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Katie1022
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**Update:
George is eating a bit. As some of you suggested the breathing struggle might be what’s the issue. But yesterday he ate some rice, asparagus, cottage cheese, and today he ate more cottage cheese, a piece of Samoa, eggs, and even some paper weirdly. He seems alert, is more snuggly than usual. However yesterday he had a lung issue, was hyper-ventilating and his breathing got worse (maybe more lung collapse). There’s definitely use of accessory muscles and he’s raising his head a bit. He still chirps, bruxes, and snuggles so it’s hard for me to know how much discomfort he is in. I can’t upload a video apparently, I keep getting the message “file too large” even it’s only 2 seconds, so I just uploaded a photo of him currently cuddling with my dad. I’m really not sure what to think about his condition. I’m continuing steroid nebulizer treatments but that’s it.
My rat/baby, George, recently had pneumonia. He is 2.5 years and has been an exceptionally healthy rat—he only ever needed antibiotics once and he responded and all was good (this was 9 months ago). But this new sickness started a month ago, and I took him to the vet quickly and gave him two weeks of doxy and baytril, but those didn’t help, so I went back to vet and got Gentamax and dexamethasone (a steroid) to nebulize in, as well as aminophylline (bronchiodialator). George is very bad about taking oral meds (I’ve tried peanut butter, chocolate spread, the works—eventually he just can sniff it out). I was having a hard time getting the aminophylline in and he was still getting worse so I force-gave it one night, and he started gasping for air like I’ve never seen any animal do—I thought he was going to die right then (I almost passed out because thought I had killed him) but then a few minutes passed and he wasn’t even turning blue. My mom was calming him down as I called to see which animal hospital took rats, and when I got off the phone he seemed better. He eventually crawled into my arms and chirped so I knew he’d make it until the morning. I brought him to the vet once again the next day, where he said to keep nebulizing before we changed antibiotics. A few days later he wasn’t better so I asked for Clavamox (which I read is more effective for secondary infections). However that same day he actually turned a corner—no more respiratory sounds, so I held off on the Clavamox. What confused me was that although his lungs seemed improved, he had zero appetite. I couldn’t get him to eat anything other than a piece of brocoli now and then, forget about meds. So a few days later I brought him back to the vet, and he did an x-ray, and it turned out one of his lungs was partially collapsed, and that he still has fluid in his lungs. In retrospect I think the lung collapse happened the night I forced the meds in, I think that’s what his gasping was. He said he didn’t know why he wasn’t eating though, so he gave me an oral appetite stimulant and injectible Baytril. I was also continuing the nebulized treatments of Gentamax and dexamethasone. The appetite stimulant works somewhat when I can get it in him but it’s almost impossible—he’s not eating much and I’m afraid if I force it in I’ll cause another/further lung collapse. Yesterday I finished the week course of injectible Baytril and several weeks of nebulizer treatments. It seems like his breathing is pretty good but he is wasting a way—he went from being a little chubster to a skeleton. Today I discovered that he had a massive penis plug—which explained the worsening smell over the past few days (I regret not noticing/addressing this sooner but we were putting my 16 year old dog to sleep at the same time, I was distracted). I had no idea that penis plugs were a thing until I googled “why does my rat smell terrible” (I feel like my vet could have warned me about this considering George is old and sick). I read about how to remove it and successfully massaged out two surprisingly large masses (and I’ll be continuously checking for more of those.) Now I’m wondering, is THIS the reason he was not eating?! He must have been in so much pain! But he still didn’t eat more than a blueberry the rest of the day. WHAT AM I TO DO?? Why isn’t he eating? He used to LOVE food, and I’ve been offering him a wide variety of his favorite delicious meals. He seems to be in good health other than this, and I had two other rats who I had to euthanize due to mycoplasma, but even they were eating through their last day. And George is my heart rat, my whole family loves him like a dog. Please give me any ideas or suggestions because my vet is stumped.
