This article is from the WSSF 2015 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

Melissa Garcia Schmittou, Facebook
Q I need some advice. We have a rat whom I’m fairly certain has an ear infection. I have antibiotics for humans, and I have heard I can break it up and use a grain mixed with water for our rat. I think she weighs about 7–8 oz. The medicine I have is Dicloxacillin 250mg. Anyone able to help me come up with an appropriate dosage?

A Whenever you have an ill pet, it’s best to take them to the vet to determine exactly what is wrong and get the appropriate medicine and dosage amount. You can do more harm than good if you misdiagnose the problem and use the wrong medication.

If you need help finding a vet, check the Association of Exotic Animal Veterinarians, the current Critters USA print magazine Directory of Veterinarians list in the back (or online), or the Rat Fan Club web site for lists for Rat Vets–Midwest and Eastern U.S. and Rat Vets–Western U.S. and other countries.

When it comes to giving medications to a rat, there are many things that have worked for others in the past that you can read about in the topic Administering Medication on our page. Hope your rat is feeling better soon! Karen Robbins

A What may look like a bacterial ear infection may be a fungal or mite infection with a bacterial component. An ear infection needs to be treated based on a sound diagnosis of the problem. If it is mites or fungal, antibiotics will not work. Rats also get Zymbal’s gland tumors. This gland is right below the ear so it would be important to be sure your rat is not scratching its ear because of something unrelated to the ear. Rats do not really get routine ear infections, so it would be important to have any rat with a suspect ear infection checked for mites and treated appropriately. Carmen J. Booth, D.V.M., Ph.D.

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