Alternative Medicines and other ways to help your sick rat

Betadine (Povidine is another brand) SOLUTION ( not scrub) is a good thing to keep on hand, for wound cleansing and flushing. You can get a small 4 oz. bottle in a drug store. It is a basic iodine solution. To use it for wound care, mix with tap water to the color of WEAK TEA.
Don't use it full strength. Get a wound flushing syringe, or a 5 ml syringe with a teat cannula on the end, from your vet, to use to flush the wound. It can be rinsed, air dried, and re-used.
Baby aspirin makes a good pain medicine, also good as an
anti-inflammatory to reduce swelling in cases of sprained feet, legs and ankles, or even broken legs. If there is no wound, and no bones are sticking out, the treatment of choice is to isolate in a small cage, rest, and aspirin for 5 days...then allow it to heal on its own. They do heal very well. Splints do more harm than good, since rats will immediately work hard to tear them off, and may make the broken leg worse than it was. Of
course, if bone is sticking out, your rat will need surgery of some kind to repair it. Pain control is an important key to any of these injuries...with pain control ( which is the humane thing to do anyway) the rats are less likely to bother the injured site.
Dose for baby aspirin...1/4 aspirin twice a day for small ADULT rats like females, under 400 grams...1/2 baby aspirin twice a day for big squashy males over 400 grams. Grind it up and give in baby food or flavored syrup, since aspirin is so bitter.