Penny doing better. Had respiratory scare!

I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right here. These are my first rats and this is my first time to have one look really sick.

Symptoms:
2 weeks-ish of mild lethargy. I thought she was just being slow and lazy bc she had put on a little weight.
Tonight I pull her out of the cage and her temp is cooler, piloerectus, congestion, squinting eyes. I listened to her and she sounds pretty clear except the nasal congestion. She is belly crawling and obviously does not feel good. I caught her propping her head to breathe better too. She did not even want to come out during playtime. Her color is still good and she's not terribly tachypnic so I don't really think it is an emergency. She is 9 mo old.

Actions taken:
Albuterol puffs through tp tube. First dose of doxy and baytril. Humidifier placed directly under cage with a little eucalyptus oil for the room. Drop of dark chocolate, which she gobbled up.

Anything else I need to do?

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Baytril and doxy are good, humidifier has to be outside the room if it is sonic cause it will hurt their ears (sound we cannot hear) and chocolate is bad for them despite what you hear (I asked my vet about this).

Healing vibes from all of us

It's not sonic. I thought chocolate was a natural bronchodialtor?

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Getting her meds is top priority, everything else is mostly to ease symptoms so you are doing a good job. I too agree that chocolate, even dark chocolate is not good for rats. In fact, even humans with asthma should stay way from even dark chocolate mainly due to the fact that it causes the effects of asthma medication to be heightened. Effects like headaches, irritability, nervousness and sleeplessness.
I also found this about chocolate:
Caffeine. Caffeine can cause anxiety, sleep problems, difficulty concentrating, restlessness and heartburn. Withdrawal from caffeine may cause headaches and fatigue. Chocolate contains much less caffeine than coffee.
Theobromine. An alkaloid with about one

Sheldon said:

It's not sonic. I thought chocolate was a natural bronchodialtor?

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Click to expand...

I thought that too since I read it on here so many times so I asked my vet and he about chopped my head off!! No its not good for them and he said if I had to give them chocolate (which he does not recommend for anything) white chocolate is the best for them since it doesn't contain cocoa

Interesting. No more chocolate then. Sheldon will be disappointed

I decided to go ahead and take Penny in this afternoon. She looks just terrible and I think she could benefit from a steroid or a brochodilator.

Thanks guys.

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Oh dear poor Penny, I hope its just a hard hitting but normal URI for her that responds to treatment.

Sitting in the bathroom with her and just took these pictures.

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Has she already seen the vet or is that later?

Definitely keep with the antibiotics. Wouldn't hurt to visit vet, as you said, for broncho or steroid if they determine she needs it.

Sending Penny lots of healing vibes. She is lucky she has a human who is doing so much to make her comfortable and well.

Just got back from the vet. He wants me to continue the baytril and doxy, give metacam for inflammation/comfort, and nebulize gentamicin. I will call him again if she doesn't improve.

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Good luck little baby!!!

Sounds good, but if the nebulizer causes more stress and you fell it makes her worse rather than better I would stop it. That happens to some of my boys its just too stressful for them and they come out worse than they went in.

:getwell: Healing vibes from all of us!

:choc: Sorry Sheldon no more chocolate!

I hate when they have that sad face on them. It is so hard when they are that sick.

She has not eaten or drank or defecated since before 3pm. She wouldn't even take a yogurt drop. When should I start to intervene? Her skin does not tent but it is not as elastic as it should be either.

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What do you mean by 'intervene'? You shouldn't force feed her in that state, she may aspirate. If you have fluids to give sub q, that would help. You can inject gentamicin if you can't nebulize it, just dilute the meds with fluids. She sounds like she's very, very ill

I don't know how I'm going to get the antibiotics in her...

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You NEED to get her to the vet tomorrow ASAP. Just go right when they open, appointment or not. She needs fluids injected along with a steroid...

By intervene I mean inject fluids. I have both NS and LR.

I just had her at the vet this afternoon. He did not want to do steroids yet-he showed be some literature that suggests it is fairly pointless if the symptoms are all upper airway, which hers are. I tried to neb some gentamicin but it really stressed her so we did not get far with the treatment.

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She is 368g. Think 5mL NS for now?

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Oh jeez, I don't know.
You can use this to check dosage but MAKE SURE you have the settings matched up: http://reference.medscape.com/calculator/weight-dosing

I would still rush to the vet.