sick rat

i think one of my rats is sick. she keeps on making this snorting sound. like something is clogged up her nose. she's also not as active. like when i open the tub,she just lies there. unlike the others that scramble. what should i do? should i just wait for it to get well and the sickness to go away?

thank you

raymond

First thing you should likely be doing is getting her out of the enclosure. You don't want the other rats to become ill from exposure to her. Also they may turn on her as she's obviously ill.

It depends on your own choices here. If you want to take her to the vet then by all means do so. It's likely some sort of respiratory issue that may well be treatable. If you don't wish to do that and she is suffering and unable to even rise from the bedding, then it may be more humane to simply put her down.

Either way I'd certainly not be leaving such a sick animal in with a still healthy group.

That snorting sound is what I heard coming from one of my rats. He wasn't lethargic, but sneezed a lot and had a puffy face even though he was running around like usual. It took a round of antibiotics to clear it up.

I do agree with what Jo said wholeheartedly.

i already seperated her last night from the other rats. she's just with another male rat who never stopped sneezing since i bought him last month. i just checked on her awhile ago and she seems to be doing better now. she's now running around and eating.

thank you:)

raymond

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

That snorting sound is what I heard coming from one of my rats. He wasn't lethargic, but sneezed a lot and had a puffy face even though he was running around like usual. It took a round of antibiotics to clear it up.

I do agree with what Jo said wholeheartedly.

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how were you able to give it some antibiotic? and what kind? thank you

raymond

I took him to my vet and she prescribed him some Baytril. It's controlled here in the states, so you can only get it from Vets. I gave it to him orally and he hated it, but it did help. Baytril isn't a cheap anti-biotic either. I paid 15 dollars for 1 cc. In all it cost me 50$ to treat him for the visit and the anti-biotics.

$50?!:8::8::8: id just whack it and buy another 25 more for 50 bucks!!! LOL!!

anyway thank you for the help. ill just wait for it to get well. if she doesnt then maybe ill feed her off.

thank you

raymond enriquez

Yea I know, most wouldnt do that for feeders. He's fathered some litters, but makes a better pet. So he gets to hang out in luxury with his best mate.

I personally would not feed it off. I don't think it would have anything that could make your snake sick; most illnesses can't cross species, or at least not 2 species that are so different.

However, it if is not well, then it won't be the best nutrition for your snake. Especially if you give it a chance to get well, then feed it off once it is too far gone... some of the nutrition will have "gone" too. As you already pointed out, one rat isn't worth much, so you aren't really losing anything, and are protecting the well-being of your snake.

If you aren't going to take it to a vet (which I totally understand your point about not being worth it financially, I might make the same decision), just put it down whenever you figure is appropriate, giving it a chance to get well but don't leave it in misery when it obviously has no hope of recovery. And then dispose of it.

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Originally Posted by kc261

I personally would not feed it off. I don't think it would have anything that could make your snake sick; most illnesses can't cross species, or at least not 2 species that are so different.

However, it if is not well, then it won't be the best nutrition for your snake. Especially if you give it a chance to get well, then feed it off once it is too far gone... some of the nutrition will have "gone" too. As you already pointed out, one rat isn't worth much, so you aren't really losing anything, and are protecting the well-being of your snake.

If you aren't going to take it to a vet (which I totally understand your point about not being worth it financially, I might make the same decision), just put it down whenever you figure is appropriate, giving it a chance to get well but don't leave it in misery when it obviously has no hope of recovery. And then dispose of it.

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hmm..true..that is a good point. thank you.
:)

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I took him to my vet and she prescribed him some Baytril. It's controlled here in the states, so you can only get it from Vets. I gave it to him orally and he hated it, but it did help. Baytril isn't a cheap anti-biotic either. I paid 15 dollars for 1 cc. In all it cost me 50$ to treat him for the visit and the anti-biotics.

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Do you do that for your feeders, or just pet rats?

I'll give a sick feeder antibiotics if I have them on hand, or an injection to hydrate them, but I've never gone as far as take one to the vet. I do have one breeder male that I've developed an attachment to that I would take to the vet, but generally I feed off any sick rats.

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Originally Posted by kc261

I personally would not feed it off. I don't think it would have anything that could make your snake sick; most illnesses can't cross species, or at least not 2 species that are so different.

However, it if is not well, then it won't be the best nutrition for your snake. Especially if you give it a chance to get well, then feed it off once it is too far gone... some of the nutrition will have "gone" too. As you already pointed out, one rat isn't worth much, so you aren't really losing anything, and are protecting the well-being of your snake.

If you aren't going to take it to a vet (which I totally understand your point about not being worth it financially, I might make the same decision), just put it down whenever you figure is appropriate, giving it a chance to get well but don't leave it in misery when it obviously has no hope of recovery. And then dispose of it.

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I completely agree with you on this.

Mike and I breed our own rats. The reason we do all that extra work is to provide a better and more consistent quality of prey and to make it more cost effective for us. I don't see the point in feeding a really sick rat to one of our snakes. For me it defeats one of the main reasons we maintain our own rat colony.

To euth and discard an obviously sick rat isn't going to cost me big bucks but to offer it as food, when I know it isn't in good condition, seems to me to be giving our snakes less than the best. I'm just not willing to do that.

If the rat is culled when it is still in a reasonable condition, that's one thing but a rat that's down, that's lost body mass or has an obvious big tumor - that's just not a rat that qualifies as a top quality feeder for our snake collection.

