First Aid & Healthcare

Written by Rachelle Bish, Jellybean Rattery

I always recommend that rat owners keep themselves up to date on rat healthcare and symptoms that they should look out for. It can be very difficult to find good, rat savvy vets - if you have a tried and true rat savvy vet, that is wonderful! But many people don't have great rat vets nearby, or their vets say they know rats well but in reality they don’t, or they can't get appointments quickly, so being able to research and advocate for your own animal can make a huge difference in their health outcomes.
This is a great resource for learning about rat health issues and medications:
https://ratguide.com/health-intro
https://ratguide.com/meds-intro

I recommend keeping a first aid kit with:

1mL oral syringes
High value liquid treats that are not dairy or high in calcium - such as strawberry syrup, flavored compounding liquid, malt paste, etc to mix doses into so the rats can eat their meds stress-free
Pedialyte
Sterile saline or the ability to make saline
Chlorhexidine
Medical grade (500+ MGO) manuka honey
Infant ibuprofen
Terramycin eye drops
Kitten or Cat Revolution, Ivermectin, or 0.5% Permethrin (Permethrin is dangerous to cats and ferrets)
Aluminum foil to make heat blankets if a rat is lethargic
Corn starch to stop bleeding
Oats, blueberries, chicken, various immune boosting foods if you notice slight cold-like symptoms

PLEASE feel welcome to contact me if you ever have health questions or questions on how to use first aid supplies - no question is stupid and I am happy to help. These supplies will help tide over a rat until it can reach a vet, in case of respiratory issues, injuries, or undiagnosed signs of pain. If you use any medication before reaching a vet, be sure to let the vet know what you used.

I also recommend syringe training your rats. Fill a syringe with a small amount of a delicious, high value liquid treat and let the rats lick it up. Do this once or twice a week and they will associate the syringe with good things and it'll make giving meds much easier in the future.

I also recommend joining the Facebook group “Real Rat Lovers Want to Know” in case you ever need help. They are a group with trained medical contributors dedicated to giving advice on treatments if someone can’t get to a vet yet. Just be sure to read the rules carefully and post using their posting format, so they can help you best.