Coupage for rats!

[moneener]

As I've said before, 3 year old unaltered male Darwin was having some respiratory fits.

I brought him to see Dr. Lewis again this week and his lungs are still doing REALLY good, not an iota of scary noise.

So we think he's got some pleuritis. Now he is on .025 ml furosemide twice a day and one drop of metacam daily (for no more than 7 consecutive days without consultation with Dr. Lewis) + steamings + COUPAGE! And as a last resort, salbutamol.

Coupage...actually works very well! I'm using two fingers to, in lay term, 'beat' his sides. I can see how it would not be good for a real frail rat or a real severe case of pleuritis, but it's working amazingly for Darwin who is very plump, no HED, and no other problems at all whatever save this!

I also learned that my nursing student friend will be able to give their hearts and lungs a listen with her stethoscope because it sounds a lot like humans. Dr. Lewis told her everything is 1) louder, 2) quicker and 3) to listen to the young healthy brats first, then old Dar, to get a feel for what a rat ought to sound like.

So, an all around very helpful and GOOD-NEWS filled visit with the lovely Dr. Lewis!

 

[SQ]

Good to hear that Darwin is feeling better.

 

[moneener]

Indeed

Everyone else is doing very good too. Nate and Dex used to be kinda skiddish but all four are sooo rambunctious and people-loving now. Ruth is real sweet to Darwin, always letting him rest his big head on top of her tiny body in the rat pile and I know his old rat lungs appreciate the elevation. Darwin is so big and fat and old he cannot get into any problem hiding places and so gets to walkabout the top floor of the house every night (which the other rats go wild mad about, since they only get locked up when he gets to go super-free-range ha). The boys are all bigger than momma. Nate is one big muscle and White is not far behind. Everyone is great!

 

[mamarat]

That's great, so glad everyone is doing fine. :joy: It's so sweet to picture Darwin lying his head on Ruth. :heart:

 

[Rachael]

So glad to hear it.

 

[Godmother]

That's interesting to hear that you can do coupage effectively on rats! I'd known about doing it for people, but hadn't thought of ratties.

 

[moneener]

I think it's pretty situational.. Darwin is in good shape so it doesn't bug him at all but I think it's also useful in an emergency even though I'm sure it would hurt.

 

[jorats]

I've been doing coupage on my rats for quite some time now and find it really helps too.

 

[moneener]

I've been doing coupage on my rats for quite some time now and find it really helps too.

Awesome. I'm not sure how much she's recommended it before so I'll let her know other people have found it useful too

 

[Godmother]

Could both of you (moneener & jorats) please give a detailed description of how you do it? For people, I think that you put one hand flat on the side of the torso, then hit the flat hand with the side of the other hand. It's been ages since I've seen it done, so my memory might be all wrong.

I'd thought that the process was done to loosen up phlegm in the lungs.

Any new technique to help our ratties with respiratory problems would be so appreciated!

 

[jorats]

I'll take a video of what I do.
Rats are prone to pulmonary abscesses and in time of gasping and distress, the firm tapping on the sides seems to perhaps displace the pus/infection temporarily of course but allows for the rat to be able to breathe again.

 

[Godmother]

Thanks! At times of respiratory distress I would do anything to help a ratty. It would be great not to feel so helpless.

 

[moneener]

Could both of you (moneener & jorats) please give a detailed description of how you do it? For people, I think that you put one hand flat on the side of the torso, then hit the flat hand with the side of the other hand. It's been ages since I've seen it done, so my memory might be all wrong.

I'd thought that the process was done to loosen up phlegm in the lungs.

Any new technique to help our ratties with respiratory problems would be so appreciated!

I'm not sure how jorats does it but what I've been doing is...

I get Darwin somewhere comfortable and safe-feeling (for him, a wicker basket with fleece!)

I put my index finger and my middle finger together on both hands and start quite lightly 'beating' ('tapping', etc.) each side of his chest.

If he's not showing me and signs of pain or stress, after say, 45 seconds to a minute, I work it up to 'beating' quite a bit harder with a nice even pace. Then, mostly (so far anyway!) it is followed by a CA-choooo and shortly thereafter a big giant brux n' boggle. If he was in real respiratory distress, I'd only do a few test beats before working up to something more firm, and I think I'd do it in conjunction with steaming if time allotted.

I've been doing it sort of preemptively/therapeutically when he's not having any issues or when I get the feeling that it may turn into something bad. For him and his circumstances, it's working fine. He's still very very active and extremely stubborn. If he was bugged by any of it, he'd let me know (like he does with the occasional protein plug he gets.. he's got no HED so he keeps pretty clean!). Another assurance I have is that he was making ouch-chirps and so if my coupage was bugging the pleuritis he'd be making the ouch-chirps. They really scared me because even with Bhutto, plagued with myco, never made noises like that. So you can imagine my surprise when I was told his lungs were actually just as good as last visit.

I guess if I am actually moving some of that stuff around and breaking it up, it might well be a good thing to do regularly with rats who tolerate it well and are having respiratory issues. I would not know a lick of the science but I can imagine that the drugs in conjunction with this kind of therapy might produce better results than drugs on their own.

One last thing. She said it is 'like an art', so what I'm doing might not work for other people. It's not a well-known or widely used technique, so I think if more people start trying it we could come up with a more routinized approach.

 

[jorats]

My vet showed me how to do it on my cat and then we both realized why not the rats? She told me to get a feel for it and do what's comfortable for me and rat.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v53/j ... Sawyer.flv

 

[minnow]

Thank you, Jo! With the JE girls (and with how many rats I have in total) it seems like I've always got someone battling some level of respiratory distress, and if I can get them to calm down enough for it, this could really be useful in their recovery. I think we have some info here that needs to be stickied.

 

[Godmother]

Wow, thanks. That doesn't look too hard at all!

 

[Rattus]

Good to know this! I was about to ask what it ment and then seen jo's video :thumbup: