Hi everyone, I'm new here and just signed up for some advice on my wee pal squishy. Hes a brown rat, over two years old now. We bought him as a dumbo but hes definitely not, kind just looks like a wild rat to be honest.
last year he developed a kind of oinking sound, in our ignorance we took it as a quirk (cos he is a little pig) however It soon became worse and we realised it was some kind of illness. we took him to our vet and he was prescribed Baytril @ 0.1ml twice daily.
This worked a treat and cleared up his grunting within a couple of days. Squishy carried on as normal stealing our food and trying to drink my tea when I wasn't watching.
About a month ago it started again so off to the vet we went.. this time she prescribed septrin (why she didn't just give me more Baytril I don't know) @ .15ml twice daily, this had no discernible affect and he quickly deteriorated. the vet put him on another course of septrin and again I did nothing for him.. by this point he was in a really bad way his breathing was laboured and he was very lethargic all the time. The vet tried tylan @ .15 ml once per day again to no affect, we ran this for five days before I lost my patience...
squishy was on deaths door, he was struggling to breath constantly, he was hunched over, his hair standing on end. he stopped eating and became very thin his body bony where before he was always quite chubby... To be honest it was heart breaking, even now ive got a lump in my throat, we cried and made the decision to let him go. I sat up with him that night unable to sleep, we sat together on the couch, I cursed myself for letting it get to this and letting him suffer so. In the early hours I began reading.. searching for hope, checking symptoms and treatments, it became apparent it was mycoplasmosis & pneumonia that had taken him. After reading so many stories of rats that had recovered with the rights meds I was shocked that we had given up on him... What got me the most is that the treatments he had been receiving were basically a stab in the dark from a vet that didn't know any better. I was furious, a symptom of grief I know but furious none the less.. at myself for not doing the research sooner and at my vet for not doing her reading either..
I took him to a different clinic the following day where I discussed (argued) with the vet over what the problem was and the medication he should be on. Eventually i came away with both Doxycycline, Baytril and a Mucolytic (bisolvon) The Doxycycline was supposed to be mixed with his drinking water.. ridiculous I know, so I done the math mixed up a suspension and administer it along with the other meds mixed with baby foo, two to three hours after this he gets a probiotic to help his tummy.
It has now been six days on this new course of meds, squishy has shown good signs of improvement, he is eating again, not so much solids but I feed him regularly with baby food, he doesn't seem to suffer from the racking fits of breathing that he had previously. His breathing is still noisy but doesn't sound as deep and dangerous as it had before.. Its difficult to explain but if you've been through this you'll understand what I mean. He still sleeps a lot but has a zest about him that he'd lost a week ago, particularly when food is involved. What I'm starting to worry about however is that his recovery seems to have stalled at just that.. hes eating better and doesn't seem distressed.
What I'm Basically asking is how long should I continue this line of treatment?
should it be taking longer that a week to bring him back to normal?
should I try something else? or is there something I should add to his treatment regime?
thanks in advance for and help and advice x
craig
last year he developed a kind of oinking sound, in our ignorance we took it as a quirk (cos he is a little pig) however It soon became worse and we realised it was some kind of illness. we took him to our vet and he was prescribed Baytril @ 0.1ml twice daily.
This worked a treat and cleared up his grunting within a couple of days. Squishy carried on as normal stealing our food and trying to drink my tea when I wasn't watching.
About a month ago it started again so off to the vet we went.. this time she prescribed septrin (why she didn't just give me more Baytril I don't know) @ .15ml twice daily, this had no discernible affect and he quickly deteriorated. the vet put him on another course of septrin and again I did nothing for him.. by this point he was in a really bad way his breathing was laboured and he was very lethargic all the time. The vet tried tylan @ .15 ml once per day again to no affect, we ran this for five days before I lost my patience...
squishy was on deaths door, he was struggling to breath constantly, he was hunched over, his hair standing on end. he stopped eating and became very thin his body bony where before he was always quite chubby... To be honest it was heart breaking, even now ive got a lump in my throat, we cried and made the decision to let him go. I sat up with him that night unable to sleep, we sat together on the couch, I cursed myself for letting it get to this and letting him suffer so. In the early hours I began reading.. searching for hope, checking symptoms and treatments, it became apparent it was mycoplasmosis & pneumonia that had taken him. After reading so many stories of rats that had recovered with the rights meds I was shocked that we had given up on him... What got me the most is that the treatments he had been receiving were basically a stab in the dark from a vet that didn't know any better. I was furious, a symptom of grief I know but furious none the less.. at myself for not doing the research sooner and at my vet for not doing her reading either..
I took him to a different clinic the following day where I discussed (argued) with the vet over what the problem was and the medication he should be on. Eventually i came away with both Doxycycline, Baytril and a Mucolytic (bisolvon) The Doxycycline was supposed to be mixed with his drinking water.. ridiculous I know, so I done the math mixed up a suspension and administer it along with the other meds mixed with baby foo, two to three hours after this he gets a probiotic to help his tummy.
It has now been six days on this new course of meds, squishy has shown good signs of improvement, he is eating again, not so much solids but I feed him regularly with baby food, he doesn't seem to suffer from the racking fits of breathing that he had previously. His breathing is still noisy but doesn't sound as deep and dangerous as it had before.. Its difficult to explain but if you've been through this you'll understand what I mean. He still sleeps a lot but has a zest about him that he'd lost a week ago, particularly when food is involved. What I'm starting to worry about however is that his recovery seems to have stalled at just that.. hes eating better and doesn't seem distressed.
What I'm Basically asking is how long should I continue this line of treatment?
should it be taking longer that a week to bring him back to normal?
should I try something else? or is there something I should add to his treatment regime?
thanks in advance for and help and advice x
craig
