Rats allergic to pedialyte?

Question
I came home today to find that my rat was dehydrated and showing signs of shock (he had water, but had pooped in his water dish overnight, he often does this). At any rate, I read where you had told someone with a dehydrated rat to use pedialyte to help, so I sent my boyfriend to the store to pick up some. I gave our rat water using a straw while he was gone, and the rat had started to perk up and stand. He got back half an hour after I had sent him off and I started giving the rat pedialyte- after an hour he started seizing and died for no apparent reason... I'm wondering if he may have been allergic to it? he had been doing remarkably better before I gave it to him.

Answer

Hi Jessi

I am sorry for your loss. Your little rat probably had a stroke which is what caused loss of life.  There is nothing in the pedialyte that your rat would be allergic to. It can be given safely to sick infants so there are all safe ingredient's in it. All that it is made up is some electrolytes to replace when a person is dehydrated or in danger of dehydration.  
The problem with water dishes is that they often become dirty like your rats did, which is why its best to use a hanging water bottle with a spout for the rat to drink from. This way it doesn't spill and stays clean and is always available for the rat to drink when needed.

If he were thirsty enough, having feces in the water would not stop him from drinking so unless the bowl was dry, he would have drank had he wanted to.  Obviously he was already ill prior to that and when you held him and nursed him with the straw, he seemed to perk up but died later which you related to the use of the pedialyte.  It was just a coincidence.  Almost like when you eat something and get sick to your stomach and the food that you ate last becomes your least favorite thing to eat for a long time as you often blame it on the last thing you ate. I wont eat a snickers candy bar any more because one year I ate one and became so violently ill i thought I was poisoned and to this day i wont touch a snickers bar and that as back in the 1980s when I got sick!  My son wont eat macaroni and cheese any more...again, its just a coincidence that your rat died after drinking it. We use it alot on sick rats and if anything, its a life saver.