Hi all,
I have posted a lot lately about my two baby girls having a surgery (spay) and one of them stopped eating. As my boyfriend and I are new to owning pets, let alone rats, we sometimes encounter situations we are not sure how to handle, which makes me not sure if I am overreacting or if I am doing the right thing. A bit of medical background information: when we got both of the girls, they very quickly both turned out to have a quite bad raspatory illness (one stopped eating and the other got a very bad head tilt and is hyper as well so the vet didn't see it as a raspatory illness at first). When they finally got diagnosed properly, the first girl (Tofu) got treated with two types of antibiotics and which cured her within 6-8 weeks. Ciske (the girl with the headtilt) was on antibiotics for about 10 weeks and we needed to have her eardrum punctured as the antibiotics were not curing the raspatory illness (and middle ear infection) completely. When this was completely dealt with, we were recommended to also have them spayed when they had had some rest. So 3 weeks after the antibiotic treatment they had their surgery. Now both are completely healed from their surgery, the stitches are gone and they are both active and eating well.
But both of them have started sneezing about 1 week after the surgery. I first thought it was because of the new hammocks (I made them myself and they are fleece inside and outside, with the fleece outside being quite fluffy), so I took these out of the cage but the sneezing continued. The vet has listened to their lungs 2 weeks after the surgery and 1 week after the sneezing started and concluded nothing was wrong and it might be just stress. The vet also suggested to try and boost their immune system with Echina Pure (a mixture for cats and dogs with lots of herbs) and bee pollen. I have been trying this since last Friday and the sneezing has been the same for the last 2.5 weeks. However, as the sneezing continues, I am a bit worried they might be heading towards another raspatory illness. They both sneeze quite consistently multiple times an hour (unless they are sleeping) and especially Tofu is sneezing and then cleaning her face as if she has a very itchy nose. I noticed Ciske today also had porphyrin on her nose. I was wondering, with your experience, should try and convince the vet to put them on antibiotics nonetheless? They have just gotten off of antibiotics (6 weeks ago) so I find it very difficult to say if another treatment like this will be very bad for them or not. And I find it very difficult to judge if this amount of sneezing is a bad sign or just a sign of stress due to the surgery.. I just do not want any illness to become so bad as last time, where they were stuck on antibiotics for around 8 weeks and they stopped eating.
Thank you so much.
Kind regards,
Nynke
I have posted a lot lately about my two baby girls having a surgery (spay) and one of them stopped eating. As my boyfriend and I are new to owning pets, let alone rats, we sometimes encounter situations we are not sure how to handle, which makes me not sure if I am overreacting or if I am doing the right thing. A bit of medical background information: when we got both of the girls, they very quickly both turned out to have a quite bad raspatory illness (one stopped eating and the other got a very bad head tilt and is hyper as well so the vet didn't see it as a raspatory illness at first). When they finally got diagnosed properly, the first girl (Tofu) got treated with two types of antibiotics and which cured her within 6-8 weeks. Ciske (the girl with the headtilt) was on antibiotics for about 10 weeks and we needed to have her eardrum punctured as the antibiotics were not curing the raspatory illness (and middle ear infection) completely. When this was completely dealt with, we were recommended to also have them spayed when they had had some rest. So 3 weeks after the antibiotic treatment they had their surgery. Now both are completely healed from their surgery, the stitches are gone and they are both active and eating well.
But both of them have started sneezing about 1 week after the surgery. I first thought it was because of the new hammocks (I made them myself and they are fleece inside and outside, with the fleece outside being quite fluffy), so I took these out of the cage but the sneezing continued. The vet has listened to their lungs 2 weeks after the surgery and 1 week after the sneezing started and concluded nothing was wrong and it might be just stress. The vet also suggested to try and boost their immune system with Echina Pure (a mixture for cats and dogs with lots of herbs) and bee pollen. I have been trying this since last Friday and the sneezing has been the same for the last 2.5 weeks. However, as the sneezing continues, I am a bit worried they might be heading towards another raspatory illness. They both sneeze quite consistently multiple times an hour (unless they are sleeping) and especially Tofu is sneezing and then cleaning her face as if she has a very itchy nose. I noticed Ciske today also had porphyrin on her nose. I was wondering, with your experience, should try and convince the vet to put them on antibiotics nonetheless? They have just gotten off of antibiotics (6 weeks ago) so I find it very difficult to say if another treatment like this will be very bad for them or not. And I find it very difficult to judge if this amount of sneezing is a bad sign or just a sign of stress due to the surgery.. I just do not want any illness to become so bad as last time, where they were stuck on antibiotics for around 8 weeks and they stopped eating.
Thank you so much.
Kind regards,
Nynke
