S
samcfc
Guest
Hi,
Last Thursday we took our rat Florence (11 months) to the vet because we initially thought she was choking. The vet couldn't find anything stuck and instead gave her some antibiotics and nose drops as they thought her nose was blocked and she was struggling to breathe.
However over the next few days she seemed to get progressively worse. She wasn't eating or drinking and was in a really bad way. We watched her closely and she couldn't hold her food in her hands, she was wandering aimlessly around the cage and couldn't really climb down and would slide instead. I did some research and from what I read, she was showing all of the symptoms of having a pituitary tumor. So we took her back to the vet and didn't really say anything new so we mentioned the possibility of it being a tumor. They said it's very unlikely because of her age but they could do a CT scan the next day. We weren't really satisfied and so took her to another vet we have been to in the past. He seemed to think that she had an infection and so injected her with fluids, gave her pain killers, a steroid and baytril. He also did an X ray and said that he couldn't see any shadow that would indicate a tumor, and again pointed out how it is unlikely because of her age. He also recommended against doing a CT scan because of how weak she was and that we should treat her for an infection otherwise she might die.
We took her back this morning and he said she seemed a little better and gave us antibiotics (Ursocyclin) to be injected once a day and then some bacteria to use in a few days to build up bacteria in her stomach.
She is still not really eating much - have to pretty much force her to, and we are giving her glucose water with a syringe. She still looks a little lost when she is in her cage and she is also really chewing on her lava ledge which she has never done before the past few days.
I feel a little helpless and just wanted to out this out there in case anyone had any ideas. The vet really didn't think it was a tumor because of her age and said that she seemed to feel pain when he pressed on her stomach rather than on her head. Does anyone have any similar experiences especially with such a young rat?
Thanks a lot.
Last Thursday we took our rat Florence (11 months) to the vet because we initially thought she was choking. The vet couldn't find anything stuck and instead gave her some antibiotics and nose drops as they thought her nose was blocked and she was struggling to breathe.
However over the next few days she seemed to get progressively worse. She wasn't eating or drinking and was in a really bad way. We watched her closely and she couldn't hold her food in her hands, she was wandering aimlessly around the cage and couldn't really climb down and would slide instead. I did some research and from what I read, she was showing all of the symptoms of having a pituitary tumor. So we took her back to the vet and didn't really say anything new so we mentioned the possibility of it being a tumor. They said it's very unlikely because of her age but they could do a CT scan the next day. We weren't really satisfied and so took her to another vet we have been to in the past. He seemed to think that she had an infection and so injected her with fluids, gave her pain killers, a steroid and baytril. He also did an X ray and said that he couldn't see any shadow that would indicate a tumor, and again pointed out how it is unlikely because of her age. He also recommended against doing a CT scan because of how weak she was and that we should treat her for an infection otherwise she might die.
We took her back this morning and he said she seemed a little better and gave us antibiotics (Ursocyclin) to be injected once a day and then some bacteria to use in a few days to build up bacteria in her stomach.
She is still not really eating much - have to pretty much force her to, and we are giving her glucose water with a syringe. She still looks a little lost when she is in her cage and she is also really chewing on her lava ledge which she has never done before the past few days.
I feel a little helpless and just wanted to out this out there in case anyone had any ideas. The vet really didn't think it was a tumor because of her age and said that she seemed to feel pain when he pressed on her stomach rather than on her head. Does anyone have any similar experiences especially with such a young rat?
Thanks a lot.