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Bex5381

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2021
Messages
13
Location
Devon
I rushed my sons' very precious 9 month doe Rosie to the vet Sat evening because I suspected she has a respiratory infection. I'm a flappy panicker, and this rat is his world, so decided to take the out of hours appointment rather than wait til Monday (today) as he vet suggested on the phone.
She has been prescribed Septrin co-trimoxadale to take twice daily for 5 days. Does that sound right?!
She is rather 'rattly', and a tad lethargic. Still has a good appetite, alert and interested in her surroundings though. Is there anything else I can do for her? There is no smoking, candles, oil burners etc in my flat, and they're all on rattie-safe bedding in regularly cleaned, well ventilated cages.
She doesn't much like her meds, but I can syringe it into her mouth without much fuss/stress.
Any advice/knowledge anyone can share would be very appreciated!
 
unfortunately its not a good antibiotic for respiratory infections in rats (excellent for structural infections though) and 5 days is defintely NOT enough.

Most rat respiratory infections are caused by mycoplasmosis and Septrin doesn't affect myco. The very minimum you can treat a sick rat is 14 days but 3-4 weeks is better.

For too short a time I can use the analogy of a campfire.

At 5-10 days the campfire *may* appear to be out (resp infection cured) but its really just tamped down the infection but as soon as you stop giving antibiotics, those coals/embers roar back to life and the infection is back often worse than before.

The usual course of antibiotics is Baytril/enrofloxacin and often used in combination with doxycycline.

You are in Devon though (UK I assume) so you are stuck at the mercy of the vets whims. You might want to find a better rat vet though.

https://ratguide.com/meds/antimicrobial_agents/sulfonamides/trimethoprim_sulfa.php
 
Ah ok. So do you think my best bet is to get her to a different vet, or try to request a different anti biotic from the one that has already seen her? I'm guessing most vets wouldn't be too interested in hearing what I think on the matter. Then again, said vet was looking to persuade me an appointment today would be ok (I called Saturday evening) but I was very reluctant to wait as I've heard rats can go downhill very quickly and didn't want to risk it, so maybe he was just doing his best without specialist knowledge on rats 😬
Thank you very much for your response
 
did you go to an emergency vet? They usually know very little about our ratters. It wouldn't hurt to call around and ask different vet clinics on their rat experience.
 
Taking her back to the vet again today.
I'm going to ask for the specific antibiotics you mentioned this time. I settled the £88.73 bill for the last visit, and stated I need her to be seen TODAY. To being with vet receptionist said they only have out of hours appts. available, then the vet phoned back saying they can see her within opening hours after all. I think they recognised I've already spent an awful of money and so squeezed her in so as not to cost a crazy amount again 😅 At least this time I can tell them the specifics meds I want for her!
Thank you so, so much again for the advice, really was very helpful!

Rosie is still eating, drinking and alert......very slow though, sleeping alot, has lost a bit of weight, has a rattly chest again and obviously not herself 😞
 
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