I believe that I have finally solved the answer. Maybe not all of it, but it is a start and I believe that will rats being raised on a soy free diet that they will be a whole heck of a lot healthier.
Here is what I have pieced together from all of my research thus far.
Soy protein affects the pancreas, as I stated in an earlier posting. It enlarges the pancreas as much as 40% and after 24 weeks of soy, the damage has a greater chance of being permanant. If the rats are switched onto a soy free diet before 6 months of age, then the damage can be full reversed.
What your pancreas does, besides help to regulate your blood sugar levels, is it also helps aid in digestion and absorption by creating and excreting digestive enzymes. Soy, in itself, blocks the absorption of some vital minerals, but the reduced effictiveness of the digestive enzymes created by the pancreas make it that much worse.
The most vital mineral that I have discovered that soy and it's damage to the pancreas both prevent absorption of is Zinc. Zinc is needed to maintain a healthy immune system and without it, the immune system can not function properly leading to fragile rats. Since we stopped the soy, although some of our older rats have gotten sick, all of our younger rats have been fine. You may attribute this to age, and this could be, but the rat that got sick at the drop of a hat has not been sick since the soy was stopped and this means something to me.
Now, granted, the soy has made no difference with our lab boys, but this is because these particular rats had not been exposed to most illnesses that other rats are exposed to in litter. The lab breeders ensured this by delivering the babies via C-Section, in a sterile environment and hand raising them (this is years ago) and all lab rats have been bred from these Myco free rats.
I am finding that those who did get sick during a transport are recovering faster. We have had less issues with Myco than before, although this could be considered subjective since I don't have records of who was sick when. I kept it all in my head.
i have definitely seen a major improvement so far and it could take 6 months or longer for them to recover from the damage the soy has done thus far and the older ones may not recover completely. If I am right, however, all of the babies adopted out should be fine and have long lives.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue.
