When you have a pet rat there are certain medications that you should have on hand in case your pet needs them in an emergency. I'm going to tell you about some of those medicines. The first one is Amoxicillin. This medicine you have to get from your vet and you should know that some vets won't give you Amoxicillin because they learn in veterinarian school that it can kill guinea pigs and hamsters and will generalize this to all rodents, but it works well for rats.
Your vet will tell you the right dosage but you should either get the liquid or capsules so that you can easily mix the right dosage with some soy milk, baby formula or something sweet so your rat will eat it.
The second most important thing I will tell you to have on hand is Baytril, the generic name is Enrofloxacin. I have had several people ask me recently how to get this and other medications by mail without a veterinarians prescription and vet bill. It's available here. If you can't find it just do a Google search for Enrofloxacin liquid, you'll most likely find it cheapest at Bird Supply websites.
Because most places don't make medications specifically for rats we have to take the same medications labeled made for other animals like pigeons, horses and ferrets and adjust the dosage to work with rats.
To use Baytril (Enrofloxacin) liquid with rats you will need to buy the liquid and mix it with something sweet to eat or drink. The dose for 10% liquid is 0.1 ml/lb BID
I figured that out to be two drops of the Baytril twice a day for my 2 lb rats.
This works well for rats who have mycoplasma. So if your rat is sneezing, wheezing or having a hard time breathing you should start them on Amoxicillin first and then Baytril. But if you can't get to a veterinarian's office and have Baytril on hand start giving it to them. Give them this for 6-8 weeks. My little guy Brodie got a little better after giving him Baytril but his lungs were weak and so I gave him the Baytril for a year, which helped him quit a bit. Sometimes they will get scar tissue in their lungs from an upper respiratory infection and their lungs will never be the same. All you can do in this case is make them as comfortable as possible while they are with you.
Of course if you feel better taking your rat to the vet's office please feel free to do so. This is just general help and information that I've found out from my own vet and other rat parents that have helped me out when I needed it.
Another thing to have on hand is Ivermectin paste. This tube of paste is made as a horse wormer but it can be easily used to treat rat lice and mites and you can find it in most pet stores. I found it in Petsmart. When I saw that two of my rats had rat lice, I bought this paste and gave it to them and it got rid of the rat lice. It does not kill the mite eggs though so you do have to give them one dose each week until the mites are gone.
Dosage instructions for Ivermectin paste: Mix a small amount the size of a grain of uncooked white rice of the Ivermectin paste with something sweet and let your rat lick it off a spoon, once a week for 3 weeks.
Important: Only give what would be the size of a grain of uncooked rice. More could make your rat very sick or even kill them.
I ordered this from Amazon at this link.