I'm sorry for not updating recently, but my life has been one big mess lately and I haven't gotten around to it. Patron is not doing well at all. He was treated for mites and his skin is no longer red and itchy, but he's since had a stubborn but mild upper respiratory infection. By that I mean his lungs weren't making and bad noises, but he was sneezing constantly.
From what I found out. He was being fed gerbil food and his itching started when he had been given timothy hay, but he was never treated. From what I can guess, his problems were building up without many symptoms for a while, and the stress of my taking him in was the last straw and triggered an explosion.
As of today he's done with antibiotics. He's had diarrhea since starting so we'll see if it clears up without intervention. He's eating and drinking fine which is a great sign. He's lost a bit of weight though, enough to put him back in the normal male rat range. Some rat enthusiasts like to keep rats a bit chubby because they lose weight so easily when sick.
I hope he gets a clean bill of health soon. I keep him in a seperate room from the others for quarentine. Some rat people say that quarentine isn't necessary if you have them in the same house. They say that all respiratory problems are airborne and that apparently is all that matters for quarentine. I've been told that keeping them in seperate rooms is no good at all. I think there are more issues than the aireborne ones to deal with and any quarentine is better than none at all. Bunch of loonies have no common sense if you ask me, but I'll sure be happy when he doesn't have to be seperated anymore.
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