3months old rex buck

Question
distress and sneezing but no discharge. very loving and alert. but i want to treat with keflex to avoid respiratory breakdown. we have already secluded him in a cage out of the way and covered 3/4ths of it and he does have a cagemate. i want to treat his water as he is going to town on it.:) what is a good dose for 50ml water and i have 500 mg capsules for keflex vet grade to dose him for over the next 30 days?

Answer
Sorry but the keflex is not water soluble and will not be effective.

In fact, dosing the water is a poor way to medicate or the rat would need to consume every last drop himself in order to have it get in his system.  Also, chances are the medication will make the water taste bitter and in turn, the rat wont even touch the water and end up dehydrated.

Keflex is also useless in a case of mycoplasmosis, which in most cases, is the cause of sneezing and respiratory issues.  Myco is an organism that does not have a cell wall and few drugs are made to fight the cell itself.  Keflex is made to fight the wall of the cell, so it will also be useless if it is indeed mycoplasmosis.  Keflex should be used as a back up to one of the medications that treats myco so all bases are covered, including secondary infections.  Baytril and amoxil are good to use or keflex, but alone, it may just make the infection stronger and cause a antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is why we usually tell people to refrain from home dosing unless they have everything they need to be sure the infection is fought correctly.

What is keflex, vet grade? Keflex is keflex, used both in humans and animals, unless you were given it to use for your pet by a vet and that is what you mean?

Your best bet is to take him in to a qualified exotic vet and get him put on baytril and keflex, bring in what you have to save money but chances are they may not use the capsules at all and instead, have an elixir already mixed up and made palatable for the rats to take orally using a syringe.   If you need a good vet for your rat I will gladly find one for you, all I need to know is your location.

Hope this helps!