Sick Rat is still hungry/thirsty, but can't seem to get food down.

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lystelle

Active Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
33
Location
United States
I've been dealing with a URI since maybe two weeks ago. I started my 2 year old boy Piper on amoxicillin first, and then ordered some baytril and doxy. When it got here two days later, I started him on both. At the time he was just making noises when he breathed, wheezy sounds that didn't stop even when he was asleep.

Overall he's been acting like he's not even sick in most (not all) regards. His eyes are wide open, never narrowed like you see on most sick rats. He wants to climb and walk around, he has good reflexes and reactiveness, barely any pophryin (in fact, I've never seen it on his nose because he grooms it off so fast), and he's above all still very hungry and thirsty. When I try to give him food, increasingly over this last week he can eat less and less of it. He seems to want to eat more and then when he tries, he gets more sick and sometimes has gone into respiratory distress for an hour or two, only to come out of it after I let him rest. It's bizarre- one moment he's breathing very heavily and wheezing, seems like he's going to die right there. And then an hour later he's running around, looking up at me when I come to the cage as if he wants food, acting and appearing very normal. For a very sick rat, he doesn't appear to show the main signs of pain that sick rats show. He's never even been lethargic, sleepy and tired yes, but not lethargic. His stomach is also distended, which I've been told is air he's swallowing during respiratory distress episodes that he can't burp up.

Anyways, I have tried to give him food he likes but he increasingly cant seem to eat it. He started making gurgling noises as if he has a lot of spit in his mouth, sometimes looking like he's choking. I am assuming this is a very thick coating of mucus in his throat. It is really upsetting him, the last two days he hasn't been able to sleep much because he's so bothered by it. I am very worried because it is obstructing air and food, I have had to start forcing glucose water so he won't die from dehydration. He has also started refusing any doctored medication, on account that he really cant swallow it. When he smells it he rubs his mouth on the ground and won't even try it. I am not going to force him to take it because I know it would just make him go into respiratory distress, something he might not come out of.

I have tried a cool mist humidifier, he hates it. I tried sitting in the bathroom with him with a hot shower running for steam, he is only made worse by how anxious leaving his cage makes him. Today I tried Mucinex for the first time, it seems to be helping but I don't know if it will help more than short term. I have tried liquid ensure, something he LOVED the first time i gave it, then decided he absolutely despised because I mixed it with medication one time. I mixed meds with strawberry syrup, mayo, applesauce and yogurt, all of which he won't take anymore after the first day of it.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I am a very empathetic person and this is killing me. I stay up with him all night most nights, just to make sure i'm with him if he passes, and he never does. I just want him to get better or pass peacefully, and unfortunately there is no way to get him to the vet (just trust me on this, he is the most anxious rat I've ever met and would panic himself to death before he even got there). 😢
 
try soft foods like baby cereal, he will be able to lick, breath, lick, breathe on his own time and hopefully will get more food/liquid in him.

It sucks when you have a panicky rat that NEEDS antibiotics and will panic when its given. Did you get the 10% Enrofloxacin? How much does he weigh and how much are you trying to give to him? If you have the 10% we might be able to make a stronger concentration of it so you can get a smaller amount of meds into him and he has less time to panic.

Are you able to get us a video?
 
try soft foods like baby cereal, he will be able to lick, breath, lick, breathe on his own time and hopefully will get more food/liquid in him.

It sucks when you have a panicky rat that NEEDS antibiotics and will panic when its given. Did you get the 10% Enrofloxacin? How much does he weigh and how much are you trying to give to him? If you have the 10% we might be able to make a stronger concentration of it so you can get a smaller amount of meds into him and he has less time to panic.

Are you able to get us a video?

i have tried everything, even just applesauce, and he wants to eat it- but then he takes a small bite and goes to swallow and it just doesn't work. he jumps up and starts making this gurgling-gasping noise, but never spits it out, he just does that until i guess it gets down eventually?

i tried extra hard this morning to get him to drink some ensure out of a syringe just because he's going on many days without decent amounts of food. he fights so hard i have to let go because i'm scared he'll suffocate breathing so hard to push away. at this point the enrofloxacin (yes it's 10% liquid) is a done deal because if he can't take food, ensure, and barely water unless forced, i cant even focus his little energy on getting meds down him. i'm just trying to keep him alive long enough to go to the vet tomorrow- i know i said i didn't think he would be able to sit in the car without dying of gasping from stress, but i have to chance it. he needs to be seen and if anything, put down, and i cant do either of those things here.