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

Do you do that for your feeders, or just pet rats?

I'll give a sick feeder antibiotics if I have them on hand, or an injection to hydrate them, but I've never gone as far as take one to the vet. I do have one breeder male that I've developed an attachment to that I would take to the vet, but generally I feed off any sick rats.

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Good question! I really don't know the answer. I have only a small colony and I've taken 3 rats so far to the vet for illnesses. 2 of which are just pets, but have fathered many of my holdback females.

I've also put down 2 rats so far.

I guess if I know it's something easily treatable I would take them, but if it's going to be more than a quick fix, I would humanly euthanize when the quality of life was less than normal.

You have to keep in mind, I treat all my rats like pets. They all have names, visit with us regularly, and are generally just pet rats when not nursing or breeding.

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To euth and discard an obviously sick rat isn't going to cost me big bucks but to offer it as food, when I know it isn't in good condition, seems to me to be giving our snakes less than the best. I'm just not willing to do that.

If the rat is culled when it is still in a reasonable condition, that's one thing but a rat that's down, that's lost body mass or has an obvious big tumor - that's just not a rat that qualifies as a top quality feeder for our snake collection.

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I disagree. It's a predators job to thin out the old, sick and infirm. When you think of it, it would actually be considered abnormal for them to only feed on fat young and healthy rodents. I feed off ALL of my sick or old rats no matter how bad they look and have never had a problem due to feeding. Who knows? Maybe they do even better without all that extra fat?

Mark

Well Mark that may be true in a wild environment, but last time I checked I don't have an African termite mound in my snake room. The wild snakes also don't have some nice person knocking at the entrance of that termite mound offering them a rodent every Thursday night. In other words, wild is wild - our snakes aren't wild so for me it doesn't equate.

I have choices with the snake collection. To have gotten them in the first place, to have them live a captive life. For me one of the most important choices I make for them every week is in proper prey selection. When I open that feeder tub I'm going to pick the best, because for me, that's what the snakes I choose to keep deserve.

Btw, I don't raise or feed off fat rats. Fat is unhealthy. Our rats are well fed and well fleshed, never allowed to run to fat.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I took him to my vet and she prescribed him some Baytril. It's controlled here in the states, so you can only get it from Vets. I gave it to him orally and he hated it, but it did help. Baytril isn't a cheap anti-biotic either. I paid 15 dollars for 1 cc. In all it cost me 50$ to treat him for the visit and the anti-biotics.

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$15 for 1 cc? Wow! I love my vet even more. Told him when I took my dog in for an ear infection that a few of my rats were sneezy and asked if he'd compound me some more Baytril. $20 for a HUGE bottle of peanut butter flavored Baytril (3oz if I'm reading his handwriting correct). I've already administered 15 cc's since last week across three rats with hardly a dent in the bottle.

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Well Mark that may be true in a wild environment, but last time I checked I don't have an African termite mound in my snake room. The wild snakes also don't have some nice person knocking at the entrance of that termite mound offering them a rodent every Thursday night. In other words, wild is wild - our snakes aren't wild so for me it doesn't equate.

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My point is that they are designed by nature to cull all of the sick and weak animals from the colony. I think that throwing away a rat just because it has tumors or is losing weight is a waste.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

$15 for 1 cc? Wow! I love my vet even more. Told him when I took my dog in for an ear infection that a few of my rats were sneezy and asked if he'd compound me some more Baytril. $20 for a HUGE bottle of peanut butter flavored Baytril (3oz if I'm reading his handwriting correct). I've already administered 15 cc's since last week across three rats with hardly a dent in the bottle.

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Yea i know! It was already in a solution too. I suppose I could go somewhere else, but she knows rats.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

My point is that they are designed by nature to cull all of the sick and weak animals from the colony. I think that throwing away a rat just because it has tumors or is losing weight is a waste.

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For me, I'd far rather have a sick rat go to waste than waste a snake's time and energy digesting a less than top quality prey item. :)

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

You have to keep in mind, I treat all my rats like pets. They all have names, visit with us regularly, and are generally just pet rats when not nursing or breeding.

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I treat mine well, they have wheels, toys, special treats, and I like to hold the calm ones, so I guess I do treat mine as pets to some degree, but I'm not nearly creative enough to name them all. I only have one rat I've named. He looks like a little polar-bear and is a great breeder, so I call him papa-bear. He just had a litter with one of his daughters, and they're all adorable miniature versions of their sire.

Does anyone here sell their cuter rats to pet shops? I've been thinking about the possibility since some are just way too cute for me to feed off.

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For me, I'd far rather have a sick rat go to waste than waste a snake's time and energy digesting a less than top quality prey item.

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I don't think it's a waste of their energy to digest these less then prime animals. The only rats that I don't feed off are the ones that have died in their cages long enough ago to start bloating, but only because I don't want to clean up exploded rodent messes. When I used to keep snapping turtles, they'd get the bloated ones.

I guess I should also add that I don't feed these to my ball pythons. Most of the tumor ridden, sickly, thin or old rats are retired breeders that are at the ends of their lives anyway and are too big for my ball pythons. I feed these, like all of my retired breeders, to my Burms. The Burms get 3-6 retired breeders twice a month. To be sure, not all of their bi-weekly meal consists of sick animals, but there's often one or two in the mix, and I just don't see anything wrong with it, nor do I consider it detrimental to my snakes for the above mentioned reasons.

Mark

Well I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, Mark. :)