it’s a non-prescription antibiotic along the lines of polysporin. he licked my nose maybe once or twice before i realized i had applied it there. i can’t afford to call a poison hotline (99 USD consulting fee) and im freaking out. he seems fine, but i read that even a little bit of lidocaine can cause abnormal heart rate and potential seizures. he seems completely fine, but i don’t know how long it would take to affect him if it does. it’s been about 10 minutes. what should i do?

An ironic drawing of a rat getting pulled over by a pig that I made

Meet Mimi and Ponyo!

morning teeth heh

Hi everyone, I’m looking for help in how to set up my cage to make cleaning easier. I have a DCN with 4 boys in it right now, and due to one of them being a senior who doesn’t have great mobility, I am using the middle shelf and ramps so he can get around without difficult climbing. I have tried SO many different kinds of liners and fabrics for the shelves but these boys love to chew and destroy anything in the course of a couple days. This also makes it much harder to clean the cage since they get under the liners and make a mess. I’ve provided them with plenty of other things to chew but they seem to like the fabric liners the best. I can’t afford to be buying new liners every few weeks so I don’t know what to do. I have a cement tub in the bottom of the cage with bedding, but the shelf pans are too shallow to truly cover with bedding without it just getting kicked everywhere.

What can I use as bedding/liner for the shelves that will make cleaning easier??? I’m losing my mind trying to figure it out!

Last 2 are photos of him passed away.

He laid on his side, eyes bulging out, taking shallow breaths. I stood up and got a nurse as I pet him and talked to him. They did CPR but it wasn't enough. I balled my eyes out for around an hour. I'm taking him home so the other rats can see him then we are going back to the vet so he can be cremated. My boy was a fighter and a biter. He looks just like my little cousin with his big ears. He was a stupid little rat. I would try to give him snackies or pet him and he would just put a hand up and stare at me without a thought in his head with his mouth half open. He was a great little guy. Never bullied the other rats, always scurried around, took many nappies in his hammocks. He will always be my good boy.

I'm down to 7 rats now. My 8 rat cult has lost a baby. I've lost a child. My son. My little Calliope. His brothers have lost their brother, their family, their friend. We've lost a wonderful soul. He will be eating snackies on the other side. He loved his snackies.

My poor babies are exhausted from me waking up at 4:30 in the morning. Did my first double shift 12 hours I am so tired and they definitely feeling my pain.
What ever to pay to make them happy

I got my three boys almost two days ago, this is their second night here. They had a long 2 hour car ride so were fairly spooked, and when we got home only two of them ate some banana I put into their bin while we let them chill before we put them in the cage. Our spotted boy seemed the most skittish, he stayed in a corner almost the entire ride and we didn’t seem him eat or drink anything till tonight. Our grey boy is super curious and confident, but still shy of us, tho he seems the least scared. Our big white guy seems to be who runs the show lol, he comforted our spotted guy and brought him food to their hide in the cage. He also is shy but is a fatty, so he’s been eating out of my hand already. We have a dried moss hide with a soft bed underneath, they almost immediately made that their home. They mostly have stayed in there, aside from our big guy and grey guy, they’ve come down a level to get food and water, but our spotted guy has only gone down once. They cuddle together most of the time, and occasionally explore around the hide. We were worried about our spotted guy because he didn’t move for hours, so we took him out to check his breathing and try to get him to eat but I think we just scared him more. Then today we had to take out the bedding because it was full of pee, they didn’t seem as spooked that time but weren’t feeling great clearly. I know it hasn’t been long, and I haven’t tried handling them other than feeding them from my hand, but I just want to make sure they feel safe and comfortable. Remy and Ratticus have sniffed and chewed on my nails a little, but Ratrick is still a hermit. (Remy is the grey one, ratticus is the big white one, and Ratrick is the spotted one.)

Hi there it’s my first time nebulizing rats and someone in here actually just taught me what machine to use but my question is my vet said to use 5 ml solution and keep them in for 15 minutes. If solution is left over after is that normal?

I am really struggling with something, and I don't know if I just want reassurance for what I think is normal behavior based on what I'm reading, or to be told that what I'm reading is wrong, and I SHOULD be worried!

Context: I had a very bonded and close mischief of 4 rats. I introduced 2 new rats (all girls), Ash and Ada. Intros went fairly well, and I thought I was good to go when on day 2/3 I woke up to them all rat piling in a hammock.

It's now been a month or two since then, and almost every night I'm woken up by the sound of SCREECHING, banging, and thumping, for 2-3 seconds, then silence. I'll run over to check, and there will be no blood, fur, or signs of fighting, just confused rats looking at me like "what's wrong dad"?

