[Violet]

One of my girls has a respiratory infection, shes being treated with antibiotics. My dilemma is that I think it was onset by the stress of losing her sister last Monday and the vet wants her separated from her other sister during the treatment.
She's really stressed and missing her cage mates.

Im worried the added stress of being separated from her other sister will only make it worse.

Is it common to keep them separated for this type of thing?

Should be they in separate rooms?

 

[Poppyseed]

Usually it's not common. He might just want her to rest more and not be too hastled by her sisters wanting to play. Whatever she has, they have anyway. But yeah maybe ask why he wants her seperated. If it's because she needs tons of rest, keep her seperated but if he says it's because they can catch whatever she has that really isn't true as they would of already have gotten it....

 

[lilspaz68]

Vets always tell you to separate but rat owners usually know better. Any rat that they lived with has already been exposed , so there's no point separating if its so they don't "catch" it. Rats often are more stressed and depressed when taken away from their cagemates and are happier and heal better with their friends. I only keep them separate in times of injury, or if someone is picking on a rat that is ill, or if the rat has had surgery and someone's paying a little too much attention to incisions/staples. Other than that they stay together and I often put a rat right back in the cage after surgery, observing things at first of course.

I would keep her with her cagemate. We also usually don't tell our vets that we do this...hehehehe.

 

[secondshadow]

My understanding of their respiratory condition is that all pretty much all rats are esentially born with a bacteria in their repiratory system that can flair up when they are stressed or their cage hasn't been cleaned in too long a time. I have one who is particularly sensative. I've never separated her from the others. It usually clears up pretty quick. For a minor infection their her breeder told me that there are "OTC" bird anti-biotics you can use if you KNOW thats what it is (ornacycline I believe its called. Its really just tetracycline). Let me follow that by saying I don't condone diagnosing or medicating your rat without consulting your vet. I only know any of this because when my very first rat was fairly young she got an infection and I was too broke to take her to the vet AND afford the meds (at the time I was very broke. I took the rat because I was the one taking care of it not the actual owner anyway and I figured I'd be able to do a better job than she did if I took her home). The vet told me what it was and to come back in a couple days if it didn't clear up. It didn't but I just asked her breeder what to do, and she gave me that stuff. She said just grind it up and follow the mixing instructions. Again I don't recommend this personally and probably wouldn't do it again unless I was desperate, and only because it worked the first time.

Anywho enough with that tangent. I'd be hesitant to separate her because rats are VERY social animals and if its to keep her from getting stressed by the others you're probably doing more harm than good by removing her.

Personally, unless it doesn't start to clear up I wouldn't. Just keep an eye on her. I had a baby who got worse and worse all through her course of anti-biotics and the DAY AFTER she had been off them for a full day she was 100% all better. It was toooo wierd.