[home2strays]

Well, went to work today and got the call from the "rat lady" that comes to our hospital. She had a favorite female die and now is done with rats, very upset but have 4 rats that she wanted to be specific about where they went, her favorites 4 sons- all littermates about 14 months old. They are huge, I have never seen such enormous rats, they literally are probably over a pound each and are so long it takes to hands to hold them, they are about the size of a small adult ferret. No, they arent fat but long and tall and wide, very crazy. One is obviously sick with an URI ( maybe myco- thinking these guys were probably not in the cleanest enviroment) and so have him on Doxy and baytril with my guy Clavo that we suspect has myco. And all four have numerous numerous numerous bite marks all over their bodies, she said they have a lot of scuffles... and one has an abcess (could be tumor but will know for sure tomorrow) on his belly between his man part and leg. They are all getting neutered tomorrow, hopefully, because I figure I am not attached to anyone yet and maybe they will stop attacking eachother and heal up while I am quarantining and then will be perfectly healthy when they go in with my 3 kids. So anyhow, the sick one is a silver hooded bareback, then there is a black hooded bareback, and the "twins" are a cinnamon-he has black eyes and an argente-he has ruby eyes and is just a smidge lighter colored and they are all very nice to hold and are very sweet guys, let me medicate them all and everything.

 

[Forensic]

Sounds like nice big boys about the size of my largest. Good on you for taking them in.

 

[jorats]

CongRATS are the beauties.

That's really sad the state they are in, with all the bites and such.
Wishing them lots of luck for their neuters.

 

[vawny]

Good luck with them, I'm sure thet'll settle down too. xx

 

[Poppyseed]

I would make sure those bite marks are not mite scratch marks. Mites are invisible for the naked eye and the scratches on an infested rat could be mistaken for rat fighting.
Good for you for taking them in! Of course we need pictures XD

 

[home2strays]

didn't think about mites... will have to skin scrape them when i get them back, took them in to be neutered where I used to work (bc Doc will do them for free for me) but she said they were too sick for her to do, she'd rather me wait a week or two so i will be picking them up tomorrow... the rat lady i got them from said that they will fight a bit sometimes, so i guess I am hoping for that. They are such sweeties though, was worried about them being tame but they are so nice.

 

[mamarat]

Congrats! I love big squishy boys.

 

[lilspaz68]

I wouldn't bother with a skin scraping as mites are naturally occuring on rats and they often give false results.

I honestly would treat everyone for mites now, since you already have them in with your own rats you would need to treat all the residents as well.

Poor boys...glad you got them.

 

[home2strays]

they seem to be getting on well, have scrounged up another tank and split them two and two while being quarantined, slightly cramped but am halfway done... thier skin and respiratory issues are all clearing up with the doxy and baytril mix and being in clean cages is probably helping too... They are so very nice and take thier meds like champs and since they look so much better (including the silver hooded I was pretty sure was going to die) is doing great, the twins are ALWAYS beside eachother and have a feeling the red eyed one may be blind but gets along well, the blackhooded one is very mischevious (more than the normal rattie) and the silver hood is so laid back and very "do with me as you want" attitude, they are all gaining hair and are much less greasy now and are almost healed scabby wise and the abcess on silver hood (Chase) is almost gone so wont have to be drained or anything. Thinking maybe neuter them this friday since last fri was a no go b/c they were so poorly looking. BTW am pushing to get them "chopped" because want to get them healed while in quarantine and then can go right in with my boy and two girls and definetly don't want babies!