Hi all!
My poor boy Remi has been having a time of it - an eye infection (it will probably need to come out) and what the vet believes to be a tooth abscess. It came on so fast! One day I noticed what I thought was porphyrin around his eye and the next we were frantically calling every exotic vet in the area that said online they take rats (side note: Only like...3 of the 10+ we called
actually still took rats which was...annoying.)
Anyway, he's been put on Meloxicam (.33 ml) and Doxycycline (.35 ml), plus we'd been giving him Terramycin until we could find a vet, which apparently was a good idea. He seems to be doing better with the meds even though its only been two days, but he still has trouble eating solids and is definitely blind/struggling to move around. For now, we're feeding him a diet of delicious mush (aka baby food and Ensure) to keep his weight up for if/when he has surgery.
Has anyone ever had their rat super suddenly go from perfectly fine to tooth abscess/eye infection/just doing poorly? Is there anything ya'll would recommend that I keep on hand for rat emergencies like this? I currently keep a variety of human/animal meds on me (I have a whole zoo), but rats are a new foray for us. I have a little kit of Infant Motrin, Terramycin, whatever will maybe be left of the Meloxicam and Doxy, 1 ml straight and curved syringes, wound disinfectant that I saw was safe for rats, wraps, sterile water, and baby food packets. Is there anything else that I could add to make it more comprehensive?
This is Remi below just a week or two ago - he's the brown one - and his brother Ravioli (the one he's so lovingly smooshing).
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