Sneezing and vets have no clue

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Suzi13

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Hello everyone !

I have a 12 weeks or so old male rat. When I got him he was already sneezing and making chicken-like noises sometimes. I waited a week or 2 to see if it would get better since he has just changed home. Otherwise he is ok, super energetic and very nice.
I took him to the vet a few days ago and they couldn't hear anything weird with his lungs. They had no clue what it could be, asked about the house and the cage (but I am careful around the rats + he was already sick before I took him). I got Metacam for cats, 6mg/day to give him and they told me to come back if it got worse, as in if we could see he had trouble breathing. But it's been 3 days now and no change... I don't think he feels bad, and he has been like that for weeks, but I feel so bad for him when he has bad sneeze attacks for minutes and such :( Any tips? I'll take him back to the vet if needed, but it costs 100+$ every time and if it's jut to hear they have no clue there is no point...
Thanks :)
 
I'm not sure why they gave you Metacam? Metacam is a pain killer...

Your baby needs to be on antibiotics.. There are people far more knowledgeable about this than me (I've only had to use antibiotics once with any of my rats), but he needs to be on a combo of antibiotics, generally baytril and doxy, for at LEAST 4-6 weeks. Rats are very prone to respiratory infections that need to be treated quickly and aggressively with antibiotics, otherwise they'll just get worse and worse..

Do you have a vet in the area that is knowledgeable about rats? It sounds like your vet doesn't have much experience with them...
 
If he was already sick when you got him he might have to be on meds for life, but baytril and doxy for 4-6 weeks will usually work. Its possible you might need others meds added to that, but that is where I would start. Have you trying to rat phone him? Hold him up to your ear and listen for yourself. If your in an area where its dry you might consider an humidifier or you can try a steamy bathroom, but if he seems to get worse take him out immediately. Its most likely a URI (upper respiratory infection) if not treated it can turn into pneumonia. Metacam is an anti-inflammatory as well as a pain killer. If you have any air fresheners, candles, etc around him that could also be irritating him, but you need to treat for URI asap.

URI/Myco
http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/mycoplasma_mycoplasmosis.php

Pneumonia
http://ratguide.com/health/lower_respiratory/pneumonia.php
 
The reason they cannot hear anything when they listen to his lungs is because respiratory infections start out in the upper respiratory system(nose/sinuses), before they progress into the lower. Once in the lungs, the infection is much harder to treat and more dangerous, and can cause serious damage. If the lungs sound clear that is GREAT, but the fact that he is chirping/sneezing/sniffling means that he has to be medicated to prevent a worse condition, and it WILL get worse, these things unfortunately never go away on their own.


If your vet is willing to give you a combination of baytril and doxycycline, ask for that. If not, try callinga round other vets to see who has experience with rats. You will need to use both, as mentioned before, for a minumum of 4 weeks.
Here is more information on the two drugso(show your vet!):
http://ratguide.com/meds/antimicrobial_agents/enrofloxacin_baytril.php
http://ratguide.com/meds/antimicrobial_agents/doxycycline.php

Also as previously mentioned, metacam is used as a painkiller, not as an antibiotic. Keep it anyways though, it comes in handy during scary situations or accidents! :)
 
Metacam is also an antinflammatory, which is probably why they gave it to him, but if there's no response you might as well stop
If the sneezing is sharp and dry, you might want to try benadryl to see if its allergies. ANY congestion though and rush him to the vet for baytril and doxy.
 
Hey everyone :)

Thanks for all the answers :) My goal when I took him to the vet was indeed to get him antibiotics, but they more or less refused since his lungs are fine... which is why I am not so keen on going back there, paying 100$ and being told again the same thing.

Sadly there is only 2 vet clinics really where I live, and I tried them both by now. The one where I went now actually seems to be the one with the most knowledge in rats - since at least they knew to ask about the cage litter, perfume, etc, at the other vet they really didn't have the first clue about rats. Small town ftw ;)

They gave me the metacam (6ml/day, not 6mg/day as I said first) because often it is "wet sneezes" he has, but since his lungs are fine they wanted to try an anti-inflammatory first for some reason. He has dry sneezes every now and then, but really mostly it is very wet.
They also didn't tell me to comeback if the Metacam didn't work, but only if he got worse and we could see he has trouble breathing - which I am not keen on doing since obviously if it gets to that then it will be a real emergency and might be that much harder to treat.

Maybe I'll take him back and try to push harder for antibiotics... it really is depressing to have to work against the vet to get proper treatment...
 
Ok, thanks, I'll try with allergy meds then and see if it does anything.
Where I live though we don't find exactly that medicine - we actually only have 1 liquid medicine (a syrup) for allergies which is called Clarityn, but the active ingredient is not DPH as in Benadryl but Loratadin at 1mg/mL. Not sure it would do and if so how much I should give?
Otherwise everything is either nose sprays, eye drops or pills. And nothing which uses DPH as the active ingredient either :/ What I found uses cetirizin, levokabastin, desloratadin, Ebastin or loratadin. :!??!??!:
 
Nope, I live in Sweden and we don't have Benadryl at all, not even anything with the same active ingredient. I looked at a few websites, and everything I could find is what I wrote above :/
 
Is is specifically Benadryl aka DPH that has to be used for rats? Otherwise other allergic meds should work the same or? What I seem to understand is that DPH has annoying/bad side effects and is a 1st generation med hence its limited availability in Europe. I found "benadryl" on Amazon UK, but even that uses a different active ingredient than in the US - cetizirin, which I can find here.
 
Ok, thanks :) I will probably not give him anything then, I really don't think it would be wise to toy around with medicines with a different active ingredient.

I did a little research on drugs.com and Diphenhydramine, what is used in Benadryl is indeed almost not used at all in Europe. In Sweden it is found only in 1 med that is prescription only, and otherwise it's only included in a handfull of meds all over Europe, and usually not meds for allergy, but sleeping aids and motion sickness pills lol :p So if anyone else is from Europe, don't even bother trying to find anything close to Benadryl, we simply don't have it ;)
 

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