Due to the quarantine of schools my teacher need to turn to someone who loved that class pets. I was one of them I brought home two rats Athena and Banena. After a week of silence I noticed Banena had been breathing harder and sneezing and other things were different she was a little less active but she was still eating and drinking. I did lots of research and stayed up late reading over pages and pages of websites to see if I can exactly pinpoint what was wrong with her. Eventually I was convinced she had an upper respiratory infection so I called a few vets I had known and talked my cats and dogs to and one did not care for rats but the second one did so I scheduled a appointment and brought Banena in the vets were leaning to upper respiratory infection too so we put her on an antibiotic (not sure what it was called). I fed it to her every morning and night for a week and she was doing much better. But a week and a half later she was sneezing and breathing heavily again but not as bad the vets recommend put her in the bathroom with a humidifier as I remembered more of what they recommend. That has been working but it is getting worse I feel. Today was different I have been noticing she is getting skinny and she was still eating but today she has not ate at all. Today I brought her outside she like to be in the warm sun and after 15 minutes I brought her back inside and did my usual grab a treat and give it to her but she did not take it. I held it out in front of her but she did not take it. After a while I tried again but still no and I have seen her laying around her head over the edge of one of her ledges.
Things I have taken into consideration
-she is not eating
-drinking very little
-heavy breathing
-sneezing
-red spots from sneezing in her nest
-cold feet and tail( I wonder if it’s just the temperature in my room it is colder but even Athena has cold feet but very healthy)
-skinny
-it was always loud in class so I did not know exactly when symptoms started
-It has been a little over a month since I brought her to the vet
-has white inside her eye idk if she is going blind in one eye
- idk her age but I am pretty sure she is full sized and maybe over a year old
-using the humidifier every day
-going to run the space heater every night before I go to bed to see if my room will warm up (my mom recommended that)
- I live no where near a rodent or exotic pet vet (Closest one is in Colorado Springs, Colorado I think that is what the vet I took her to told me I forgot the name of it planning to call them tomorrow BTW I live in Pueblo)
Is there anything I can do or need to do I feel I can do more but I don’t know if I can
-also she is very Skittish when away or out of the cage she pees and poops every where so when I take her out I use a old t-shirt so I don’t get peed on or pooped on idk i you need to know that but I am including everything I know about her
Sorry for the long message and bad grammar I just know more people have had experience with stuff like this than I have.
Things I have taken into consideration
-she is not eating
-drinking very little
-heavy breathing
-sneezing
-red spots from sneezing in her nest
-cold feet and tail( I wonder if it’s just the temperature in my room it is colder but even Athena has cold feet but very healthy)
-skinny
-it was always loud in class so I did not know exactly when symptoms started
-It has been a little over a month since I brought her to the vet
-has white inside her eye idk if she is going blind in one eye
- idk her age but I am pretty sure she is full sized and maybe over a year old
-using the humidifier every day
-going to run the space heater every night before I go to bed to see if my room will warm up (my mom recommended that)
- I live no where near a rodent or exotic pet vet (Closest one is in Colorado Springs, Colorado I think that is what the vet I took her to told me I forgot the name of it planning to call them tomorrow BTW I live in Pueblo)
Is there anything I can do or need to do I feel I can do more but I don’t know if I can
-also she is very Skittish when away or out of the cage she pees and poops every where so when I take her out I use a old t-shirt so I don’t get peed on or pooped on idk i you need to know that but I am including everything I know about her
Sorry for the long message and bad grammar I just know more people have had experience with stuff like this than I have.
I think you did really well taking care of them, sometimes health issues with rats are just inevitable. For future reference, the vet you went to initially should be able to fill a prescription without needing a 2nd visit. So if this happens with your other girl, just know that you shouldn't have to take her twice. I would've called and demanded baytril and doxy.
