Do Rats Get Asthma?

I spoke with my vet this morning about trying benazepril for my 22 month old boy who has been having faster respiratory rate and intermittent 'anxiety type' attacks where his heart pounds harder and his nose clicks for a minute or two before these events die down again and just go back to a slightly faster-than-normal respiratory rate.

There are no myco symptoms or the usual rat-respiratory noises. He is silent when he breathes, other than when these anxiety-type attacks occur.

We'd tried lasix and had not seen any results. We're going to try the Forketor to see if it makes any difference over the next four to five days.

The vet had said 'It sounds like he might have asthma, and that would account for these sudden 'anxiety-type attacks' that come out of the blue.

It might very well be, especially if the forketor makes no difference over the coming few days.

I have to assume that asthma would be treated with a mild corticosteroid, possibly also a bronchodilator, and that he'd have to be on an antibiotic because of the steroid.

I will be bringing him back to the vet if the forketor makes no difference over the next few days.

Has anyone else here treated their rat for asthma? If people can get asthma, animals must be able to get it too. And it seems to make more sense that it might be this because asthma can tighten the airways and then bring on these 'breathing attacks' that would make the heart rate accelerate.

We want to rule out heart first. If no difference, the forketor will be stopped and then I guess we try treating for asthma, because his color is good; feet pink, etc.

I've just been putting some chamomile tea in with some rice pablum for a calming effect, which seems to be helping a little, and have also tried diluting one drop of the Bach's Rescue Remedy in water for additional calming, as well as offering him Reiki several times a day.

At this point, we are trying meds to 'rule things out' and hoping to see what helps.

Yes they can have asthma and I have been told before that my boys may have it, but unfortunately each time after xrays it was always something more serious. (chest mass, heart tumor, enlarged heart)

I had an old rat (2.5 yr) that had similar symptoms. Treated him with an albuterol inhaler. Didn't seem to fix the problem but it did help him breathe a little easier during the "attacks." He died in his sleep at about 3 yrs - the vet thought maybe a heart condition was the underlying cause.

The vet felt it isn't heart, as the xray showed normal heart and lungs. He said it could be allergy-related; that asthma can be kick-started by so many different things: temperature changes, humidity, cold, dust, other animal dander, etc.

He has put him on prednisolone, rather than going with benazepril, as he felt that if the lasix hadn't indicated heart issue, that the benazepril wouldn't do anything different.

So he's on 0.7 ml of the pred once a day for the next 30 days; he has a vet appointment this coming Tuesday afternoon for a followup and to see how it's working and whether he'd need albuterol or not.

Fingers crossed we see improvement, as he's never had any other regular respiratory issues. The vet feels that when he (rat) gets these anxiety-type attacks, it's because the airways are constricted with inflammation being triggered by any number of possibilities, and that the pred alone should kick in soon to reduce inflammation and allow easier breathing.

Apparently, this year has been another bad year for many pets regarding allergies, breathing issues, too much weather change, pollens, etc. It has been getting worse the last few years as the weather and seasons have been so erratic.

Keep fingers crossed for Aleister please. Thanks for the feedback from those who've experienced something similar.

I would think yes. I remember are while back, I had a couple of rats that would seem to go into an attack and the inhaler would work it's magic for a while.

How long does it take for prednisolone to work? We saw him relax a bit within a few hours after the first dose yesterday, but by this morning it was wearing off. He's on it once every 24 hours.

I just gave him his 2nd dose on day 2; he seems a bit more relaxed within the two hours after receiving it, but his respiratory rate is still too fast. Does it take a few days to reduce the inflammation enough to open up airways more for the respiratory rate to come back down to a normal level?

Do you know what his heart rate is?
I would think a couple of day of the pred should show something.