Oliver and Tobias are getting old..

**wolfsoul** · 09-11-2006, 06:45 PM

My boys are getting old.

They are over two years now and their immune systems are pretty shot. They were getting bouts of lice so I've started bathing them everyday. It's a natural shampoo made completely of coconut, pepperment oil, tea tree oil, and citronella oil, all which kill parasites including lice and help the skin. And I've been giving them Wormex to rid them of lice and any worms they might have, and Megamin which helps alot of problems including the immune system and weight loss

Oliver has been losing weight at a fairly fast rate so I've increased his food intake and I've been feeding him lots of Nutrical and Megamin.

Now today I noticed they have the start of bumblefoot. I massaged their little feet and cleaned it with antiseptic, applied a topical antibiotic and vet-wrap. Luckily it's nowhere near it's bad stage, only just redness and a little swelling.

I'm basically letting them have full run of the house during the day so that their feet won't be in contact with the same surface all the time -- allowing them to have less bacteria. They have had the vet wrap on their deet for an hour now and aren't happy about it so I imagine they won't leave it on much longer.

I'll be off to the vet next week to get some oral antibiotics, and the farm supply store to see if they have some Blue-Kote to put on their feet. My poor little men, it's so hard when they get old. They sure don't act old though, they run around like madmen always getting into trouble, edpecially my little Oliver. He reminds me so much of Frisco, always making me laugh. They have alot of spirit, these guys, I'm sure they'll get through. I'm going to talk to my holistic vet and see what else I can do.

**Chilli** · 09-11-2006, 06:49 PM

Oh. The one and only drawback (in my opinion) of having rats... atleast you're doing everything possible to help your guys. =) I dred seeing the day when my boys and girls get up there in age, but like you're doing, I'll do everything possible for them.
Positive thoughts for your boys!

((ps: Is there any chance we might get pictures? I don't believe I've ever seen your rats.))

**zoey** · 09-11-2006, 07:21 PM

Wolfsoul, it's such a blessing they have you in their lives.
Your caregiving is quite commedable indeed!

**wolfsoul** · 09-11-2006, 07:32 PM

Thanks for the support guys!

I didn't have any updated pics of them so I just snapped a few -- unfortunatly I could only find Oliver lol. He always comes when he's called. Tobias usually does and Nathaniel never does which is why I hardly ever let him out but I decided to anyways. So they are aroudn somewhere lol, but for now here are some pic of Oliver. You can see the wrap on his feet, I'm surprised he's kept it on this long. His fur is thinning; it used to be SO thick.

One thing I forgot to mention -- as you can see, the top half of one of his ear is gone. It wasn't like that yesterday. I noticed the top of his ear was scabby today so I pulled the scab off, and yes, the top of his ear is gone! The rats never get into spats, I don't know what could have happened. I cleaned it and put some aloe/comfrey gel on it.

As we speak, he is teasing the cat. Keeps running up thim and then running away. He's a hilarious rat.