One of my two year old girls has been fighting a respiratory infection for quite a while now. The vet I originally took her to didn’t know as much about rats as I thought she did, leading to my rat getting pneumonia and she now has scarring on one of her lungs. I took her to a new vet who prescribed her enrofloxacin and azithromycin and did medicated nebulizer treatments and she improved a lot.
Two weeks ago the vet also prescribed her prednisolone for the inflammation in her lung due to scarring. This seemed to help and she was breathing easier until a few days ago. She stopped eating the rat blocks and stopped drinking out of the water bottle. She’s so weak she can’t pick up food with her paws and I have to hold the food for her to eat. She’s been working so hard to breathe.
She had a vet appointment yesterday and the vet diagnosed her with tachycardia and heart failure. Her heart rate was well over 500. She said she’d do research to find a medication to try to help her heart but basically that she’s going to die within a few days. The vet didn’t take her off the steroid even though she said that’s what is making her heart worse because she was scared that taking her off would make her breathing worse. I still haven’t gotten the heart medication.
I’m second guessing what the vet said. It felt like she was just giving up and that there was nothing else to do but let her die and I can’t accept that without at least trying. But I don’t know what to do. I can’t get her to another vet soon enough. I’m worried that if I try to take her off the steroid I’ll do it wrong or she’ll get worse and not be able to breathe. I also don’t know if steroids cause permanent damage to the heart. But she’s gotten so weak and her heart rate has went up so much since she started it that it doesn’t feel worth it. Before the steroid she wasn’t doing amazing, but she was still doing pretty good. I just don’t want to let her go if there’s something I can do to improve her life. I don’t want to just sit here and watch her die. If anyone has any advice at all I’d greatly appreciate it.
Two weeks ago the vet also prescribed her prednisolone for the inflammation in her lung due to scarring. This seemed to help and she was breathing easier until a few days ago. She stopped eating the rat blocks and stopped drinking out of the water bottle. She’s so weak she can’t pick up food with her paws and I have to hold the food for her to eat. She’s been working so hard to breathe.
She had a vet appointment yesterday and the vet diagnosed her with tachycardia and heart failure. Her heart rate was well over 500. She said she’d do research to find a medication to try to help her heart but basically that she’s going to die within a few days. The vet didn’t take her off the steroid even though she said that’s what is making her heart worse because she was scared that taking her off would make her breathing worse. I still haven’t gotten the heart medication.
I’m second guessing what the vet said. It felt like she was just giving up and that there was nothing else to do but let her die and I can’t accept that without at least trying. But I don’t know what to do. I can’t get her to another vet soon enough. I’m worried that if I try to take her off the steroid I’ll do it wrong or she’ll get worse and not be able to breathe. I also don’t know if steroids cause permanent damage to the heart. But she’s gotten so weak and her heart rate has went up so much since she started it that it doesn’t feel worth it. Before the steroid she wasn’t doing amazing, but she was still doing pretty good. I just don’t want to let her go if there’s something I can do to improve her life. I don’t want to just sit here and watch her die. If anyone has any advice at all I’d greatly appreciate it.