Can surgery cause pneumonia to flare up?

[fallblossom]

My 2 year old rat had a second tumor removal surgery yesterday. The first was done at the end of March, however, the tumor grew back extremely fast and was getting close to his penis which made me think if it continues to grow it would affect urination.

My rat has lost weight in the past couple of months and has had little myco flare ups and was treated with doxy. During our consult I asked the vet to listen to his lungs to ensure they can take the isoflurane for the surgery.

After surgery we brought our rat home he was wheezing. At 2 am he was mouth breathing and breathing loudly. At this time I dosed him a second time with a combination of antibiotics.

At the moment his mouth breathing has settled but I am sure it is going to come back. I wonder if putting him through surgery brought on pneumonia by triggering it? Can this happen?

If my rat does have pneumonia he will sadly have to be pts when he starts mouth breathing again because I will not allow any pet of mine to suffer this way.

 

[lilspaz68]

My 2 year old rat had a second tumor removal surgery yesterday. The first was done at the end of March, however, the tumor grew back extremely fast and was getting close to his penis which made me think if it continues to grow it would affect urination.

My rat has lost weight in the past couple of months and has had little myco flare ups and was treated with doxy. During our consult I asked the vet to listen to his lungs to ensure they can take the isoflurane for the surgery.

After surgery we brought our rat home he was wheezing. At 2 am he was mouth breathing and breathing loudly. At this time I dosed him a second time with a combination of antibiotics.

At the moment his mouth breathing has settled but I am sure it is going to come back. I wonder if putting him through surgery brought on pneumonia by triggering it? Can this happen?

If my rat does have pneumonia he will sadly have to be pts when he starts mouth breathing again because I will not allow any pet of mine to suffer this way.

he might have a URI flareup post-op but it also may have been the stress. how do his lungs sound normally? I have had rats whose noses have been stuffy and they panicked because they couldn't breathe through their nose and had to breathe through their mouth.

 

[Carol Weekes]

I'd give him a chance to respond to the meds. As Lil'Spaz has said, stress can aggravate a condition. You may also have to consider other meds besides antibiotics and discuss this with your vet - possibly a steroid for any inflammation, or a diruetic like lasix to remove any build up of fluid. There are also medicines (bronchodilators) that can help open airways, like amniophylline and theophylline, to discuss with your vet. These will help, but can take up to a few days to a week to really start working. I hope the little guy feels better soon.

 

[SQ]

As others said, likely a myco flareup from the stress

There are various combos of antibiotics you can try,
such as: baytril + azithromycin (10 mg/Ib) orally, twice a day for at least 6 weeks
or baytril + azithromycin (10 mg/Ib) + doxy, orally, twice a day for at least 6 weeks

there are also other meds that your vet might ad as well

Hope he is soon doing much better