Mild URI

[Zooy]

When I had the boys out yesterday, I noticed Dumpty's breathing a bit harsh, and the same with his Mom Popcorn. Well I don't want to have to take them to the vet as she doesn't have as much experience just yet, plus its not the right financial time. So I assume Doxy and Baytril right?
She told me just to tell her what I needed and she'd give it to me. She'd like to learn more about my little fuzzbutts and has never had anyone bring their rats to the vet.
About dosing A) Liquid baytril or pill baytril? and does doxy come in both or just one form?
B) Because I'm not taking them in I won't have weights, I've always had the pill form, and our last vet always said 1/4 of the pill twice a day? Do you think this is fine if we get pills?
C) How hard is it to dose 8 rats twice a day? These guys have never had meds...
LOL. Worrisome mommy!

 

[jorats]

If it sounds very mild, I would try doxy alone. I've never had doxy in liquid form, only pill form. If you can get it in capsule form and 100mg it will be sooooo much easier to mix and dose. But, you'll need their weights for a proper dosing.
Oh and my guys really really don't like the taste of doxy so you might want to hide it or what I do is squirt it in cause it's not a very big dose. Making the doxy 25mg, my Sebbie at 450 grams takes only 0.05cc.

 

[user 78]

You really need to have their weights, even if you just go to Walmart and pick up a cheap kitchen scale. So long as it can weigh in grams and you can get an approximate weight, it'll work.

If it sounds mild, you can try one or the other, doesn't have to be both. I generally start off with Baytril and then add more abs if it doesn't help on it's own.

A : If your vet is able to give you a highly concentrated Baytril, you could go with the liquid. Problem is that usually the flavorings and such they add in dilute it so much that you wind up having to give a good bit. Doxy comes in capsules or suspensions. Again, ask your vet to make a higher concentration if she's going to make the suspension.

B : Using the 1/4pill method [my vet originally had me doing that] is not really exact enough. In general, you're overdosing your rat. At 300g [average weight of my girls around 6-10mo], their dosage of suspension at 22.7mg/ml is .07cc. By way of funky math that's equal to aprox. 1.589mg per dose. With the pill, it's 5.675mg per dose. Now, granted, it's only a gram and a bit off, but this is in the case of a 300g rat. it would vary quite a bit between weight ranges.

C : I've never had problems giving my rats a suspension made from pills, and my Doxy [brand name Vibramycin] is raspberry flavored so they adore that. I recently tried Doxy capsules [capsule split open and made into a suspension] and my one girl grey had no problem taking it with her Baytril and a bit of Nutrical or jelly. If there's something they'll take the meds with, fantastic! otherwise, force medicating isn't all that difficult once you get your routine and restraining method down.

Just remember : It's always easier to get .05cc into a struggling rat than .40cc.