first choice for meds for sneezing rats

[Petunia]

what is the first choice of medication to give a rat who is sneezing to "nip a URI" in the bud, so to speak?

something you could give your rat to see if it helps and if it doesn't, then you take the rat in to the vet?

and if your rat has an obvious URI and needs to see a vet immediately, what meds would you expect them to be given first? (Not for a rat with re current myco or other URIs- for the initial treatment)

 

[Rachael]

I usually start with Baytril.

 

[handmeafish]

i've given mine small doses of Bennadryl. Ron has pretty bad allergies, and will sneeze a lot of I use any sort of scented detergent. The benadryl helped a lot while I figured that out. I usually start there, and if I don't see results with in an hour, I assume he's got a Myco flair, and its off to the vet.

Some people also give echinacea, (tho I dunno how much) to help keep their ratties healthy in between flares.

 

[jorats]

You can try with Benedryl first. If that doesn't help then I do Baytril if the rat is over 14 months old but under I do Zithromax.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I would just make sure to wait to start baytril until you are sure it is a URI and not just an irritation.

 

[Petunia]

what about using SMZ-TMP??

brand names: Bactrim, Bethaprim, Cotrim, Septra)

I have some of that left over from when Cookie was all bitten up by Clair- never needed it because none of her wounds got infected

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Was it mixed/compounded?

 

[Petunia]

yes it's been mixed

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Then the meds are probably no good....on average mixed/compounded meds are only good for 2 weeks just so you know.

 

[Rachael]

You can try with Benedryl first. If that doesn't help then I do Baytril if the rat is over 14 months old but under I do Zithromax.

Just wondering why do you use Baytril for rats over 14 months, but another antibiotic for rats under?

 

[jorats]

Sorry, Benedryl for any age, that's to make sure it's not just an allergy.
But for antibiotics, Zithro seems to work great on younger rats.

SMZ really is not a good drug for URI. A waste of money in my opinion.

 

[Petunia]

jorats just sent you a PM about this lol

I am so confused right now!!
I'll explain later, when I hear back from Jorats

 

[jorats]

PMed you back.

 

[Petunia]

thanks!!


I'll be back a bit later on, I got some stuff I gotta do now and I need to try to clear my head so I can make a coherent post!!!

 

[Rachael]

What is SMZ? Never heard of it.

 

[Petunia]

What is SMZ? Never heard of it.

the brand names are: Bactrim, Bethaprim, Cotrim, Septra

I think it's most often prescribed for skin infections

http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-64007-SMZ-TMP+DS+Oral.aspx?drugid=64007&drugname=SMZ-TMP+DS+Oral

the vet is going to sell a friend of mine a bottle of the stuff so she can have it on hand to treat a rat with the beginnings of a respiratory infection.

a vet tech she knows says it's what they use, too, for the first sign of infection.

I am puzzled by this, and I am going to post a poll to find out what most vets are prescribing for respiratory infections these days.

When one of my girls was sick almost 2 yrs ago, she got baytril and doxy plus a steroid shot (she had pneumonia, I guess, she was fine one minute and the next, she was making so much noise breathing you could hear it from another room, it scared the daylights out of me!!)

the vet I took her to was not an exotics vet but they did see rats on occasion and the treatment she got worked and worked FAST


Luckily I have not had any more rats of my own with respiratory problems but if I do, I want to know what the best meds are, and if the thinking has changed-

as I understood it, you are supposed to treat a respiratory infection very aggressively at first, but maybe that's changed?

I take my rats to the same vet as my friend and I love the vet, she's great with my cats and she's good with the rats too, but some of her suggested treatments recently have me confused, because they are so different from what most other ppl are saying that their vets are doing.

so I will work on the wording of the poll and try to get that up later today

I was awake all night!! and I still need to get some stuff done before a doctor's visit for myself today, so this will have to wait til later

 

[PitLuvs]

Just posting to keep track of this, Stew had another flair up tonight so we dosed with baytril and benadryl... would like to see what the best plan of action is, he's quite noisey and we have a new vet.