My rat Baby is loosing hair & Lil is stil sick... need advice!

[Tarachin]

One of my rats (Baby, 3 months old, in profile picture) has been loosing fur on her back. It looks like its thinning and now its starting to have bits of pink on the roots of her hair and she is looking dull and messy. She is not scratching more then usual but seems to be grooming a lot. I did some research and am not sure whether its her Barbering. If so is it because she is stressed out? I dont think its mites or fleas as I have checked and none of the other rats have any problems. I did have to change her diet as I made a mistake by putting too much nuts in her diet (which could have been a cause of her fur loss), but am still not sure as since I have changed it, I have not seen an improvement in her fur. Also, I have noticed a great change in her weight, she seems much thinner then she used to be in her small cage, could this be due to her running around in her big cage?

My other rat (Lil, 2 months old) has been sick since the first day I got her from the pet store. She had really bad upper respiratory infection and I took her to the vets. She did not recover with antibiotics and had to take her back to the pet store. They treated her for 3 weeks with 2 different antibiotics (I visited her every 3 days), all seemed well until I brought her home yesterday... she started to sneeze again and is going down hill. Now I am lost with no way of helping her... I am starting to think if I should "put her to sleep" as I am not sure if she will recover, though she is still eating and drinking... do you think its just the stress of coming home? Do you think this will pass?

My male rat (Oliver, 6 weeks old) is perfectly fine, he is shiny and healthy.. but I cant help but be sad that my two girls are not in good health....

My rats have a HUGE cage to run around in, with tons of toys, chewing logs, rope and tunnels. I give them fresh fruits everyday and they have a good grain based diet. I clean their cage out everyday and give them baths every few weeks without using any soap. I give them all lots of my time and am always playing with them. I feel like I am letting them down and am very upset with myself, I dont know what else to do...

Pls help me, I will do all that I can to save my babies and to give them have a full and happy life, they are all I have

Thank you so much for your help!

[RenishaS]

They need to go to the vet. Only a qualified exotic Veterinarian can diagnose what might be wrong.

On a different note, are your male and females in the same cage together? Is he neutered? If he's not you should expect babies in a month or so.

[CrWoodyspets]

Find a rat vet near you and take them there ASAP

[Tarachin]

Quote: Originally Posted by RenishaS They need to go to the vet. Only a qualified exotic Veterinarian can diagnose what might be wrong. On a different note, are your male and females in the same cage together? Is he neutered? If he's not you should expect babies in a month or so.

I have already taken them both to the 2 vets who specializes in rats (took Lil today), but they both said there is nothing much that can be done for Lil as she has already completed 3 corses of antibiotics. Taking them to the vets will not do anymore good then burn a hole in my pocket anyways, this is why I am asking for help here as a last resort. I dont think Babies condition is really bad that I should take her to a vet again, I was hoping to get some advice on what could be wrong with Baby's fur.

I prefer to have feedback from those who are have rats as pets and/or breed rats, as they would have more hands on knowledge of what is wrong with Baby and if Lil will actually survive... I am now find myself distrusting vets, they have so far not helped much in making my Lil one better and have spent more then 400 on her so far... Im going broke and I need some help... pleaaaase!

Any feedback would be great help...

P.S. The male is in a separate cage...

[bokuza]

First you need to separate Lil from all of the rats and you need to find out if her upper respiratory infection is back. If Lil has a reoccurring respiratory infection, she can spread it Baby or the male. In other words put her back in quarantine. This might help Baby too, its possible that Lil is barbering her hair. What antibiotics did they have her on? How long was she on them?

It may just be she cant do anymore of those antibiotics. There are other meds that may help. Also, there are ways to soothe her if she cannot be helped.

Its possible that her body is just unable to fight it off. :C
This happens sometimes. Right now im at the edge of my seat with a 6 week old double rex boy, were treating him with a full arsenal of meds but we have no idea if it'll work because of his immunity disorder. Weve have two vets visits totaling about to $312.60. Were not done yet either.

Now, has Babe been tested for parasites? how is her stool? Is it normal?
Could you take a photo? OF ANY KIND! A crappy one even!

[lilspaz68]

Lil is the sneezer right? NO point removing her since any pathogens are airborne and are already affecting the other rats. Once they have been in the same airspace QT is effectively over.

Do you have any idea what they were treating her with? Most Petsmarts treat with mild or useless antibiotics, that may hold a URI at bay but not cure it.

Rats will sneeze when they come into a new home, rapidfire sneezes but no other symptoms of illness and this passes within a week.

If there's other signs of illness you do have a sick rat. There are many combo's that work effectively on URI...baytril/doxy is the most common, I have used baytril/amoxicillin, baytril/zithromax, etc.

Don't worry about endoparasites at this point, the majority of rats have pin worms that don't affect them (or you) in the least.

You said Lil is going downhill? What are her symptoms?

Back to baby's fur. Diet can really affect coat and skin...what do you feed your rats? Is she a poor rex maybe?

Btw lice you will see but mites you will not (microscopic)...give all your rats a good feelover for ANY tiny scabs on their body. Lice prefer to start populating on the rumb, tailhead and back (you will see them crawling through the fur) and mites love the shoulders, neck, head, cheeks and chin. Dig your fingers into the fur deep, a stroke over the fur won't find those scabs.

Ectoparasites (parasites that live outside/on the body) usually will present on a compromised rat more than the others, so checking other rats for issues wont work. I took in 4 foster boys...1 had terrible mites scabs, 1 had classic mite scabs, 1 had just a few and the youngest boy had none...they ALL got treated with Revolution and were fine

[Tarachin]

Pictures are replies are on second page, had to post more then 20 posts to be able to upload images,.. so I had to repeatedly post this msg...

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:::ictures are replies are on second page, had to post more then 20 posts to be able to upload images,.. so I had to repeatedly post this msg...

[Tarachin]

,,,,, Pictures are replies are on second page, had to post more then 20 posts to be able to upload images,.. so I had to repeatedly post this msg...

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11 more posts to go, I hope this doesnt get me kicked off the site, ...

[Tarachin]

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[Tarachin]

Pictures are replies are on second page, had to post more then 20 posts to be able to upload images,.. so I had to repeatedly post this msg...

[Tarachin]

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