Ill Rats

Question
I have a male Dumbo located next to a nursing female. However, the male dumbo is clicking and breathing rapidly. I know he has a respiratory infection, but I don't know what to do. What if it passes to the mother and her two-day old kittens? How would I go about preventing that? I dont have any money for medicine or veterinary care so I can't get the male treated right away and I'm very worried about the babies having the illness too or the mother passing them to her babies if she gets them. I would also like to say that the male dumbo is the father of the kittens although it was unplanned. Please let me know what I should do to keep the kittens and mother healthy and to prevent then from getting ill

Answer
Dear Sandy,

I must not have pressed publish when I wrote you :( it is a two step process and easy to mess up. So sorry :(

How is it going now? Is the male still with you? Clicking is terrible.

Get these two meds:


***Amoxicillin***

http://ratguide.com/meds/antimicrobial_agents/amoxicillin.php
Amoxicillin is usually dosed at 50mg per kg (0.23 mg/lb)

If you have a capsule, open it. If you have powder, you need to figure out how to measure it into a pile of 100 mg or 250 mg (or do the math ourself). You will mix it with liquid to obtain 50mg/ml. This means if the capsule is 100mg, you mix it with 2 ml liquid; If it is 250 mg, you mix it with 5 ml.

So in metric units, a kilo of rat gets a dose of 0.8 ml. 500mg of rat gets 0.4 ml. Thus then dose per 100 ml of rat is 0.08 ml.

In 'English' units (did you know that is what Americans use??) the dose per pound of rat is 0.36 ml. A low 0.4 is fine. A half pound rat gets 0.18 ml; to not underdose, go ahead and aim more towards 0.2. These things can be hard to dose.

Do not underdose antibiotics. Do not panic about slight overdose.

Fish: Capsules, 250 mg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fish-Mox-100-Ct-Capsules-Amoxicillin-250-mg-Fish-Antibio

*********

***Doxycycline***:
http://ratguide.com/meds/antimicrobial_agents/doxycycline.php

Get one 100mg capsule/packet or two 50mg capsules/packets. You will mix this with 10 ml of a yummy liquid. This will make a solution of 5mg per 5 ml. Recommended is strawberry coffee syrup, as in this example: Put three ml of filtered water in a small container that you can fit the syringe in. Very carefully pour the powder in, perhaps using a paper funnel. Shake well. Then put 7 ml syrup in. Shake well. Shake very well before each use. Keep refrigerated.

If you measure in grams of rat, the dose is 1.0 ml per 1.0 kg. This means a 300g rat gets 0.3 ml; a 700mg rat gets 0.7 ml, etc.

In pounds of rat, the dose is 5 ml per pound. So a one pound rat gets 0.5 ml. A half pound, or 8 oz rat, gets 0.25ml.

The dose can also be calculated as 0.03ml per ounce. Note: the numbers don't match up 100% but those differences are unimportant; I want to make it easy.

Do not underdose antibiotics. Do not panic about slight overdose.

Fish capsules (BEST SOURCE)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AQUATIC-DOXYCYCLINE-100mg-100-COUNTS-AQUARIUM-ANTIBIOTIC



When a rat is a little bit sick use the doxycycline, because the illness is probably just myco. When it is sicker there is probably a secondary infection so you need to add the amoxicillin.

Continue for three weeks.

You should always have these on hand.

VERY sorry I didn't get the earlier response sent :( :(

Squeaks,

Natasha