Open mouth breathing

[chels02]

My rats have been on two medications for a upper respiratory infection for the past 10 days. Today is the first day off of the antibiotics & i notices one of my rats are breathing with his mouth slightly open. I've only had them for about a month & they are still young & getting used to me. My rat Puff is VERY timid & NEVER comes up to me unless i have a treat. Most of the time he's hiding or keeping his distance. Today i went to try to hand him a treat and he jumps onto my hand and starts sitting on my shoulder & just wanting to be in my hands in general. He seemed a bit weak or slower than usual. Does anyone know why this may be? He's been on antibiotics & i thought he'd be better by now. & i also don't understand the change in behavior.

 

[Dena]

10 days isn't going to be long enough for the antibiotics to fully get rid of the infection. Open mouth breathing is not good. Do you still have antibiotics on hand? If so, restart both of them on them and call your vet in the morning and ask for 4-6 weeks worth of meds. They may also need to be adjusted or changed. What did they give you, what are the doses, and did they work at all? Post a video on YouTube and copy and paste the link on here so we can see how your baby is acting.

 

[chels02]

I've been giving them both 0.1ml of Doxycycline and 0.3ml of Baytril every 12 hours for 10 days. I do have extra left so i'm going to continue to give them the medicine

 

[chels02]

He just died. Literally like 10 minutes after i posted that video. I'm going to continue to give the antibiotics to my other rat. and maybe look to bring him a new friend when he's well. thank you so much

 

[Dena]

I'm so so sorry! It's so sad to see them struggle and go like that. One thing I have learned, is for some reason, when mine have been close to death, they have become extra clingy and wanted to be held. My last one even somehow drug himself to the bars (he was almost completely paralyzed) and was chewing on them as loudly as possible. For some reason they just want to be in your arms, and be comforted, or are trying to let you know. At least your baby isn't suffering anymore. Your other one will need a friend asap, and since you'll want to quarantine the new one for a couple weeks, now may be a good time to look for one. Keep giving your other baby the meds, and ask your vet for more (some vets think it's unnecessary, but obviously there's a reason we treat for so long) and continue giving them for at least the 4 weeks. How old is your baby? Let her or him see his buddy's body, so they can mourn, and understand their cagemate died, and didn't disappear. Again, I'm so sorry!