unfortunately it's sunday and no vet is open until tomorrow morning. i have to just hope he'll be ok until then, i am so scared and stressed. i've only gotten maybe an hour of sleep every day for two weeks now. i'm crashing and i just want this to be resolved so he'll feel better and i can rest. i feel horribly for him. this is making me even more sad because this morning, he found a cashew in the dish from the other boys, and he excitedly picked it up to eat it only to choke on the first bite and throw it away. i feel so bad for him, he cant even eat. and it sucks because he actually wants to eat and drink, which is usually the first things a dying rat stops doing, but he just physically cant swallow it well.

i will try to get a video of me giving him a drop of applesauce and his reaction after the first bite, and the noise he's making. i need him to calm down a bit first because i just tried to get him to drink ensure and he's upset.
 
Is it just lungs or can you feel a mass in his throat stopping him from swallowing? I'm glad you are taking him in.

i have tried to feel for a mass but haven’t felt anything. He does have that lump where is stomach is- I’m assuming it’s his stomach full of air from breathing hard.

As I type this he’s looking like he’s in end stage respiratory distress. I feel awful, he could probably pass at any moment. Doubtful he could make it until tomorrow morning when the vet is open.... I wanted to take a video of him trying to eat but I don’t want to put him through any more at this point.

I just wish I knew how to help him. I wish I could offer him some relief, this has been horrible :( I just want to curl up and die right with him at this point, he doesn’t deserve this. After his brother died of rapid onset pneumonia earlier this year, I swore i would never let it happen to any of the others.. :(
 
I am so sorry, seeing a rat suffer like this is horrible and often happens on weekends when there is no help and you feel incredibly alone. If he passed before you could get him to the vet, at least hes not suffering anymore.
 
I am so sorry, seeing a rat suffer like this is horrible and often happens on weekends when there is no help and you feel incredibly alone. If he passed before you could get him to the vet, at least hes not suffering anymore.

thank you :( so far (surprisingly) he is still alive with about an hour until the vet opens. i still have to wait a little, but he might have a chance to be seen. if they can’t find something straightforwardly wrong with him (for example, something that’s not a tumor or cancer or whatnot) i will do whatever i can to help him get better if i have that chance. if it’s something worse, i will have him put down. i will update here to let you know what happens... part of me just hopes he makes it to the vet and doesn’t pass in the car so scared.
 
I didn't read this but didn't need to. Sounds like advance URI. Try giving THICK fluids in a tiny ROUNDED bottom bowl. Not a bowl with a bottom like a tin can, but a bottom like the inside of a coconut cut in half. Fluids: 1. Chocolate Ensure! 2. Cream 3. Baby cereal watered down 4. Lightly whipped cream 5. Yogurt, not Greek 6. Melted ice cream 7. Thick soups, like bisque 8. Milkshake 9. Anything that is thicker than water basically. As for foods: as was already suggested, soft foods and moist foods. Warmed frozen peas that the rat can shell are a big hit. And if they get to the point that they can't shell them anymore (due to lack of breathe, inability to get sufficient oxygen while eating/drinking) and you've already tried treating with all known methods and have exhausted all recommendations from your vet, it might be time to relieve him of his distress and let him go. I have actually shelled peas for a few days while awaiting my vet to open Monday morning, or waiting for a non-emergency appointment. But if you see any sign of open mouth gasping or raising the nose to the sky in an attempt to straighten out the airways, and he's been in serious condition for some time, or is a senior and had many flare-ups during his life, he likely has permanent damage to his lower respiratory and lungs and won't respond well to treatments and will need quick, immediate attention when this time comes. Always keep him calm and relaxed so that his fear and anxiety of not getting enough air doesn't become a self defeating condition that spirals out of control and leads to his frantically running around aimlessly and increasing his lack of oxygen, ultimately causing his own demise. Anyway, please keep a close watch for this and act immediately if you see it happening, it usually doesn't last long and watching him suffer and pass in your hands while being helpless to help him is a horrendous thing. I can't even begin to tell you how terrible it will be for you and how utterly terrifying it is for your rat. His last breath will likely be while he runs to you for help with terror in his eyes and you not being able to help him. I won't even go into the experience beyond that, suffice to say it's brutal. I am going to pray and hope you both are able to get through these things well and to know when it's time to alleviate his situation before it becomes distressful. My best to you both.
 
