Flea and his lung issues.Updated pictures for jo :)

[hopefloats]

Flea, Perry, Bowie, Simon and Chevy were extremely ill when I brought them home. I took all 5 home. Perry had horrible side breathing and was just a baby. This was in january. Chevy and Flea still have life long noises. I have tried everything. I would think it would work then it would stop LOL I have purchased new air purifiers and did a ton of work to keep the odor down in his cage, fought humidity, temperatures and so on.

We had a vet visit today so we can figure out what I am battling with him. I figured he had scar tissue in his lungs so I assumed that was the noise or his sinus cavity. She was stunned how horrible he sounds but amazed how he doesnt have any side breathing. She was curious to see if it was heart or lungs.

I learned so much from it. IT was utterly amazing.She took the time to explain it all to me, every little mark on his lungs, what to look for and what is the cause of what.

I generically labeled it in my failed paint LOL

She said with pneumonia you cannot see the heart. it would be super cloudy. She said it usually starts near the front of the lung, the back part would be a heart failure.

The part labeled scar, is the part that is scarred from his sickness as a baby. You can see the hazy section and it has little circles almost that shows the scarring itself.

We will be treating him with steroids, Albuterol inhaler and meds for now. I have to play around with the steroids to see what will work better for him. For now we are using predisone on him.. His lungs are clear and his heart looks really good. I told her all the stuff i tried but I didnt want to do a full steroid treatment till I knew what we had there.

I just love the xrays shots though so amazing.

 

[jorats]

Those are awesome X-rays! I'm still quite lost though. Can you make circles around the heart and lungs?
He's got heart failure and that shows up an an enlarged heart?

 

[hopefloats]

No he just has scar tissue.....that is the areas that it shows in when they. Do have those issues.. his heart is fine a little smller but fine...his lungs are clear. The heart is the lighter glob in the dark spot to the left of the xray. If you look at the text that says scar tissues to the left is a hazy dark spot with little circles, that is the actual scar from being sick as. Baby. To the left of that is. Lighter spot, that is his heart. His lungs is the full dark spot on the left side you can see his heart through his lungs.

 

[hopefloats]

I do know the lungs turn white and cloudy when they re full from pnuemonia..you can't see the heart at all

 

[jorats]

Very interesting!

 

[hopefloats]

I cant change where pneumonia is written but it shows where it fills up randomly by itself.


She showed me the scarring which was awesome because you can see little circles. Probably if we seen the lungs it self we may know what she means. when you zoom in at the office you could see it was not smooth there was little donut shapes.

i started him on Pred and continuing with the abs and i am also going to be doing an albuterol puffer and nebulizing him to see if it helps. he is my test rat. I have had a few rats like this and we never found a fix. I need to have one like we all do LOL

He is young just barely a year old if he is even a year old yet. I need to help maintain him as long as possible.

 

[jorats]

Oh thank you for the extra details.
I once tried Mucomyst on one of my rats, it seemed to help somewhat but I think he had other issues going on. It was suppose to get rid of mucous in the lungs.

 

[hopefloats]

I have to figure out how to clear his noise....I don't think it is in his lungs....

 

[victoria]

Oh thank you for the extra details.
I once tried Mucomyst on one of my rats, it seemed to help somewhat but I think he had other issues going on. It was suppose to get rid of mucous in the lungs.

My vet said Mucomyst is effective for breaking up mucus but it smells SO bad when nebulizing, the rats panic

 

[hopefloats]

Some may have seen this already. He sounds nasally to me. It is loud and echos in his chest but his lungs are clear.

I wonder if any decongestant would work? I have a mucinex type for kids but since it is more sinus I wonder if it would work the same... I am not sure of that myst stuff? is it the same as our mucinex?

The albuterol inhaler does nothing too. I swear there has to be something that will stop this for him. He is thinner than the rest but he is very active and does not act like anything is wrong.

Can this just be him? Maybe he will be just noisy....

 

[RattusNorvegicus]

Luma has nasal congestion. Sometimes like you said, it sounds like it echoes down to her lungs but I am sure it's in her sinuses/nasal cavity. I thought she had pulmonary abscesses. After trying many antibiotic combinations there never was improvement so my vet had me take her off all medications. She didn't get any worse though she does have bad days. She was on Benadryl for a few months because it seemed to keep it under control but since it was only drying out the mucous, my vet and I decided it was best to stop.

Luma's congestion started in November/December last year so it's been a year since she's been this way.
On her bad days, sneezes increase and sound as if you were to blow a stuffy nose. She always has porphyrin on her nose, and a running nose which she cleans off slimy clear mucous. She would gasp when the mucous blocked her nose and trachea.

On her good days her breathing just sounds sniffy like her nose is dry.

The best thing to do I think is to keep the rat hydrated and the airways moist so they can sneeze it out. Nebulizing with only saline should help too.

 

[jorats]

Oh thank you for the extra details.
I once tried Mucomyst on one of my rats, it seemed to help somewhat but I think he had other issues going on. It was suppose to get rid of mucous in the lungs.

My vet said Mucomyst is effective for breaking up mucus but it smells SO bad when nebulizing, the rats panic

When I used it, I didn't find it had much of a smell. Cado didn't panic either.