George is eating a bit. As some of you suggested the breathing struggle might be what’s the issue. But yesterday he ate some rice, asparagus, cottage cheese, and today he ate more cottage cheese, a piece of Samoa, eggs, and even some paper weirdly. He seems alert, is more snuggly than usual. However yesterday he had a lung issue, was hyper-ventilating and his breathing got worse (maybe more lung collapse). There’s definitely use of accessory muscles and he’s raising his head a bit. He still chirps, bruxes, and snuggles so it’s hard for me to know how much discomfort he is in. I can’t upload a video apparently, I keep getting the message “file too large” even it’s only 2 seconds, so I just uploaded a photo of him currently cuddling with my dad. I’m really not sure what to think about his condition. I’m continuing steroid nebulizer treatments but that’s it.
My rat/baby, George, recently had pneumonia. He is 2.5 years and has been an exceptionally healthy rat—he only ever needed antibiotics once and he responded and all was good (this was 9 months ago). But this new sickness started a month ago, and I took him to the vet quickly and gave him two weeks of doxy and baytril, but those didn’t help, so I went back to vet and got Gentamax and dexamethasone (a steroid) to nebulize in, as well as aminophylline (bronchiodialator). George is very bad about taking oral meds (I’ve tried peanut butter, chocolate spread, the works—eventually he just can sniff it out). I was having a hard time getting the aminophylline in and he was still getting worse so I force-gave it one night, and he started gasping for air like I’ve never seen any animal do—I thought he was going to die right then (I almost passed out because thought I had killed him) but then a few minutes passed and he wasn’t even turning blue. My mom was calming him down as I called to see which animal hospital took rats, and when I got off the phone he seemed better. He eventually crawled into my arms and chirped so I knew he’d make it until the morning. I brought him to the vet once again the next day, where he said to keep nebulizing before we changed antibiotics. A few days later he wasn’t better so I asked for Clavamox (which I read is more effective for secondary infections). However that same day he actually turned a corner—no more respiratory sounds, so I held off on the Clavamox. What confused me was that although his lungs seemed improved, he had zero appetite. I couldn’t get him to eat anything other than a piece of brocoli now and then, forget about meds. So a few days later I brought him back to the vet, and he did an x-ray, and it turned out one of his lungs was partially collapsed, and that he still has fluid in his lungs. In retrospect I think the lung collapse happened the night I forced the meds in, I think that’s what his gasping was. He said he didn’t know why he wasn’t eating though, so he gave me an oral appetite stimulant and injectible Baytril. I was also continuing the nebulized treatments of Gentamax and dexamethasone. The appetite stimulant works somewhat when I can get it in him but it’s almost impossible—he’s not eating much and I’m afraid if I force it in I’ll cause another/further lung collapse. Yesterday I finished the week course of injectible Baytril and several weeks of nebulizer treatments. It seems like his breathing is pretty good but he is wasting a way—he went from being a little chubster to a skeleton. Today I discovered that he had a massive penis plug—which explained the worsening smell over the past few days (I regret not noticing/addressing this sooner but we were putting my 16 year old dog to sleep at the same time, I was distracted). I had no idea that penis plugs were a thing until I googled “why does my rat smell terrible” (I feel like my vet could have warned me about this considering George is old and sick). I read about how to remove it and successfully massaged out two surprisingly large masses (and I’ll be continuously checking for more of those.) Now I’m wondering, is THIS the reason he was not eating?! He must have been in so much pain! But he still didn’t eat more than a blueberry the rest of the day. WHAT AM I TO DO?? Why isn’t he eating? He used to LOVE food, and I’ve been offering him a wide variety of his favorite delicious meals. He seems to be in good health other than this, and I had two other rats who I had to euthanize due to mycoplasma, but even they were eating through their last day. And George is my heart rat, my whole family loves him like a dog. Please give me any ideas or suggestions because my vet is stumped.
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