Should I treat her or not?

[Emily]

I have a rat (named Possum) who is nearly 5 years old. (Yes, I'm sure on her age.) She is very old and keeps getting respiratory infections. She wheezes and sneezes and sounds like she's got a smokers cough. Her eyes and nose leak that gross red fluid, which I wipe off gently with a warm wet cloth. I've given her medicine before but it didn't work. Multiple medicines for several weeks on and off for about a year and the infection wont go away.

Thing is, she may look and sound terrible, she acts fine. Eats, drinks, sleeps, plays, etc. When she's on any medication she acts very sick. She refuses to eat and drink and sleeps all day. It seems like she's very sensitive to medicines. Should I continue treating her? Let her live as she wishes? Put her down?

I'm inclined to leave her as she is because the medicine makes her so ill and she seems to not be in pain or anything. Even looking and sounding so sick. Could it just be old age?

I change her bedding every day because she's housed with three other rats. The other three have never caught whatever she has (though I did quarantine at first but the vet said after a while of medicine to reintroduce her).

 

[Leighalla]

I have to say you are one amazing rat parent to have a five year old rat, she must be a little warrior, I would just be letting her enjoy her twighlight years doing what she pleases you mentioned that the medication you gave her makes her seem unwell, what sort of medication are you giving her?

 

[SQ]

How does she react to baytril?
Many people who have rats with chronic resp. infections put their rats on a permanent daily dose of baytril.

What combinations of antibiotics has she been on, and for how long?
(if meds are helping rats need to be on them for 4 to 6 weeks, if they do not help then other meds or another combo needs to be tried)
Is it possible that she has a heart condition (and needs heart meds)?
Does she have pulmonary abscesses ie scaring in her lungs?
Is it possible that dry air makes it worse?
If it is upper respiratory and does not involve her lings, has the vet tried children's benadryal?

Please see ratguide.com and the Reference thread for info https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

 

[Emily]

She has taken:
Baytril
Doxycycline
Tetracycline
Chloramphenicol

All made her super ill to the point I had to syringe feed her. I took her off them when she got sick. They didn't make her sound any better. Since it hasn't spread to the other rats and they've been house together for a while I'm thinking it might not be a respiratory infection. One rat she was housed with did die, but she died of old age at 3.5 years. Not sure what's going on or what to do now. Up her humidity?

 

[Alexyss]

My rats are only 1 and a half years old however they both came to me with respiratory infections. I found something called Vet RX on Jeffers Pet Website. It is an all natural oil mixture. You simply warm up the solution a little and then put one drop on each side of nose. It helps to clear up colds, respiratory infections, and the like. It was under $15 and well worth it.

 

[lilspaz68]

It's possible she was sick when you thought the antibiotics were making her feel ill. Signs of issues with antibiotics would be more things like diarrhea. When giving antibiotics it's a good idea to give a probiotic 2 hours outside of any antibiotics.
At this stage she may have lung scarring from the repeated infections and possibly a low dose of steroids (with antibiotics) would make her feel better and open up her lungs a bit more.

 

[Emily]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try both (separately) and see how it goes. I'll keep y'all posted.

 

[SQ]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try both (separately) and see how it goes. I'll keep y'all posted.

Both?
A steroid must be given with an antibiotic because it lowers the immune system

Vet Rx is off label according to that site, and it may ease breathing, but it will not heal respiratory infections - for that antibiotics are needed. Other products that might be similar, are sometimes used to ease breathing.

Hopefully the meds that Lilspaz68 suggested will help. Lilspaz68 has years of experience and although she has no medical training is a medical contributor on at least one site because o=f her extensive experience

However, if she is ill then she will need to be treated with appropriate meds

Here are some links that may be helpful
http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/mycoplasma_mycoplasmosis.php
http://ratguide.com/health/lower_respiratory/pneumonia.php