herbal supplements

Question
QUESTION: I bought liquid Echinacea for my rat.

How many drops should i put in her water bottle and how many times a week?

(i heard 3 drops 2X a week) If this is correct, should i add the 2nd 3 drops in the same water or should i dump the water out and start fresh?

my bottle holds 200ml and my rat can finish it in roughly 5 days

ANSWER: Hi Kerry :-)


I would dump the water and start fresh, but you may decide on a different way after reading my message (still it is pretty similar to the dose you planned to use as stated above)

Our rats, unfortunately, are here on this earth for a short time..much shorter than we would like to think, and they also do not come equipped with good health record, either. From tumors to lung,heart and kidney disease too. We try in vain to do the right thing so we can keep them healthy and happy, and more importantly, here with us longer!!

That said, I feel its only fair to be totally honest here and tell you
I am pretty skeptical of so-called "alternative" medications mainly because I work directly with traditional medications. It is true that many of these alternative medications now are ineffective, and of course we know that many herbs may even be dangerous and toxic and extreme care should be exercised when using these herbs.
That said, I do not have a problem with echinacea, but the way it is supposed to be used is at the first signs of respiratory illness.

Giving it as a Prophylactic or prolonged use may cause an immunity to it and the effects of it may cause the immune system to become suppressed, which is what you are trying to prevent in the first place.

The best way to use it instead of putting it in the water bottle is to give it directly by the dropper to the rat.  

Adding anything to the rats water may be a bad idea especially if the rat doesn't like the taste and stops drinking the water. If you plan to using the water bottle method, plan on having a second water bottle of plain water to offer the rat a chance to drink from the plain water if he doesn't like the water that has been treated.

Here is the dosing schedule:


Dispense one to two drops 2 times daily orally of Childrens fruit flavored,  liquid echinacea and make sure it is alcohol free, which it should be if it is childrens.  Dose schedule recommended is: one week on, and two to three weeks off, and then repeat.

If you plan to add it to the water, use 2.2 drops per ounce of water. In order to benefit from it, the rat needs to drink an ounce of water per day. Again, it has been documented that the rats seem to not want to drink the water tainted with echinacea. It would be easier to dispense it orally.

There are a few things to remember when using echinacea, and one of them is drug interactions.
Do not use echinacea when your rat is on antibiotics. Be sure to let the vet know your rat was taking it.
Do not use echinacea and steroids together. Doing so may alter the effects of the medication. These drugs include prednisone, hydrocortisone and dexamethasone. Same applies to any topical oinments or drops etc...that contain steroids.

Echinacea should not be used in pregnant or lactating females.

Hope this has helped shed some light on its use. I know it can be confusing to us when we are researching something and end up finding 10 different opinions/suggestions and we end up totally confused as to which advice is the right advice to follow.

I am basing my opinion mainly on studies done and these findings are provided to Veterinarians to use as a guide. Some vets are willing to try it while others are more skeptical since if not used properly, it can cause some unwanted problems.
I know you just want to do whats right for your fur kid as I want to also do the right thing and guide you properly so hopefully this is the right route to take and your furkid is healthy and has a nice long rattie life with you!


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

QUESTION: wow thank you so much for all that information.

I am always open to peoples different opinions and views as it allows me to see things in many different angles.

My rat does show signs of the Mycoplasm, light sneezing(daily), purple around the nose(few times a month), and now i hear some wheezing (twice this month, for about 10mins in the morning when i wake up and take her out. You need to have her right up by your ear and in a quiet room to hear it)

Other than that, she isnt puffed up, bright as ever, full of energy and eating and drinking fine. I actually noticed that she is keeping herself cleaner (she used to have reddish streaks from her purple nose)i dont know if thats a good sign but i think it is.

So could you tell me what you would suggest to keep her imune system up? Anything to help her life more confortable and possibly a little longer?

FYI i live in a small town and my vet will not see my rat but will give me antibiotics if i tell him how much and what kind. I asked for a few but they only had Tycine (or something that spells like that, i cant remember)

She is roughly 1yr old

just under a pound

thanks again
kerry

Answer
Hi Kerry

You can try it now since you see signs of possibly mycoplasmosis, but also you should perhaps treat her instead with antibiotics.

If you vet would give you baytril and doxycycline to give her for 21 days this would be ideal if she is truly coming down with it. The wheezing concerns me more than anything.  The discharge you see around the nose is called porphyrin and is produced by a gland called the harderian gland which is located behind the rats eyes.  Used to lubricate the rats third eyelid, the gland tends to produce an over abundance of porphyrin during  times of stress due to illness or anxiety or both, which would be anxiety due to illness of course. LOL  That didn't make sense did it?  I tend to write something and go back and read it and realize how DUH that sounded but don't feel like backspacing. My keyboard is getting banged up since I started doing this on allexperts.  LOL

The best thing to do would be to find a vet that could see your rats and actually know what to do for them in case surgery was needed or something else that this vet will not know about.
I can find a vet for you probably closer to the nearest larger city. It would be worth it to drive 40 minutes if, say, your rat popped a tumor that needed removed.  If you want I can help, just say the word and I will start searching for you.