Weight loss

[Licious]

Hi everyone,

I know theres about a million of these threads, but we have a picky rat! Our girl Marzipan is 11 months old, and we are fighting a URI, which goes away and comes back and goes away and comes back. Recently, she has lost quite a bit of weight. She has always been a really small rat, only about 230g normally. But I weighed her this morning and she is coming in at 192g, which needless to say leaves me very concerned.

She doesn't seem to have a problem with eating, we feed oxbow and fresh veggie, and she is always quick to the bowl, before running off to her favourite spot to eat (the litter box, of course....silly rat).

The problem is, shes a bit of a picky eater, so I have no idea what things we can give her to help her put some weight back on. She loves peanut butter mixed with soy milk (thats how she gets her medicine) but I'm not sure if thats helpful at all for weight gain. We are also a vegan household, so we don't have things like cheese or yoghurt around (although I would buy some if anyone thinks they might help).

Does anyone else have a picky rat, or have tips on things to give a picky rat to help them put some weight back on?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I would feed ensure and baby cereal, most rats will go nuts for it. It's too bad to hear that your poor girl has a reoccurring URI at only 11 months What meds/combo of meds have you tried with your girl?

 

[Licious]

Yeah my partner is picking up some baby cereal and ensure tonight, I'm just wondering if there is anything else we might try as well.

I'm not surprised she has the issues she has. When we rescued them, the couple told us they had picked them up at a pet store. They were in a tiny, dirty cage and it was clear the people we got them from just couldn't be bothered with them. They had lots of other pets, like reptiles and were talking about going to pick up another lizard tomorrow. It seemed to me like they treated pets as disposable, which just makes me so mad. They were feeding them some generic seed mix and cheese strings. They also had mites when we got them.

Our vet started with tetracyclin, because they both had a case of not too serious sniffles. Then Marzipan didn't get better so we did doxy/baytril, which helped for a bit, but it came back again. We are going to pick up more meds today to see if we can get it under control. We've previously dealt with a rat who had a recurring URI for most her life, so I am sort of used to this part. But Marzipan's rapid and significant weight loss has me very very concerned. We need her at her best to fight this thing!

 

[victoria]

You should look for something else to mask the Doxy and Baytril as the calcium and other minerals in the soy milk can bind to the Doxy (and the Baytril, to a lesser extent) and make it less effective. How long have they been on the Doxy-Baytril combination?

 

[Licious]

Alright. Noted. Would something like applesauce be okay? Or mix it in with ensure/baby cereal when we pick it up?

They were one the combo for 3 weeks, and been off for two. Marzi started making wet gurgly nose sounds about 4 days ago again, and she is going back on the meds today.

 

[Dazzle87]

Alright. Noted. Would something like applesauce be okay? Or mix it in with ensure/baby cereal when we pick it up?

They were one the combo for 3 weeks, and been off for two. Marzi started making wet gurgly nose sounds about 4 days ago again, and she is going back on the meds today.

Ensure is very fortified, so do not give that within two hours of the medications.

If they will take it in applesauce, that is fine.

Also, some brands of soy and almond milk and not fortified (no calcium) and those can be used.

 

[victoria]

I used to use apple sauce and peanut butter with a bit of honey to mask meds. I worked pretty well with most of my rats.

If Baytril and Doxy don't help, you can try asking the vet for Zithro and Baytril or Zithro and Doxy, those will usually work well as well. Tetracyclin is not as effective as any of those meds and is often not used with rats for that reason. A cool mist humidifier may also help relieve her symptoms as may the addition of Metacam (an NSAID) or a steroid.

 

[Bundyrats]

My girls really love freshly cooked angel hair spaghetti and basmati rice. I'm not sure if it's good for them long term but they certainly gobble it up when I make it. They also like scrambled eggs which I cook with some virgin olive oil.

Edit: I just want to add that I don't feed mine this on a daily basis, just when I happen to be cooking it for ourselves but I do know they love it and if you are trying to get yours to eat, it may be worth a try.