Respiratory Infection and Ratty bucket list

Shop with us on Ebay
Fins us on Amazon
Advertise with us
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C

Christopia

Guest
So for those who saw my other post I ended up having to put down my rat Milk a few weeks ago. The vet thought he had pneumonia. Just yesterday I was checking on my boys and I was preparing to take one of them to the vet for a slight respiratory infection and he is fine now and on doxy. When I got home suddenly my oldest boy, Egg, (he is 7 months approx) suddenly is looking like Milk did. He is squinting with labored breathing (not at all as bad as Milk was though) and he has mucus on his nose and around his eyes. Usually he greets me right away but all he wanted to do was sit in his hammock. I took him out and seperated him from the other boys and I made him a little set up on my bed with access to food and water so he got to snuggle me in bed last night (I've done this with him before hes a very well behaved boy) With what happened to Milk I am not very hopeful of him recovering and I am going to call the vet today and see what they think. I don't have money to take him in since I just took him in but I'm seeing if my boss will give me my check early because I will use all of it on him if I have to. But in case nothing works out very well I want to make him a bucket list since he is my heart rat. What do you all think I should put on there? I have a few things but I want to make his last moments if these are his last moments as enjoyable as possible.
 
Rats do recover if they get proper treatment quickly enough. - sometimes this is impossible because they get too ill too fast
He needs to go to the vet and be put on meds today!
Try to make payment arrangements with the vet or borrow money, or sell things etc

Separating him will do nothing as all of your rats have been exposed.
Personally I would look into putting them all on an antibiotics such as baytril or clavamox because it sounds like you may have an infection going through your colony such as SDA http://ratguide.com/health/viruses/sda.php

Here is some info for you and your vet (there is also more info on ratguide.com) regarding Pneumonia in rats and how to treat it. There is also info on other types of breathing problems and info on medications and the correct dosages for rats at ratguide.com
http://ratguide.com/health/lower_respiratory/pneumonia.php

Instead of a bucket list, please get him the medical care he needs

as for a bucket list, I believe that doing your best to give your pets a good quality life with delicious healthy food, toys, free range time with you in a safe play area etc is the best thing people can do
good luck
 
Last edited:
I never thought about doing a bucket list but what a great idea! I have a sick boy too but I fear his days are few. Would love to take him to the park so he could walk in the grass, see new things, smell new smells. Take him on a car ride. To the beach. Get some nontoxic paint and let him walk around on a canvas. Make a mold of his hands and feet before he passes. Let him eat all the sweets he wants. I so wish there was a way I could let him and his sister have some time together. He loves her so much but can't chance possibility of the obvious. Would love to know what things you would do. Im sorry you lost your Milk and Egg is sick but sounds like he's going to have some very special days.
 
Starsirol said:
I never thought about doing a bucket list but what a great idea! I have a sick boy too but I fear his days are few. Would love to take him to the park so he could walk in the grass, see new things, smell new smells. Take him on a car ride. To the beach. Get some nontoxic paint and let him walk around on a canvas. Make a mold of his hands and feet before he passes. Let him eat all the sweets he wants. I so wish there was a way I could let him and his sister have some time together. He loves her so much but can't chance possibility of the obvious. Would love to know what things you would do. Im sorry you lost your Milk and Egg is sick but sounds like he's going to have some very special days.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately your bucket list contains things that will:
1. frighten or terrify rats, stressing them out and thus cause illness
2. endanger their lives and put them at risk from predators and a horrible, painful, terrifying death

Try doing things each day that will give your rats a good quality of life …. that is what they will enjoy.
Some people do make prints of their rat's paw prints so you might want to look into it. It probably will not bother him, but he will not enjoy it ........ it will give you a keepsake.

Rats enjoy healthy foods such as vegs, frozen/thawed peas, cooked squash, cooked sweet potato, cooked whole grains such as real oatmeal and quinoa, and organic pumpkin seeds.
Sweets etc will feed cancer and shorten his life.
He will enjoy healthy foods just as much plus healthy foods will help him and his immune system.
So I hope you will save the sweets for yourself and if you want to give him foods he will enjoy, feed him good healthy food that he will enjoy - different rats prefer different things.

Please see the links on taking rats outdoors in the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/
 
Last edited:
SQ said:
Rats do recover if they get proper treatment quickly enough. - sometimes this is impossible because they get too ill too fast
He needs to go to the vet and be put on meds today!
Try to make payment arrangements with the vet or borrow money, or sell things etc

Separating him will do nothing as all of your rats have been exposed.
Personally I would look into putting them all on an antibiotics such as baytril or clavamox because it sounds like you may have an infection going through your colony such as SDA http://ratguide.com/health/viruses/sda.php

Here is some info for you and your vet (there is also more info on ratguide.com) regarding Pneumonia in rats and how to treat it. There is also info on other types of breathing problems and info on medications and the correct dosages for rats at ratguide.com
http://ratguide.com/health/lower_respiratory/pneumonia.php

Instead of a bucket list, please get him the medical care he needs

as for a bucket list, I believe that doing your best to give your pets a good quality life with delicious healthy food, toys, free range time with you in a safe play area etc is the best thing people can do
good luck
Click to expand...

