First of all, I apologize for being so long, but I want to be thorough.
A little background info:
About two weeks ago, I purchased two adorable female rats from a small pet shop from my hometown. The pet shop had been socializing the rats from day one, had them separated by sexes, and overall had a fairly good reputation.
Once, I got them home, my boyfriend and I handled them a little, but mainly let them get set up in their new home. The next day Rizzo (approximately 5 weeks old) started sneezing. I know this can be common in young rats, especially when they are stressed with moving to a new home. Cecilia (approximately 6 weeks old) started sneezing a few days later. I kept and eye on their noses and eyes for porphyrin discharge and kept listening to their breathing. There was never any porphyrin and the breathing was clear. After about a week of the sneezing not getting better, I made an appointment with a local exotic vet with experience with rats, who looked them over and concluded that they were in fairly good health, but did put them on .30 ML/day of Sulfa/Trimeth and sent me along with two little syringes and a hefty rat bill.
The Medication (read: The problem):
We are currently on/just finished day 5 of the medication. They have shown some improvement, but I know we must finish out the medication. The first day, they just seemed quite irritated that I was "forcing" them to take the medicine (as directed by the vet), but still went along with it. The second day, they fought it quite a bit. The third day, we tried mixing it with some peanut butter (which worked for the first 4 licks or so), We attempted the peanut butter again the fourth day and it didn't matter how much/little there was, they refused to touch it (they will still take non-medicated peanut butter just fine). Today we tried both honey, peanut butter (and a mixture of the two), as well as strawberry yogurt, blueberry yogurt, chicken noodle flavored baby food (paste-like), and lastly, whipped cream (and any and all possible mixtures). They absolutely LOVED all of the food, but the second I mixed even .05 ML in, they would rub their faces on the ground (clearly trying to rid their mouth of the taste). Since the sulfa/trimeth tastes a little bitter, I tried balancing that with salt, but again, they still refused it. We ended up having to syringe feed them the medicine. They squeal and squeak like we are hurting them (I assure you, we are being very gentle, yet firm enough to hold them or restrain them). Today we had no choice but to scruff them, since they were wiggling away when restrained. I feel horrible forcing them the medicine, but I know the MUST finish the prescription. The whole ordeal is just causing unneeded stress on them as well as taking a toll on us (it makes me want to cry!). My boyfriend and I are afraid they will fear us, and not want to be around us.
The big question:
Are there any other foods/mixtures to try with there medicine? They have such a keen sense of smell and taste, that we haven't been able to fool them!
Again, I apologize for the length of this, but I wanted to be as thorough as can be, and hopefully get some answers to help us and our ratlets get through this as painlessly, and peacefully as possible.
Thanks for taking the time to help us out!
-Rizzo (left) Cecilia (right)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs033.snc6/166313_1612576192980_1193520418_31577607_3947642_n.jpg
-Edit-
I forgot to mention we have tried both grape and strawberry jams and jellies.
Also we give them lots of love and some treats afterwards, but they won't accept treats until after they have ran around their "arena" rubbing their poor mouth on the floor. Once they get over that, they are pretty pissed off and want nothing to do with us. We normally give them 45 mins to an hour in the cage to groom off whatever medicine got on their coat, then we take them out for free range time and they seem to be okay with us.
A little background info:
About two weeks ago, I purchased two adorable female rats from a small pet shop from my hometown. The pet shop had been socializing the rats from day one, had them separated by sexes, and overall had a fairly good reputation.
Once, I got them home, my boyfriend and I handled them a little, but mainly let them get set up in their new home. The next day Rizzo (approximately 5 weeks old) started sneezing. I know this can be common in young rats, especially when they are stressed with moving to a new home. Cecilia (approximately 6 weeks old) started sneezing a few days later. I kept and eye on their noses and eyes for porphyrin discharge and kept listening to their breathing. There was never any porphyrin and the breathing was clear. After about a week of the sneezing not getting better, I made an appointment with a local exotic vet with experience with rats, who looked them over and concluded that they were in fairly good health, but did put them on .30 ML/day of Sulfa/Trimeth and sent me along with two little syringes and a hefty rat bill.
The Medication (read: The problem):
We are currently on/just finished day 5 of the medication. They have shown some improvement, but I know we must finish out the medication. The first day, they just seemed quite irritated that I was "forcing" them to take the medicine (as directed by the vet), but still went along with it. The second day, they fought it quite a bit. The third day, we tried mixing it with some peanut butter (which worked for the first 4 licks or so), We attempted the peanut butter again the fourth day and it didn't matter how much/little there was, they refused to touch it (they will still take non-medicated peanut butter just fine). Today we tried both honey, peanut butter (and a mixture of the two), as well as strawberry yogurt, blueberry yogurt, chicken noodle flavored baby food (paste-like), and lastly, whipped cream (and any and all possible mixtures). They absolutely LOVED all of the food, but the second I mixed even .05 ML in, they would rub their faces on the ground (clearly trying to rid their mouth of the taste). Since the sulfa/trimeth tastes a little bitter, I tried balancing that with salt, but again, they still refused it. We ended up having to syringe feed them the medicine. They squeal and squeak like we are hurting them (I assure you, we are being very gentle, yet firm enough to hold them or restrain them). Today we had no choice but to scruff them, since they were wiggling away when restrained. I feel horrible forcing them the medicine, but I know the MUST finish the prescription. The whole ordeal is just causing unneeded stress on them as well as taking a toll on us (it makes me want to cry!). My boyfriend and I are afraid they will fear us, and not want to be around us.
The big question:
Are there any other foods/mixtures to try with there medicine? They have such a keen sense of smell and taste, that we haven't been able to fool them!
Again, I apologize for the length of this, but I wanted to be as thorough as can be, and hopefully get some answers to help us and our ratlets get through this as painlessly, and peacefully as possible.
Thanks for taking the time to help us out!
-Rizzo (left) Cecilia (right)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs033.snc6/166313_1612576192980_1193520418_31577607_3947642_n.jpg
-Edit-
I forgot to mention we have tried both grape and strawberry jams and jellies.
Also we give them lots of love and some treats afterwards, but they won't accept treats until after they have ran around their "arena" rubbing their poor mouth on the floor. Once they get over that, they are pretty pissed off and want nothing to do with us. We normally give them 45 mins to an hour in the cage to groom off whatever medicine got on their coat, then we take them out for free range time and they seem to be okay with us.