I suggest, BrdU works well for the neurogenesis study. Not only for neurogenesis, you can examine the proliferation of glial cells as well using BrdU.

can anyone suggest a clear cut protocol for rats?

I personally l personally like BrdU. The protocol is to IP inject as the  supplier may suggest or  simply add top the drinking water.

I have done it with mice to study the proliferation of microglia  and it worked nicely.

The protocol is as follows

perform brdU IP injection (twice day for 3 days or longer or increase the frequency if you are going to study for shorter period 4 time a day maximum)

Perfusion fix the brain

Section the tissue and proceed as

5. Denature DNA with 2N HCl for 30 min at 37 degree C (pre warmed)

6. Wash with PBS three times 5 min each

7. Neutralize HCl with 0.1M Borate buffer (pH 8.5) for 3*15 min

8. Wash with PBS three times 5 min each

9. Block with 1% FBS in 0.3% titron-X100 for 1 hr at 4 degree C

10. Incubate with primary antibody (1:200~1:500 Brdu Rat monoclonal); for double staining add accordingly. Eg iba1 (1:500 rabbit monoclonal) in 0.5% FBS serum overnight

11. Wash with PBS three times 5 min each

12. Incubate with secondary antibody (anti rat Cy3 for Brdu and for doule labeling accordingly; AF488 anti rabbit for iba 1)

13. Wash with PBS three times 5 min each

14. DAPI staining for 10 min

You can use single or double antibody as your need. Following article might help you furhter.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24154617

I think BrdU is very appropriate method. You can follow neurogenesis and even fate of new cells that generated. You can use its very simple kit for detection of BrdU in immunohistocghemistry. We have done BrdU for neurogenesis by Invitrogen kit.

Good luck.

Please remind that as an analog of thymidine, BrdU is a marker for DNA synthesis and not necessarily a marker for cell proliferation. BrdU labels only cells that are synthesizing DNA; thus, it will label cells in the S-phase and the S-phase is a small proportion of the whole cell cycle (Nowakowski et al., 1989). Moreover, despite its extensive usage in conventional cell biology and recent stem cell studies, in the in vivo studies, it has been shown that BrdU is a toxic substance (Gould and Gross, 2002; Nowakowski and Hayes, 2001; Rakic, 2002). We have found very difficult to combine immunofluorence for neuronal markers to BrdU staining so in our study  "Vascular and parenchymal lesions along with enhanced neurogenesis characterize the brain of asymptomatic stroke-prone spontaneous hypertensive rats." J Hypertens. 2013 Aug;31(8):1618-28. doi: 10.1097/HJH.0b013e3283619d7f so we have used alternative approaches.

  We are currently using BrdU after global ischemia in rats.  The best result was achieved by administering BrdU at 300mg.Kg-1.day-1 i.p during 4 days starting from day 4 after recirculation.  Immunolabeling is very nice with this protocol. Our immunofluorescence or immunoperoxidase protocols are very similar to Bhakta Prasad Gaire protocol. It works very nicely.

Go for BrdU and netrin staining.