Can rats have allergies?

[MissKitty]

Our first little girl was from a petco - my father purchased her for my brother. She started sneezing as soon as we got her, at first I thought it was just stress from the new home. But it seemed persistant and I worried. Fortunately they had a very polite policy on newly purchased animals. I was able to take her back to the store and have her treated by a vet there - they held her for about two weeks while she was on antibiotics. No resp infection.

Since I've had her she's always seemed to sneeze. Before we adopted our other two ladies I took her to the vet just to be safe. She didn't have a resp infection but she was put on 21 days of Baytril, .1mg twice a day if I remember correctly, her only symptom being sneezing. I went way out of my way to go to a well recommended vet that treats a lot of rodents in the area. Anyway, she's been done with the Baytril a couple weeks now, but still seems kind of sneezy, not constant but at least a couple times every day. She's never porphy, and I try to listen to her breathe in my ear every day, and listen to her chest; nothing sounds different. My other two girls seem unaffected.

Its not that I don't want to take her to the vet, but its a long drive and I think a bit stressful for her. I also don't want her just on antibiotics she doesn't need to be on. If she genuinely has allergies, but becomes sick at a later date I know that can affect how successful an appropriate course of antibiotics might prove to be. I just worry and I want to do the best thing.

 

[handmeafish]

yes they can. My Ronny was always sneezing, and once I switched from carefresh/paper bedding to fleece it mostly cleared up.
I gave him .1 ml of children's benadryl when he would start heavy sneezing. If I saw improvement with in about 45 minutes I wouldn't take him to the vet, if I didn't I'd call and get him in.
He also had issues with scented laundry soap or softener. Those were the only things I knew for sure

 

[jorats]

My mom had a rat, Sven, he definitely had allergies, all his life he sneeze. My mom did use an allergy elixir on him, sometimes it would work and other times it didn't but it never slowed him down or shorten his lifespan.

 

[Fidget]

My Sunny is noisy at times, then she sounds jut fine. I tried 2 weeks of doxy on her, didnt make a difference. Maybe it's allergies? Maybe both our problem is in the carpet that definitely needs ditching.
I've been on 2 different runs of antibiotics since November, still fighting breathng problems, but worst of all, still not knowing how much is my own physiological, and how much is my allergy to my kids.