He is on a combination of meds right now doxy and baytril that the vet gave me. I'm just extremely worried because of what happened to Milk so if anything goes wrong I want to make sure his last moments are happy and enjoyable and if he starts feeling better then we just got to bond a lot! I'm really hoping the antibiotics help the vet didn't seem to worried I'm just very scared because I've had quite a few pet losses within the last year and I wish I had gotten to spend more time with them before it happened. My bucket list so far has healthy foods I'm going to get for him and then just plenty and plenty of tlc from me and his other dad! I love this little guy a lot so if he makes it he will just get really spoiled
 
SQ said:
Unfortunately your bucket list contains things that will:
1. frighten or terrify rats, stressing them out and thus cause illness
2. endanger their lives and put them at risk from predators and a horrible, painful, terrifying death

Try doing things each day that will give your rats a good quality of life …. that is what they will enjoy.
Some people do make prints of their rat's paw prints so you might want to look into it. It probably will not bother him, but he will not enjoy it ........ it will give you a keepsake.

Rats enjoy healthy foods such as vegs, frozen/thawed peas, cooked squash, cooked sweet potato, cooked whole grains such as real oatmeal and quinoa, and organic pumpkin seeds.
Sweets etc will feed cancer and shorten his life.
He will enjoy healthy foods just as much plus healthy foods will help him and his immune system.
So I hope you will save the sweets for yourself and if you want to give him foods he will enjoy, feed him good healthy food that he will enjoy - different rats prefer different things.

Please see the links on taking rats outdoors in the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/
Click to expand...

Thank you for the ideas! I want him to feel comfortable cozy and pampered incase things don't go so well
 
SQ said:
If he is not improving or gets worse, please take him back to the vet so his meds can be changed or more meds added
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I plan on doing so far he seems stable
 
I'll keep you updated on how he is doing and if I end up taking him back the vet for any reason
 
I'm trying to see things from my perspective. When I had pneumonia myself, I just wanted to be left alone and feeling better, nothing more.

I'm pretty sure your rat feels the same, and taking Egg at unfamiliar places would just scare him and cause more stress. Sweets can also do harm. I believe veggies are much better option for recovering.

Try to imagine how it would feel if someone forced you to do something at the time when you are very sick. Please, don't do it. Let him rest.
 
AYA said:
I'm trying to see things from my perspective. When I had pneumonia myself, I just wanted to be left alone and feeling better, nothing more.

I'm pretty sure your rat feels the same, and taking Egg at unfamiliar places would just scare him and cause more stress. Sweets can also do harm. I believe veggies are much better option for recovering.

Try to imagine how it would feel if someone forced you to do something at the time when you are very sick. Please, don't do it. Let him rest.
Click to expand...

I wasn't planning on forcing him to go out anywhere or anything mainly just healthy treats and snuggles when he wanted them which he frequently asks for snuggles and when he wants to be alone I leave him be like right now he is having him time to rest
 
I know what it's like to lose a heart rat to respiratory illness. I literally had to give him oxygen and breathing treatments a couple of times a day along with antibiotics to keep him going. He was a pretty fearless rat, so he would, on his own, go check out random places and things, and I constantly had to find him and bring him back (sneaky little stinker)! But I would be careful to not add stress, since he's already sick. I'd also put him back with his buddies, since that can cause stress and make him sad. Any time I took my rats to the vet, I'd take a buddy, so they had someone to snuggle to. Rattie snuggles make everything better, as I'm sure you know! ;)
Hopefully he feels better soon!
 
If you find that he is not able to eat much feed him soft foods - this will provide nutrition and help to keep him hydrated …... eating and breathing at the same time can be difficult
You can grind up his blocks and add cool water to the to make mush.
You can also feed organic soy infant formula thickened with baby cereal - if unable to eat out of a shallow dish or off your finger, it can be syringed (I ml syringe without a needle), one drop at a time into the side of his mouth - so it does not go into his lungs
These will give hi the nutrition he needs

Other soft foods he might like include: baby food, cooked squash, cooked sweet potato, frozen/thawed peas, cooked whole grains such as quinoa and oatmeal, etc

I hope Egg is soon feeling better
 

Latest posts

Back
Top