone took their meds in banana mashed and mixed with some sugar.  Each rat got about 1/2 tsp of the banana mix with their meds.  

Everything was loaded on a cookie tray and taken to the cages.  I didn't wash anything but hands between cages, because all of my rats share common air space and were all exposed.  Since each rat had medicine, I just had to watch to see that no one ate anyone else's drugs and serve them in separate corners.

I got up an extra 15-20 minutes early each day to do this.  Evenings weren't a problem.

Good luck and I hope everyone feels better soon including you.

[Kathleen]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm getting used to drugging everyone now. Moira is still horrible about it, though. She's getting sicker, too, despite the Baytril. We're going back to the vet today. She still has her energy, but she sounds horribly congested and coughs more than she did yesterday. I'm pretty worried...I hope that no one else gets as bad as she is.  

[quellykin1]

Vlad started losing weight, too. He's always been sneezy, but only gets antibiotics if he's actually sick. Anyway, he always seems to eat but had dropped to 455 gr. and I could feel his backbone. I started giving him a dab of Nutrical a day and when I weighed him last week he was just over 500 grams!
Good luck with all the sick kids. I know how that is.

[PA_Ratopia]

oh my gosh... and I thought I had it bad with Chevy's nonstop dihorrea (its been going on for 2 weeks now and my vet and I are at our wits ends!). do you have a written schedule going? that always worked when our massive quanitity of dogs were all on different meds.

[Frantic]

Oh, Kathleen, I'm sorry your rats are sick. I know how overwhelmed and helpless that makes me feel, too.

I like the hints to hide the meds in mashed banana or baby food and the addition of nutrical for a bony rattie.

I don't have any hints, just sympathy. Good luck. Keep us posted on how everyone is doing.

[Kathleen]

Well, I've spent $200 so far on vet visits and meds, and no one seems better. I'm very worried about them, especially Moira. We've upped the Baytril dosage, and will add in Doxy if things don't improve soon. Dr. Nakamura tells me that he cannot rule out SDA at this point, although he thinks that probably isn't what it is. I've decided that no rat people will be able to visit me until after we've figured out what's going on. I've been feeding Hava high calorie stuff, which she seems to like. Hopefully she'll gain back some weight soon. I am so worried about everyone.

[fay]

Hope your rattys feel better soon. The boys send big ratty hugs

[Adventure Rats]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm getting used to drugging everyone now. Moira is still horrible about it, though. She's getting sicker, too, despite the Baytril. We're going back to the vet today. She still has her energy, but she sounds horribly congested and coughs more than she did yesterday. I'm pretty worried...I hope that no one else gets as bad as she is.  

Kathleen get her off teh bedding on to cloth. Her brother Joseph (who I have) has very bad allergies to ANY bedding I have used. I did a 14 day baytril doxy combo with no luck. The only thing that worked was using cloth ONLY for his bedding. She is breathing heavy or os it only congestion? You cantry Benadryl also to help with the allergies. Oh I hope they will all be ok ans pull through. I hate it when I have to give multiple rats meds at the smae time, but I knew that would happen when I choose to take on so many.

Ask your vet what he/she thinks of the allergie possibilities with the little girl. I'm keeping happy thoughts that your fur babies will be just fine.

[Kathleen]

Moira's still showing no improvement, and Hava seems to be losing more weight. We're adding in Doxy...maybe that will help. Unfortunately, it means even more medicating. Bleh.

The allergy thing is an interesting thought...it can't be just that, though, because the other rats are sick as well, and most of them aren't allergy-prone. Bella, the only one I have who suffers from nasty allergies, isn't sick at all. I'll mention it to the vet next time I talk to her, though, and we'll see what happens with the Doxy.

[Ensie]

Keep us updated, Kathleen. I hope this is containable and treatable and that it goes away soon. I wonder why Bella's not showing symptoms. Let us know how it goes with the vet and everything.

[Kathleen]

Moira's getting better! I got her out this morning to give her meds, and she wasn't making rattling sounds! Her breathing still isn't normal, but it's far better. I guess a few days on the Baytril/Doxy combo has done the trick. Some of the others seem better, too, (especially Bert -- he's much improved) but not all. Hava is still losing weight, and Delilah doesn't seem better either. This is a good sign, though...hopefully the others will start to improve soon.

[DebW]

I'm so glad to hear they're doing better!  

The Baytril/Doxy combo really worked on the worst congested breathers during my SDA problems.  It was like a wonder drug combination.

Hope everyone continues to make quick progress to better health.

[frostywolf]

My whole gang is pressing paws that your whole crew gets better soon!

[elegy]

i'm glad your crew is finally showing improvements! it's so scary and frustrating when they're that sick and nothing seems to make them any better.

best wishes for a speedy and full recovery from this point on!

[Kathleen]

Another update...Bert is now a bit worse than he was on Friday, but still not too bad. I'm hoping he'll show more improvement soon. Delilah is getting worse, and Hava's still skinny. Hava now has very runny stool as well, and my vet thinks it may be a reaction to the Doxy; we might need to take her off of it. Moira is about the same as she was Friday; I'm just glad she's better than she was before. I'm just continuing to medicate them all and give them scritches. I wish I could do more.

[menagerie]

Hava now has very runny stool as well, and my vet thinks it may be a reaction to the Doxy; we might need to take her off of it.

Have you been giving Hava Lactobacillius Acidophilus, it will help replace the good gut enzymes? It?s the active culture found in yogurt. You can get capsules at your local health food store. Give it an hour or two after the antibiotics so that it doesn't decrease the effectiveness. You can give yogurt also, but the capsules have a higher concentration.

[pigsandrats]

You're a great rat mommy Kathleen!

[Jodi]

You're a great rat mommy Kathleen!

I second that, Honey! We're all thinking about you and our spirits are with you! Bless your heart. I think most of us have been through it, and I know how hard it is. But you're doing great, and please know that we're right there with you. Hugs to you and belly-kissies to your babies!