twitch
Well-Known Member
i just looked in the cage and found guild gasping for breath. his whole body moving in the effort to breathe. when i hold him to my ear his lungs sound bad, there is a definite crackle with each labored breath. there is diarrhea, and there was a huge penis plug. he was fine and active and perfectly normal at supper time. there's no drool or poryphrin. his eyes are squinty. i noticed no problems with him for the entire time i've had him. no fast breathing, kept himself nice and clean. i don't know what happened. its so sudden. i have two theories, one, he's been sick but hid it too damn well as rats sometimes do or two, the penis plug inhibited his ability to pee and things got backed up or something like that. the emergency vets know nothing about rats. i'm putting him on rose's dose of amoxil now. he will see a vet with rat knowledge tomorrow if i have to drive all the way to sussex to get to her. would a steam room help now or would it make it worse? he has good color on the limbs and the tail and ears are of normal temperature to the feel. all toes are nice and pink. but he's also just sitting beside me as i write this, he doesn't do that. he's normally the first off the couch and onto the floor. he looks sick and he is feeling sick. tongue is pink, i can't get a good look at the gums. he doesn't seem to be in acute resp distress in that way at least but he is certainly in distress.
my vet, though the best in the city is still not up to par with some others that i have read about on here. she's the best we have though and have to work with her on it. she listens to me. i can get her to look things up but i need to be able to direct her in the right places. obviously we treat for resp issues as normal but if there is something more that needs attention from the penis plug? curse it being 1 in bleeding morning! most of you guys won't even be one right now.... urgh...
i've dealt with resp issues. i've dealt with a lot of resp issues. i've even succeeded in a few of them. but its never hit this hard this fast. there was absolutely no other signs. he was fine and then this. like i said, his breathing didn't even look fast eariler today. not one sign of this until just now.
my vet, though the best in the city is still not up to par with some others that i have read about on here. she's the best we have though and have to work with her on it. she listens to me. i can get her to look things up but i need to be able to direct her in the right places. obviously we treat for resp issues as normal but if there is something more that needs attention from the penis plug? curse it being 1 in bleeding morning! most of you guys won't even be one right now.... urgh...
i've dealt with resp issues. i've dealt with a lot of resp issues. i've even succeeded in a few of them. but its never hit this hard this fast. there was absolutely no other signs. he was fine and then this. like i said, his breathing didn't even look fast eariler today. not one sign of this until just now.