It is NOT a good idea to order medications online or to buy them from anyone other than your veterinarian. Here’s why:
Many manufacturers of veterinary medications sell their drugs only to veterinarians. Therefore, when you purchase a drug from an online pharmacy, you are buying diverted product. Medications are called “diverted” when they are procured through unauthorized channels. When this occurs, the medication’s safety and integrity can be compromised.
Purchasing medications obtained without the manufacturer’s authorization may result in:
- Adverse reactions are not covered by manufacturer. When purchased directly from your veterinarian the drug manufacturer guarantees their medication and pays for any resulting treatment needed.
- Medications may not have been properly shipped. Shipments not regulated for heat or cold and inadequate packaging may result in ineffective or damaged and unusable medication.
- Your rat is exposed to health risks that may become more difficult to manage when the medication’s authenticity and integrity are questionable.
Don’t “guess” and decide on your own that your rat needs a certain medication. Instead, only give your rats medications when they’re prescribed by your veterinarian.
In my area, (East SF Bay Area), exotic vet’s that will admit rodents are oddly sparse. Of these limited choices, even fewer demonstrate an actual proficiency or a sufficient knowledgeable experience in medically caring for rodents, despite the typical emanation of authoritative mannerism or unwarranted ego that seems to be a defacto standard for Rx Dr’s.
If one manages to find a vet with the relevant expertise and that is within a practical distance from ones residence, it will most certainly be quite busy and booked solid one or more weeks into the future at any given time. Further, the cost of merely stepping foot into the examination room with one single rodent is $75 to $115! For a rodent! But as will typically be the case, with consideration of the rapid rate at which small rodent animals can progress in their illness to a fatal degree, one will have to make an ’emergency’ appointment in order to receive the required antibiotic prescription before the animals condition becomes much more difficult to treat, or ends in a horrible, painful death. And that means an additional $50 to $100! $215, and still don’t even have the script yet. But wait… there’s more!
All of this suffering and expense is incurred each time, for each pet rodent (experienced rat owners know that one doesn’t just get “a rat”, one gets a mischief of rats), so that one can observe (if the vet allows owner to be present for exam) a pitiful 15 second ‘examination’ of each animal, have a brief chat about symptoms, deviations in behavior or intake and outputs, followed by utterly nonsensical ‘recommendations’ to have one or more diagnostics including x-rays, blood tests, cultures, and such, all of which would be to the exclusive benefit of the clinic/hospital, and serve only to further rattle or traumatize one’s already sick pet(s) while further siphoning $$$ from one’s billfold. This is all despite the typical patients’ history which in most cases, documents positive response to the requested antibiotics every single time, every single rat, every single respiratory infection flare up. Yes, vet’s need to pay off their expensive diagnostics equipment so they ‘recommend’ these tests when they know its of no benefit at all to the animal, indeed, may even be harmful to the animal, and some will boldly attempt to pressure or argue with one on the matter, rambling off irrelevant ‘reasons’ for their ‘recommendations’ and / or imply that one is depriving ones pet of required procedures, thus, one is guilty of being a bad person.
If one makes it this far without losing composure, and with their life savings in tact, the script may finally be prescribed. In many cases, rat medications require ‘compounding’, which has a set of regulations and licensing atypical to other forms of medication, which means, one may need to find a ‘special’ pharmacy that fills veterinary scripts, and that has the experience, equipment, stock, and licensing to fill compounded medications for small animals. This all translates to additional time ones animal(s) will be made to suffer without treatment, and ‘compounding’ expenses.
The above scenario is the most likely one where it comes to rat ownership. It is practically guaranteed that one or all of one’s rats will have at least one respiratory flare up, and typically several flare ups in the duration of their lifetime. Granted, this is mostly anecdotal from my own experience over the past 10 years, and YMMV depending on where you live, though, in 100% of the many fellow rat owners I have conversed with, or otherwise learned from them about their experiences, their accounts align with mine in near perfection.
The reality I have described here, is often glossed over in discussions on the topic of ‘why rats make great pets’, but I believe a lot more emphasis is warranted here, because it is easy to make the mistaken assumption that because they are cheap to acquire, and small animals, that they should be great for people on a low budget and who want to have pet(s). That would be a huge mistake to assume. They are NOT cheap! There are many other downsides as well, including but not limited to, their cursedly short life spans, the potentially horrendous end of life period, the ease by which and abundant supply of ‘psychologically aberrant’ rats sold in pet stores or by inexperienced ‘breeders’, that will bite the holy heck out of you until their last day, and much more.
Rat ownership is not without its precious rewards for those that can handle the responsibility and everything that comes with it. There are indeed many things to love about the little critters, otherwise I wouldn’t have endured the past 10 years sharing life with them. But for me, this is really for sure definitely the last mischief of rats I will have. I am really going to quit this time. I’ll join the 10 step program if I can find such a thing.
Hi Jason,
I greatly appreciate what you’ve shared here. You have done such a thorough job of explaining many of the downsides to pet rat ownership.
However, most cat and dog owners go through similar difficulties. It’s not easy—emotionally or financially—to own a pet. I’ve found that the good still outweighs the bad, though.
I lived in the South SF Bay Area for 30 years. During that time I found many incredible rat vets. I didn’t have trouble getting in to see them because they already knew me and would fit me in as soon as possible whenever needed.
I don’t believe that diagnostics are always unwarranted. In fact, I’m a big fan of running diagnostic tests when the information will give an indication of what treatment/medication is best. There really isn’t another way to know how to proceed with treatment….other than just guessing which is a lot less accurate.
As for the costs of the appointments, and the expertise of the vets, I’ve found veterinarians who took the time to really get to know my rats. They genuinely cared about my rats’ health and were willing to go the extra mile to learn more from other vets when needed about how to treat whatever condition my rat had.
In my past, I worked in the veterinary field for around 15 years. During this time I never once observed a vet recommending a diagnostic test just to earn money. Most vets get into this field because they love animals. They’re not in it to rob people of their money!
I completely get that it would be cost prohibitive to take one’s entire mischief to the vet for regular checkups. That’s why I’ve chosen to have only 2 rats at a time.
Regarding getting compounded medications, I’ve found this easy to do in each area where I’ve lived. We’re fortunate there are compounders who can customize the medications to fit our rats’ needs.
You make a great point here: “but I believe a lot more emphasis is warranted here, because it is easy to make the mistaken assumption that because they are cheap to acquire, and small animals, that they should be great for people on a low budget and who want to have pet(s). That would be a huge mistake to assume. They are NOT cheap!” Absolutely, if you’re going to take great care of your pet rats, they are expensive.
As for their short lifespans, this is certainly a part of pet rat ownership. That’s why I’ve developed a philosophy where I think of rats as being like flowers. Whoever has rats needs to learn to accept of the reality of their shorter lifespans if they want to continue having rats as pets.
I can’t thank you enough for presenting your point of view. You’ve done a fantastic job of summarizing the downsides of having rats as pets. For me, the positive greatly outweighs the negative or else I wouldn’t have continued being a pet rat owner for over 30 years.
Thanks again for offering your astute and quite realistic point of view.
Jasmine | About Pet Rats