Injured rat refusing food and medicine.

Question
QUESTION: I have a male rat who was very, very badly injured in a huge brawl with one of his cagemates.  He has a big gash over his eye from falling during the fight, two minour bites on his abdomen, and thena huge, badly infected wound right around his genitals.  The skin around the infected wound is bluish/blackish, swollen, and hard to the touch.  He has stopped readily taking foods, even temping people food treats, and drinks very rarely, even with encouragement. When healthy he enjoys being pet for hours on end, and now he is not even iinterested in leaving the recovery cage he's staying in.
We have taken him to a vet who was recommended to me as being certified to care for exotic pets.  He was seen by the vet, but all they did was give us the usual course of Baytril to administer to him orally.  He has had Baytril in the past, for an ear infection. and readily took the medicine absorbed into a little piece of bread. Seeing as food now has little to offer in the way of temptation we can't get any Baytril into him.
We are going on day two of his being unable to take his antibiotic, now, and he's dropping weight fast.  Is there anything you can recommend that we do, or something we can request the vet do, as far as injecting antibiotics, or draining the infection from his wound.  We are very, very worried about losing our little guy, and would appreciate any help you could give us!!  Thank you ahead of time.

ANSWER:
He sounds like he is in pain.  Rats that are in pain refuse food.
I cant believe he was not given pain medication and something for inflammation.

I am so sick to my ears of baytril baytril baytril for every single ailment that rats get.  This is not the drug of choice to use for wounds. Its no wonder rats have stopped responding so well to baytril from when it was first used for respiratory infections.  It is starting to become resistant due to over  use by vets.  I hate saying this about vets and but I hate when people are fooled by vets too. Was the clinic you went to an exotic only clinic?  Many exotic vets are found at exotic only clinics.  Regular vets that have a strong interst in exotics are usually found at a regular clinic where dogs and cats are seen too.  If you want me to check out the vets credentials I would be happy to do it for you.  Make the follow up private and it will be confidential.

Anyhow, your little guy should be taking a different antibiotic for his wounds.  It sounds like he has abscessed in his genital area. Is there drainage of pus at all?  

He should be on Trimethoprim sulfa rather than baytril. This drug is much better suited for wounds like your rat has and is able to penetrate into thick pus and abscessed tissue where baytril cannot.
Pain medication to keep him comfortable would really have been ideal to keep him calm.
Torbugesic for pain and metacam for swelling and later, metacam can be used in place of torbugesic for more mild discomfort.

Are you cleaning his wounds with saline solution and using heat on his genital area?  Try a warm compress on his genitals and pat dry. Apply some antibiotic ointment to the area.  DId the vet tell you to do this at all?  Does he have sutures?

Also, what about the other rat that he fought with? How old are they?

Also, try to mix his baytril with ice cream. Chocolate masks the bitter taste of meds and the bit of sugar certainly wont hurt him as much as NOT taking the medication will.  Try to offer him baby foods. Most rats love baby food, esp sweet potatoes and puddings. Yogurt is something else he may enjoy.  You can buy the stage 1 baby food which has alot of water in it and will help hydrate him since he isnt drinking.  You can offer him a bit of koolaid water too to get him to drink.

Please let me know whats going on.  I would hate to see this infection turn into sepsis because he is not properly medicated. I have some questions about the vets credentials. I just see too many vets that claim to be exotic vets yet only attended a workshop or a convention and thinks that makes them worthy of this title that is held by less than 130 vets world wide.



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

QUESTION: The rat he fought with was another unneutered male.  Our injured party is just a little over a year old, and the rat who wounded him was a much larger (actually, abnormally large) rat, about a year and 3/4ths in age.  The larger rat was adopted fully grown from a rescue, so his age is only an estimate based on size and over all health.  They had been introduced repeatedly over a period of months, and got along swimmingly. They'd been living together for a short while when the fight happened.  It was late at night, but we were there to seperate them immediately, trasferring them to separate cages. Because of the late time of injury, he had to go about 12 hours or so without seeing a vet.  Franco was bleeding fairly severely, so we stopped his bleeding with a styptic pencil, and had been feeding him children's motrin to keep the pain and swelling at bay until we were able to get him to a vet the following day.  He WAS cleaning his own wounds, so we didn't put an antibiotic ointment on it, to avoid giving him a belly full of neosporin.

The veterinary clinic that we took him to was one that was recommended to us by a vet we first contacted (the first vet was not comfortable dealing with rats, and gave us other options we could pursue).  I'm afraid as bad as he was at the time, I didn't do a very thorough job checking their refernces, being in such a big hurry to have my rat, Franco be seen to at all.

Seeing as this is the weekend, all normal facilities I attempted to contact are closed until Monday, and I don't know that he can wait that long, so I've called and found a 24hr emergency veterinary hospital: The Veterinary Emergency Service, here in Lincoln, NE.  They are not certified for exotics, but we're going in to see if we can get a hold of the drugs you mentioned SHOULD have been prescribed for him.  Given that they are a general veterinary facility, should I have them do anything to drain the abcess, or should we just rely on the drugs, and do our best at home with the warm compresses to encourage the wound to drain on its own?  I don't want to make him worse, of course, but out of all the rat health issues we've sucessfully dealt with in the past, I've never had to contend with this serious an injury, and am a little out of depths regarding the next steps to take.

Thank you for all your help so far, I do appreciate it, and greatly.  We've just managed to get him to take a dose of Baytril in the last hour or so.  He's taking water with sugar in it, but only given by hand, from a medicine dropper, because he won't move himself to go to the open dish we have in front of his nest, or to the hanging water bottle.

Answer
He sounds like he really is hurting. I am real worried about infection becoming systemic

Unfortunately, there are no certified exotic vets in your state at all that  I have found. If it were Monday I may have better luck!

The clinic below is the only one that lists a vet that has a special interest in exotics and is a member of the association of exotic mammal veterinarians, but is not board certified.  Still, its better than a vet that knows nothing about rats at all.


Dr. Micah Kohles
Nebraska Animal Medical Center    
5720 Old Cheney
Lincoln NE 68506
Phone:    402-423-9100


Just for the heck of it, I listed the proper doses for the medication I suggested for your rat, according to his weight:

Antibiotic for abscess and infected wounds etc...
SULFAMETHOXAZOLE/ TRIMETHOPRIM

BRANDS: TRIBRISSEN, COTRIM, BACTRIM, SEPTRA    
15mg/lb  twice a day by mouth
.15cc/lb   


Metacam: an NSAID for mild to moderate pain and inflammation:
1.0 mg/kg to 2.0 mg/kg , PO or SQ , daily


Narcotic pain medication
Brand
Torbutrol, Torbugesic, Stadol

0.18/lb to 10 mg/lb SQ , or 1 mg/lb , PO , q4hrs to q6hrs


You can also gently remind the vet that rats have a fast metabolic rate and not to compare the rat to cats or dogs. Cats should only take metacam every other day, but rats can take it once a day fine because of their fast metabolism.  Same goes for all of the medication they take.  Many vets let the small size of the rat intimidate them.


Not sure how far you are from here but here is another vet that has a special interest in exotics, although not certified in exotics:

Columbus Animal Hospital
2278 39th Ave.
Columbus, NE 68601
(402) 563-4151
(800) 722-7088
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