The Beginning Part 4- Going to the Pharmacist

Truth; I haven't ever taken in a prescription before. I'm not even a legal adult yet people! So lets just say the poor pharmacist was pretty confused when I gave her the prescription for Dapper's medication.  I sort of just shoved the paper at her and let her figure it out. She asked a few questions, like "is this for some sort of animal?" and then proceeded to make me sign away pretty much all the rights I ever had on the little pen-pad. Then I left until the prescription was filled. 

Thirty minutes later I return. 
"We don't have this medication in stock," the pharmacist informs me in her thick, Latino accent.
"What?? no no, no of course you do!" (I didn't say this out loud obviously, I just sort of stand there instead).
"We can order it and it will be here tomorrow though."
"Ok that would be great," I answer.
"It will be $30 is that OK?"
No no no thank you, Ms. pharmacist. But my vet is cheaper.
(Oh dear what now?)
"Of course we have Trimethoprim with Sulfa added. It is free and should be fine for your animal...."
What? I thought I already had Trimethoprim with Sulfa! I checked my prescription in the car and low and behold it was not Sulfa-Trim like I thought. Not that it was important, but it made me feel pretty dumb that I didn't even know what I was giving my animal. 
I  call the vet, they say the Sulfa-Trim is fine, and so I get a new prescription, pick up the
'Sulfa trim' and proceeded to hope Dapper liked this stuff better- because it was a pain to obtain, even if it was "free".
Then something amazing  happened. I put a little bit of the medication on a plate in Dapper's cage and he LICKED IT UP. Without any baby food, oats or anything. He loved the cherry flavored pink sticky goo all by itself. You know how they say that its the little things that count? Well maybe it's true, because this really made my day, hey it made my WEEK (no wait, my two weeks actually because that's how long he stayed on it).

Dapper getting a little tamer.

The Beginning Part 2- This Rat Gets Named

The day after I got This Rat (did I mention that he still wasn't named yet? because he wasn't)  it was evident; he did have a respiratory infection. He was making hacking noises, like coughing or something.

Here I am, a newbie rat owner, with a sick rat. So what do I do? I went to the vet obviously.
On the way to the vet I christened my new pet "Dapper Dandy", because my mom forced me to name him before we got to the vet so "Rat" wouldn't be on the vet forms. It was a good thing too, if I hadn't been forced, I would have not named him for two weeks (I hate decisions).

We get to the vet.  The vet pumped him with fluids as he was dehydrated. He was prescribed   medication for a secondary respiratory infection, a stuff called 'Sulfa Trim'.

"Is Sulfa Trim something I can get at Publix Pharmacy?" I asked the vet tech, a young woman with bobby hair.

I asked because the medication was the same I got for my late hamster Delilah when she needed antibiotics, and it was free at Publix, which was nice.

"Oh I wouldn't know," said the tech, looking perplexed, but uninterested.

"Is there any way to know?" (hoping she would offer to check)

"You are welcome to call them if you want to," she leaves the room while I dial the phone.

The phone call goes rather unexpectedly. Publix couldn't tell me if they had the right medication without the dosage, something I didn't know. Oh well, it would have been nice to save a few dollars, but after that it wasn't worth any more trouble, I could tell I wasn't going to get any further with the tech.

Dapper Dandy after the vet visit.