Rat Health

Over the years I have had experience of most of the health problems that affect rats, and have seen many rats (often sucessfully) undergo a wide variety of treatments. Our local vet (Judith Brown - First Vets, Forest Hall Branch) is excellent and sees a lot of rats (not just ours but many people from around the region use her too, especially for surgery).

It suddenly struck me that I am completely useless about taking photographs and documenting rattie illness and recovery, but I am sure such information would be helpful to other people (and myself in the future). So I hope to use these health pages for three purposes. Firstly to keep a record of illness, surgery and recovery. Secondly, to gather information regarding health as related to breeding choices and thirdly to house my own articles and information about rat health that might interest others.

Section one - My own experiences of rat illness

Within this section I will try to document and photograph illnesses as they crop up here, including treatments and progress or deterioration. Because I do not have access to many relevant photographs already it will take a while to build this section, but I think it will be very interesting as it progresses.

Section two - Health related to breeding choices

So much is spoken of in terms of breeding 'for health' and often this means nothing more than breeding from two healthy rats who descend from generally healthy rats. I am interested in specific health issues as related to breeding choices. How can health issues be overcome in a line? Are there any methods of predicting health outcomes in rats? Is it possible to be more proactive about health when selecting rats for breeding? These are just some of the questions I would like to consider and in this section I will relate theory to my own breeding choices.

Section three - Artcles on rat health

This will be a holding area for my own articles on health and related issues in rats.

Section one - My own experiences of rat illness.
Section two - Health related to breeding choices.
Section three - Articles on health related topics.