Bacchus Residents

Billy was one of them animals who was incredibly needy in all aspects of his life. He was medically needy, behaviorally needy - he was very demanding. Billy arrived in our care with 3 other rats; Louie, Pickle, and Winnifred on the 11th of October 2018.  Louie and Billy were cohabitating. Unfortunately for Billy, Louie was severely hormonally aggressive towards him. Louie was booked in for castration. The surgery itself went well, but, tragically, Louie passed away during the recovery period as his blood didn't clot leading to catastrophic blood loss. We've written a blog post about Billy, Louie, Pickle and Winnifred. Billy also had to be castrated as he was unable to bond to entire males. Fortunately, he found companionship with does and neutered males.  Facial Abscesses: Billy was no stranger to a facial abscess. Despite how absolutely horrendous they appeared aesthetically, they usually responded to warm compressions and a couple of days of Metacam. Billy was not a true hai...

Arrival and Initial Treatments: Rhino and Rylan were 2 elderly 2-year-old bucks surrendered to us on the 8th of December 2019.  Upon arrival, it was clear Rhino had an irritated respiratory system. He was displaying audible respiratory noise (even without auscultation) and piloerection. Rylan also had hyperplastic dermatitis which was likely the result of a parasitic infection. Rhino and Rylan were both treated with topical Ivermectin and introduced to prophylactics recommended when dealing with respiratory disease - it's something we do for all rats, regardless if they're presenting with signs of disease. Rylan responded brilliantly to treatment and all symptoms subsided. On the other hand, although Rhino improved with good husbandry, he still had symptoms that suggested he had an upper-respiratory infection. He was introduced to nebulized F10 and oral Baytril and Metacam for 30-days. Despite Rhino's excellent response to the medication, 42hrs after discontinuing antibioti...