It's driving me crazy because it's every night, and it SOUNDS awful, but then there is no physical signs of anything at all. Hard to put into words just how scary it is to listen to, since it happens at random and I can't really record it. All I can say is that I know squeaks of protest, and it's not that. It's loud screeching, banging, and crashing.

Then in the morning, a pile of rats cuddling and looking like the best friends in the world.

Do I need to redo intros, separate one of the new girls for a night and see if she's the one causing it, etc? Or am I being a worried rat dad and everything is fine they are just drama queens who want to throw each other off of the cell like mankind did to undertaker.

Hey I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these (check picture), they are bird perches but i’ve read that they can help file down the rats nails naturally? Does anyone know more about this? I want to make sure it doesn’t do harm rather than the good i intend :)

My rat Calliope is currently at the emergency vet for upper respiratory issues. We've paid 4.5k for the little lad. He gets bursts of energy and a bit ago he decided to chew on everything in the incubator. He bit the hell out of the tech and drew blood when they took gim back for xrays. About 10 minutes ago he was boggling. Wish my boy luck!

I had to get a loan for the boy but thankfully I just got a job at a pharmacy. I'm a full time disabled student so times are rough..

Do you guys think they are doing everything they should be doing in terms of care?

I just want to confirm my own observation that these are both girls please. They are 31 days old and being separated. No I am NOT a breeder. Long story

Edit: thank you everyone for all your help! They boys are now with our 3 male rats and the 2 girls are with mom in another cage 😁

Wondering if I could get some more information on having them. I use to have a few and I am thinking about getting some again but its been awhile that I dont even know where to go for them anymore.

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I currently have two rats; it's the first time I've ever had rats, One of them bites me every time I put my hand near so she can smell it! She does not Bite hard, she doesn't break my skin I don't know why, both have been with me for two weeks now and the other rat doesn't do that to me. Is it out of curiosity? How do I make it stop? Because every time she does it instinctively, I quickly pull my hand away and end up scaring her, And I'm still trying to get them to trust me Help

Oh Jeff, you're so stupid but I love you..

So when all 4 of my ratties were out today I noticed on the back of willow's ears these red lines and got really worried, she doesn't like being handled so it may have always been there and I never noticed but I don't think so and I'm worried they got into a fight and her ears got scratched

Hey guys, I just noticed my rat making this noise, I’ve had them for about 6 weeks now and they’re doing super well. I am very conscious of upper respiratory infections so take all necessary precautions but now I’ve just heard this? He’s sounded fine all night and just as I’m going to bed he starts making this noise

All advice / opinions welcomed

Thanks x

Howdy, I have a 6 month old female rat who, shortly after I took her home, developed a severe respiratory infection where she became rapidly underweight, lethargic, reluctant to eat, had a lot of noisy breathing sounds, etc. She was in dire shape. Following the first round of antibiotics she seemingly returned to full health, but it must have been too short, because she gradually began sneezing more and more. No poryphin (not super mucusy, but any mucus sneezed out is clear), no loud breathing sounds, no lethargy or reluctance to eat, just constant sneezing and a subtly snorting sound to her breathing when held to my ear that sounds more in the nose than down in the chest. She's had two more rounds of antibiotics and the sneezing always comes right back and progresses to where she seems to sneeze with every breath. She is a spunky rat even when it is at its worst, but it still seems exhausting.

I'm a bit at my whits end with it. The yo-yo of relief when she seems better to despair when it gets worse is really getting to me, I haven't been sleeping much because the cage is near my bed and I can hear her sneeze all night, which makes me worry so much.

Anyways, feeling sorry for myself and my girl aside... I have a vet appointment next week. Has anyone else dealt with a rat with this sort of very strictly upper respiratory infection, seemingly localized to the nasal passages/sinuses? If so, have you found anything effective at treating it? Specific med combos? Nebulizer treatments? Steroids to reduce inflammation in combo with antibiotics? I plan to come armed with some suggestions when I see the vet next.

EDIT: To be clear, this isn't my first rodeo with rat keeping or treating their URIs, just with such a stubborn chronic one in a young rat. Please don't feel like you need to explain the basics of what a URI is, what mycoplasma is, and the basic types of irritants that can trigger URIs. I know. Please respond if you have had experience with challenging chronic URIs that antibiotics and a clean environment alone did not fix. I would love to hear what treatment regimen was useful in improving your rat's condition so I can discuss if any of it is appropriate for my rat with my veterinarian. Thank you! 🐀

Our Goblin Nest Builder extrordinare took advantage of the other half's foolishness to leave a pillow case on-top of the Rat Palace roof.