rat health problems and compitent vets

Question
QUESTION: About a week and a half ago, I adopted a pet rat from a friend who didn't want him.  She got him from her work place (PetCo) who said they couldn't sell a rat with head tilt, and could she find a home for him?

Evidently he'd had an ear infection, was treated (and supposedly cured) before being given to her. She told me not to worry about taking him to a vet.

As soon as I could, I got online and began reading everything available for rat health, bedding, feeding, etc.  

Poor Ratty (That's what I call him) sneezes a good deal, has the sniffles, has porphyrin staining around eyes and nose, sometimes wheezes a bit.  He's otherwise very active.  I want to take him to a vet regardless.  I imagine it's recurrent myco that was never really treated properly the first time (or came back immediately), but I can't say for sure. It's just my guess.

So, my question is, how do I know, when I take Ratty to a vet, that said vet knows what they're talking about?  Is there anything, any advice, bad or good, that I should look out for?  Is there a way to find people who specialize in rats in my area?  

Thank you for reading and I look forward to a response :3

ANSWER: You have come to the right place!  My website had two pages that explain about vets and the way it works.

I will summarize it for you:


There are what we call "Avian and exotic vets"! These vets are board certified vets that have taken a few extra years of schooling to learn about birds and exotic animals from small mammals to snakes and lizards. They have everything needed to treat small mammals which you will learn about on my website.   Unfortunately, there are only a small percentage of these vets in the entire world, around 130 t0 140 to be fairly accurate. In my state there are only five of these types of vets. The good news is they have just introduced a brand new specialty and it is even more geared toward our small mammal friends. It is called Exotic Companion Mammal Veterinarian. These specialists will be providing that next level of care of small exotic pets. The first state boards for this are just now being taken. I am super stoked about this new type of vet. We need them, thats for sure.

The next type of vet that sees rats are general practice vets. They are small animal vets but many rat owners confuse this with small mammals. Big difference here.  While some of these vets, those that advertise that they have a "special interest in exotics" are very good with rats, it is because they have taken the extra step to attend workshops for exotics and have done extra studying on the side.  Kind of like what I have done, including shadowing an exotic vet at their exotic animal only clinics etc...  and they also make sure they are able to provide the proper small sized implements for small mammals and have the right medications on hand for them as well.  This is not usually very cost effective though, esp if most of their clients are dogs and cats. Unless the clinic has tons of money, and with this economy like it is,  who knows....but it is not very likly an all species animal hospital will have cat and dog AND exotic supplies all on hand. Some vets will give shots of baytril the rats when this is very bad to do as rats do not have alot of muscle mass and so the injection usually coagulates under the skin and burns a huge ulceration in it, called baytril burn. This is painful and can cause serious infection. The vet does this because they do not have any liquid on hand, not knowing that the rat can actually take the inject able by mouth. It may taste nasty, but it can be mixed with something palatable for them, and again, these vets dont usually have yummy syrups on hand to make an elixir for the rats so they dont get the proper medications.  I can go on and on here.  
I think you get my point.  However, I can help you find a vet that is geared toward rats. Let me know your location and I will give you some names. I have to drive nearly an hour to see our exotic vet but its worth it.  They have tiny glass enclosures for the seriously ill rats where they pipe in oxygen and nebulize sick rats etc...and have small sized surgical tools etc....everything needed for small mammals. I will never forget a few years ago (more like 7 or 8 yrs ago) my rat had pneumonia and the vet that I saw said they took exotics.  They said he was on oxygen but kept fighting it. I didnt know what they meant...how does a rat fight it when they are placed in an oxygenated tank?  Well turned out they did not have this type of set up for rats so they were simply holding the rat on the table and had the oxygen mask laying on the table and were trying to make the rat put his head in the mask. I was so PO'D after that I went on a huge mission to find out all I could about vets that see rats and who to see and who to avoid.  

Does Ratty still have head tilt, btw?

Here is the URL to my site. Please check out the vet info and write back and let me know your thoughts and I will try to find the best vet for your little guy.


http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/therightvetforyourrat.htm

Making sure surgery is safe for rats:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/surgerysafteyrisks.htm

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your prompt and thorough reply!

Yes, Ratty still has the head tilt.  He runs along just fine with it, but does seem to have a bit of a balance problem when moving down from surfaces. (He does a lazy little barrel roll ha!)

I live in Edwardsville Illinois. It's about a half an hour from St. Louis Missouri.  Hopefully we'll have at least one nearby, as it is a largish city.

The one place nearby that we contacted was the Hawthorne Animal Hospital. They said that they had someone who treated rats, but just what their credentials or experience is, I have no idea. And none of the rat-friendly lists that I've looked up included anybody within quite a number of miles. If you could give me any names or locations of specialists nearby, that would be excellent.   

I have scoped out a lot of meds on ratmart.com including liquid baytril, but I don't feel comfortable medicating Ratty without expert advice.

Answer
Dr. Allen Weltig
Webster Groves Animal Hospital    
8028 Big Bend Boulevard
 Webster Groves MO 63119
Phone:    (314) 968-4310
Website: www.webstervets.com

This may be about 40 mins. from you. I drive far too, but its worth it for the expert service.   If you scroll back to my old posts I recently sent someone to this vet and he basically saved her life.  What happened was, her old vet was telling her that her rat had an abscess. This nasty abscess kept coming back despite the vet removing it etc...soon as I saw the photo I knew it was NOT an abscess but a tumor that had abscessed and told her if she did not get this removed her rat was going to possibly die from sepsis.   I gave her Dr. Weltigs name and she took the rat in. Sure enough, I was right. It was a tumor that had abscessed just as I thought. He told her it needed off ASAP and he did the surgery a few days later and the little girl is healing wonderfully.  All in all she liked the professional service she got but most of all, her rat is alive, and I dont think the rat would have lived another week like she was.   
Sometimes these darned vets need to stop treating rats and just stop being so arrogant and if they dont know, ADMIT IT! Instead, they sacrifice and jeopardize our rats lives every single day.  It needs to stop.  I sound like a broken record about this but I have seen so many vets do more harm than good. I have had so many rats angry with me because I educate their patients owners and they go to the vet armed with knowledge and put them on the spot.  Thats just tough beans if they dont like it. Just because we did not go to vet school doesnt mean our brain is not capable of knowing what we know, learning what we learn.  We dont have to pay tuition to educate ourselves and this is a threat to them.  My position as a rat care specialist really bugged some exotic wanna be's and others would actually ask to speak to me to find out more about something that I may know more about due to experience, and thats all fine and good.  These vets are not arrogant and want to learn no matter who they learn it from.

Anyhow, I think ratty would benefit from baytril and something for inflammation.  Hopefully you can get him in to this place above and its not too far out of the way for you.