Snoopy is very ill

Snoopy is likely around 2 years old (rescued as an adult in Nov 2014)

Snoopy has been losing weight (difficult to eat when you are trying to breath) and having difficulty breathing so the vet put him on baytril + doxy + Lasix (3xs/day) and added benazepril. Today Snoopy had an xray and one of his lungs is either full of something or has collapsed ..... and his heart could not be seen on the xray ...

So Snoopy is now on baytril + doxy + zithro + Lasix.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Christmas post of Snoopy, Feb 2015 - While Snoopy became ok with other ratties, and more comfortable with me, he has never really wanted to be around people.

Quote: Snoopy - also known as Badger was being given away as free snake food along with his friend/brother ? Sam.
They were advertised as free biters. I rescued them because they had absolutely no chance of being adopted as pets.
Snoopy is frightened of people and of other rats, except Sam, but he is definitely not a biter. Snoopy hides from me and other rats, although sometimes he will approach me to check me out. Snoopy was neutered awhile ago and is slowly adapting to his new environment. Although he is frightened and does not want to be picked up, Snoopy has learned that it is safe to take food from me and he will sometimes approach me looking for a treat.
Snoopy loves building huge nests out of paper he shreds. He has also developed an appreciation for lying in hammocks - as long as he can add nesting material.









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If Snoopy has pulmonary abscesses, it was once suggested to me that we could try viagra. Viagra was originally formulated for respiratory issues. Some people have seen success in rats with PA.

SQ said:

Snoopy is likely around 2 years old (rescued as an adult in Nov 2014)


Any ideas or suggestions?

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oh I am sorry, I've had several rats on heart meds. Can't really help with the medical stuff,
but as for eating, I found it was easiest for these rats to lick food off of your fingers.
that way they do not need to put their head down, which may make breathing even harder
and it also means that they don't have to do the extra work of holding foods

they take a long time to eat, but if you have the time and he will let you sit with him, that might be a good way to feed him and also spend some time with him while you can.

I had a cat named Snoopy- blind, deaf, diabetic with bad kidneys. He needed to be finger fed sometimes too.

Baytril, Doxy, Lasix, and Theophylline

jorats said:

If Snoopy has pulmonary abscesses, it was once suggested to me that we could try viagra. Viagra was originally formulated for respiratory issues. Some people have seen success in rats with PA.

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The vet doesn't know what it is .... but Snoopy has always been very healthy, no resp. issues in the past. Would he get pulmonary abscesses without having a history of at least some resp. infections or myco flareups?
Any articles or dosing info ?

Just finger fed Snoopy his meds .... and then he was unable to take any food off my finger ... although a bit later he did take 2 organic pumpkin seeds

I'll ask my vet about the other meds, as \I said, Lasix seems to be the only thing that helps ..... the vet took him off the benazepril as he doubts it is a heart issue

oh poor fella

SQ said:

The vet doesn't know what it is .... but Snoopy has always been very healthy, no resp. issues in the past. Would he get pulmonary abscesses without having a history of at least some resp. infections or myco flareups?
Any articles or dosing info ?

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I'm waiting on a book I just ordered Exotic formulary by James Carpenter. It should be in there... I'll let you know when I get it.

Thanks Jorats


Update: a few hours after the meds were given, Snoopy was able to eat when hand fed

Poor Snoopy. Hang in there!

I just re-read this, sorry for my brief answer early. Here is Hawk's thread and X-ray - we have been treating him for what seems like forever and just cannot seem to clear this up. We figure he is going to be a lifer. We just added the zithro so currently he is on doxy, baytril, zithro, lasix, resp calm - I think that's it.
http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33731

jorats said:

If Snoopy has pulmonary abscesses, it was once suggested to me that we could try viagra. Viagra was originally formulated for respiratory issues. Some people have seen success in rats with PA.

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I have sent an email to my vet suggesting this for my chronic respiratory boys - he's going to think I'm crazy...

dspch911 said:

I have sent an email to my vet suggesting this for my chronic respiratory boys - he's going to think I'm crazy...

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I asked my vet about it, he looked into it and got back to me today, but he didn't seem to think it sounded worth trying in Snoopy's case

dspch911 said:

I just re-read this, sorry for my brief answer early. Here is Hawk's thread and X-ray - we have been treating him for what seems like forever and just cannot seem to clear this up. We figure he is going to be a lifer. We just added the zithro so currently he is on doxy, baytril, zithro, lasix, resp calm - I think that's it.
http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33731

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resp calm???

Re your earlier post, vet didn't want to add Theophylline because of it's interaction with zithro so going to try another bronchodilator ... but it is aerosol and will likely stress him

Snoopy is the same ..... he works very hard to breath .... one lung looks good, but large on xray,
the other lug looks collapsed or possibly full of something
His heart can not be seen or heard because of the lungs

Lasix seems to be the only thing that helps ..... and he is getting it 4xs/day right now (Snoopy is still on the 3 antibiotics in case they can help)
We have no idea what is wrong

SQ said:

resp calm???

Re your earlier post, vet didn't want to add Theophylline because of it's interaction with zithro so go to try another bronchodilator ... but it is aerosol and will likely stress him

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We have always found theophylline works well with baytril and doxy. Haven't noticed any interaction with the zithro. Doxy and Zithro are basically the same thing so there is no reason to give both - usually we don't when giving zithro. We're just at a loss with these boys too, so we didn't drop the doxy this time. Resp calm is a herbal.. Which reminded me that they also have a nebulizer, but they recently went to a class and found that the meds given in the nebulizer can irritate them so we mix half med/half water now.

SQ said:

Snoopy is the same ..... he works very hard to breath .... one lung looks good, but large on xray,
the other lug looks collapsed or possibly full of something
His heart can not be seen or heard because of the lungs

Lasix seems to be the only thing that helps ..... and he is getting it 4xs/day right now (Snoopy is still on the 3 antibiotics in case they can help)
We have no idea what is wrong

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Wow, that seems like a lot of lasix. If he is putting out that much fluid and not getting dehydrated I would think your looking at a CHF. Hope you find something that works.

It is a lot of Lasix, hard to schedule and terrifying that he is on that amount. Snoopy isn't dehydrated .... went to the vet for a recheck today ...
Vet doesn't think it is his heart because of what happened to his other lung ... and he doesn't think Snoopy's heart is enlarged ... but it could be another heart issue.

I have never found doxy to be effective but zithro is very effective when given with baytril and doxy works well when added to the other 2, when circumstances have required it

My vet doesn't normally use Theophylline and when he looked it up, it said that it enhances or reduces the effectiveness of zithro

Thanks ..... I will ask again about benazepril and atenolol .... tried the benazepril but it didn't seem to help

wow, how frustrating not to know what's wrong

I know when cats have certain kinds of cancer, they can get a lot of fluid build up- either in the lungs, outside them or in the abdomen, depending on where the cancer is...
also in humans, esp liver cancer, can cause a lot of fluid build up...
just thinking "out loud" here,
did you vet mention the possibility of a cancer somewhere that might be causing this?

oh, with heart issues, the heart does not become enlarged til later in the disease, and even then, that depends on what kind of heart issue they had. One of my "heart" rats had an irregular heart beat, one just had a super fast heart rate :/

so hard not knowing. grrr!

yes, not knowing if so very hard because I can't know what t do .... vet thinks a tumour may be a possibility, so would a resp infection ....

Any ideas on why 1 lung would collapse (if it has), and why the other looks ok but a bit large?
..... wondering if it is myco, as I read something about it causing a lung to collapse