Revolution - How healthy does the rat have to be?

[Joanne]

I want to put some Revolution on my latest rescue Hotch, but in the Rat Guide it says:
“Do not use Selamectin / Revolution on sick or malnutritioned rats, or on rats that are under 5 weeks old. For smaller sized rats greater than 5 weeks and under 4 months reduce dosage by half.”*
Now he was pretty skinny when he came, and I can still feel his back bone a bit. I worry that he may fall into the class of malnutritioned rats.
Should I wait a week or so? Or do I even need to put some on him?
I'm afraid if he does have any mites that my other rats will get them soon (from me!)
But I don't see anything specific that might indicate that he does have any buggies. Can I just skip it altogether?
I don't want to leave him by himself any longer than necessary.

 

[rhapsody]

Would it be a problem to dose your entire crew once Hotch picks up some weight? I usually do that whenever another fuzzy is added to my gang.

 

[lilspaz68]

I dose everyone who comes through the door. Old, young (4 weeks is my very minimum), it doesn't matter. I think letting the mites or lice keep feeding on your possibly sickly rat will harm much more than treating them. I would dose him, just make it appropriate for his weight.

 

[jorats]

Same here... I would dose him.

 

[Joanne]

I have the kitten strength Revolution. I was planning on one drop since he's still under 200g. Does this sound appropriate?

 

[lilspaz68]

It sounds fine, but if you want to be truly accurate, you can pour out the Revo into a small glass sealable bottle (it will last longer) and give him .02 cc's (based on a weight of 180 grams and a rounding up of the total .018 cc)

 

[Dahlas]

I would dose him to...I agree with Shelagh...better to get the buggies off of him......

 

[SQ]

I would treat him.
The dose is 4 mg to 8 mg of revolution per Ib (454.4g). (from the Rat Health Care book)
I usually give 6 mg/454.4g.

If the strength is 120 mg/ml, then as Lilspaz68 said, the dose would be 0.02 ml (rounded down from 0.022 ml, as calculated for a 200 g rat at 6 mg/454.4g)

 

[xKrAzEdShOoTeRx]

I think in everyones opinion you should dose him lol

 

[Joanne]

Thanks - I double checked, and with the dosage at 6mg/kg, I would give 0.02 mL of the kitten strength (60mg/mL).
So I guess that's the low end of the dosage range. I think that is about one drop because 0.1 ml is about 4 drops out of the syringe.

 

[SQ]

at 60mg/ml, I believe that 0.02 is at approx. 3 mg/Ib given his weight at 192 g

but a drop is likely fine, that is how many people do it