I didn't read this but didn't need to. Sounds like advance URI. Try giving THICK fluids in a tiny ROUNDED bottom bowl. Not a bowl with a bottom like a tin can, but a bottom like the inside of a coconut cut in half. Fluids: 1. Chocolate Ensure! 2. Cream 3. Baby cereal watered down 4. Lightly whipped cream 5. Yogurt, not Greek 6. Melted ice cream 7. Thick soups, like bisque 8. Milkshake 9. Anything that is thicker than water basically. As for foods: as was already suggested, soft foods and moist foods. Warmed frozen peas that the rat can shell are a big hit. And if they get to the point that they can't shell them anymore (due to lack of breathe, inability to get sufficient oxygen while eating/drinking) and you've already tried treating with all known methods and have exhausted all recommendations from your vet, it might be time to relieve him of his distress and let him go. I have actually shelled peas for a few days while awaiting my vet to open Monday morning, or waiting for a non-emergency appointment. But if you see any sign of open mouth gasping or raising the nose to the sky in an attempt to straighten out the airways, and he's been in serious condition for some time, or is a senior and had many flare-ups during his life, he likely has permanent damage to his lower respiratory and lungs and won't respond well to treatments and will need quick, immediate attention when this time comes. Always keep him calm and relaxed so that his fear and anxiety of not getting enough air doesn't become a self defeating condition that spirals out of control and leads to his frantically running around aimlessly and increasing his lack of oxygen, ultimately causing his own demise. Anyway, please keep a close watch for this and act immediately if you see it happening, it usually doesn't last long and watching him suffer and pass in your hands while being helpless to help him is a horrendous thing. I can't even begin to tell you how terrible it will be for you and how utterly terrifying it is for your rat. His last breath will likely be while he runs to you for help with terror in his eyes and you not being able to help him. I won't even go into the experience beyond that, suffice to say it's brutal. I am going to pray and hope you both are able to get through these things well and to know when it's time to alleviate his situation before it becomes distressful. My best to you both.

i am sorry to say that piper has passed. i had him put down- i initially was hoping the vet could check him out and see what was wrong with his throat, but deep down i knew he had so much damage from waiting for the appointment that even regaining his ability to swallow medication would not help. he entered respiratory distress on sunday, something that happened a couple times but he came out of it, and this time he did not come out of it. constantly i was by his side, helping him if he started choking and trying to force him to drink water from a syringe. i got a little benadryl down and that helped him calm down and sleep, even though it didn't help his nasal passages like i hoped. i would have had him taken in that day, but it being sunday of course no vets were open. my friend convinced me that i needed to have him taken in, something i had put off because he is an extremely anxious rat WITHOUT the trouble breathing and i was certain that putting him in a travel carrier, in someone else's car, without me (i am not well enough to make a trip to the vet myself currently) would just kill him. i pictured him just panicking as soon as he left my arms and was taken to the car, dashing back and forth clawing at the cage walls, breathing so hard he just panicked himself into respiratory arrest, dying alone and terrified.

i realized that dying at home in the state he was in would not be that much better, even if he was with me, just like you said. i could feel it coming and i decided to have him taken in and evaluated at a "quality of life assessment". my friend told me he was actually just fine in the car there (thank GOD) and did not panic, she even pet him at times and said he was okay. that was the biggest relief for me. i cried harder when he had to be taken from me at the door to go to the car than when he was put down, mainly because of how scared i was for his last moments to be horrible and alone.

the vet basically told me over the phone that even if he wanted to treat him, he would need to refer us to a specialist over an hour away. that would mean another appointment and waiting and a long car ride. i couldn't put him through another minute. i made the decision to have him put to sleep. it was agonizing waiting for it to be done, but when it was over i just cried and cried from both misery and relief.

i've been staying up every night with him for two weeks now, right by his side, even not feeling well myself. i would get maybe an hour of sleep or two in the afternoon, and stay up the other 22 hours of the day with him, i'm not kidding when i say i just sat by his cage, mixing medicine formulas up, giving him ibuprofen, petting him, cleaning everything, setting up the humidifier and so much more. i was obsessed with trying to make this right even though it wasn't my fault. i felt guilty to even think of sleeping when he was suffering so much.

when i got him back, i let his remaining brother and the two little ones i adopted recently sit next to his body, smell him etc as i've read it's important for rats to understand their buddy isn't alive, instead of having disappeared. i wrapped him in the blanket he liked in his favorite hanging basket in the critter nation, and my friend took him back to my mom's house to bury him with his other brother. it was such a horrible process but it was so much better than it could have been for him. i feel it was the mature and kinder thing to do, even if it was harder on me than just letting it happen on it's own.

sorry this is so long, it was such a sad day yesterday. thank you guys for all your help, i wish i knew what happened with his throat and i probably won't ever find out, but i do know i tried my hardest and i think he knows that. he is at peace now with his brother across the rainbow bridge :(
 
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