Weird body movement - hiccups?

[passionfruit]

Hello there,

I've been looking at two other threads about sneezing and it suddenly reminded me of my own rat. I started out with two back in Nov 2011, then tried to introduce two more in Jan/Feb 2012 but was pretty unsuccessful. I ended up giving those two to a friend and introduced a third (successful!) rat to my two girls.

Ever since I first got the two (Rattie & Fattie ) from the pet store (I know.. I didn't know anything back then, and it was my boyfriend who wanted them actually), they have sneezed a lot. When I did some research I figured it was the new house but they never quite stopped sneezing. Recently, after getting my third rat introduced (Bea), we brought them to the vet and I mentioned the sneezes and he listened to their lungs. He said they seem to be okay but keep an eye out for them.

I just realized now that I had forgotten to mention a very crucial symptom to the vet! Fattie (the one that sneezes the most) and Bea often does this weird body movement thing, like twitching. But they don't even seem like they know what's going on, they just stand there perfectly still while their body does these little twitches. I looked around on youtube and found this which looks like what they're doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8vmUPFvXo

That is not my rat, and in the video you can only see its head, but the movement look basically like what my rats exhibit. They're completely silent when they're doing this from what I remember (last I saw it was over a week ago I believe). Do you guys think it is just hiccups? or could it be something worse? Because I did notice Bea didn't used to sneeze when we quarantined her, but after living with Fattie and Rattie for awhile, she started sneezing too, so maybe infection?

Also, if it is just hiccups, why do rats get them? I think humans get hiccups (at least I do) when they eat too fast or something is too dry, either way, water seem to always fix the problem for me. Does that mean their food is too dry..? Are hiccups bad?

 

[Godmother]

If I see a rat get hiccups once, I keep an eye out. If the same rat has them several times over the next week I assume that the rat has a Mycoplasma respiratory infection. Usually by then the vet will hear something in the lungs. I think that it was Debbie Ducommun's Rat Health Care booklet that talks about that.

Not everyone agrees, however. Over the next day you can have a look at the comments and make your own decision.

My experience has been that if I treat persistent hiccups or persistent chirpy vocalizing As a sign of Mycoplasma, and give Baytril, the symptoms stop.

 

[fumblesquid]

My rats do this too. I asked my vet if rats could hiccup and he said they can. I *think* that's what they're doing.

 

[MissGuardian]

All my rats have hiccuped quite frequently.. NONE of them has had lung sounds or gotten rid of it with antibiotics.

 

[passionfruit]

Hmm that's really interesting. I feel like at least one of them is developing a respiratory infection, but my vet listened last time and said it wasn't anything. And it also isn't getting progressively worse or anything, just sneezing every day and the weird hiccups thing every once in awhile. Oh, and sometimes, when I put one on my shoulder and tilt my head to listen, I think I hear some sort of sound like a pigeon coo-ing. But this doesn't happen every time that I listen to them so I don't even know if that's just a sound they made when moving around or if its actually their lungs.

With respiratory infections, is it usually the case that if one rat has it then all the rats in the cage may get it? I'm tempted to bring one of them in, but not sure if I should bring the other ones too..

Oh, also.. I wanted to get an idea of what your healthy rats sound like when they're squeaking? Just from normal play with each other? I'm asking because occasionally when they're play fighting, and one of them squeaks, they sounds like seagulls (my boyfriend described it that way actually, haha). Whereas when I look at youtube videos and such, their squeaks just sound like any loud, sharp, high pitched sound.

I really don't know if I should be worried about them or not. Just to be clear, I went to the vet in the beginning of May, and I've noticed the sneezing and hiccups since at least the beginning of the year. Can I give the antibiotics on my own without seeing a vet? Or would that be dangerous? (I'm sorry if that was a stupid question... I don't know if it's kind of like us taking advil when we get a headache or if its like getting prescription pain meds after a dental surgery or something..)