I have a young male rat that we have had for about 4 weeks along with him i got a female well they both did the normal sneezing for the first week when it continued i got worried so i started changing the litter box litter, after several changes i ended up with unscented cat litter and noticed a decrees in the sneezing and itching (the female was itchy).
3 days ago the male Zorro gave me a heart attack i came in and found him lying stretched out on his belly eyes lidded and gasping and sneezing, thinking he was over hot i worked to cool him down but it wasn't really helping. I changed the newspaper that was in there over to paper towels something i had been toying with to see if that was causing the allergic reaction in them both though him to a lesser degree. About 3 hours later he seemed to perk back up though still sneezing and heaving a bit, the next morning the same laying stretched out and gasping only now i could here a chuffing noise. Yesterday i came in to feed him and he was perky though still gasping a bit but his eyes looked bright and he had more energy so i fed him my sister hadn't done that yet that day, he loves the dog food and always eats it first and i sat down to watch them a bit and minutes after he started eating it he started gasping again and his eyes became lidded and he well coughed several times i think and started sneezing again.
I had realized that 3 days ago we bought a different brand of dog food that i had never fed them before i immediately took all the dog food out and the piece away from him, in about 25 to 30 minutes his eyes brightened up again and his breathing though still labored wasn't as harsh he didn't eat much of the piece he had. Yesterday afternoon he was still gasping and coughing when eating and i noticed his nose seemed red and a bit wet. He has dropped a lot of weight and looks more like a bag of bones than a rat when i witnessed the female taking food out of his hands and chasing him away from the food bowl even though there are 2 in the cage i decided to move him to a separate cage.
I placed him in the separate cage about 2am last night around 4 i remembered we had a humidifier from when my nephew was young and had cancer and found it and got it cleaned up and working. I had the humidifier on him for about 2 hours with a towel propped up around the cage to keep the humidity in, i checked on him this morning a bit ago and turned off the humidifier and noticed he had eaten nearly half the food on the plate and was certainly looking a bit plumper, at the time he had been turning his hide box around and moving the cut up towels around to make a nest he kept popping out to look at me and coming to the side of the cage so i would give him a little rub on the head. He is still breathing rapidly though it doesn't seem as heaving or labored and is sneezing a lot actually. I am wondering if the sneezing now that seems to have increased despite his increase in energy and alertness is the mucous breaking up and he is expelling it thanks to the humidifier. Does this sound like some kind of food allergy or do i need to get really worried and would benydril help ease his sneezing and breathing?
I know he probably needs a vet but as much as i hate to say this and hope no one get's angry my family needs to be fed first, we had something come up with our car and well we are going to be hurting a bit this month as much as i love Zorro my human family does come first in my life over my animal family. So right now all i can do is try and treat him at home and pray that he gets better as well as try and get some advice to do that.
Oh yeah and since i took out the newspaper the female is no longer scratching like crazy and the sneezing has decreased a lot though it's not completely gone but that could be because she likes to stick her nose on everything the only time i hear her sneeze now is when she shoves her nose against my hand or something in the cage her nose is dry so i am not terribly worried about her though i do wonder if i can give her benydril as well (I have some as i have a dog with allergies) i don't know their weight but they are not full grown, i think the male is about 9 weeks old and the female is 11 weeks though i am not positive on that.
3 days ago the male Zorro gave me a heart attack i came in and found him lying stretched out on his belly eyes lidded and gasping and sneezing, thinking he was over hot i worked to cool him down but it wasn't really helping. I changed the newspaper that was in there over to paper towels something i had been toying with to see if that was causing the allergic reaction in them both though him to a lesser degree. About 3 hours later he seemed to perk back up though still sneezing and heaving a bit, the next morning the same laying stretched out and gasping only now i could here a chuffing noise. Yesterday i came in to feed him and he was perky though still gasping a bit but his eyes looked bright and he had more energy so i fed him my sister hadn't done that yet that day, he loves the dog food and always eats it first and i sat down to watch them a bit and minutes after he started eating it he started gasping again and his eyes became lidded and he well coughed several times i think and started sneezing again.
I had realized that 3 days ago we bought a different brand of dog food that i had never fed them before i immediately took all the dog food out and the piece away from him, in about 25 to 30 minutes his eyes brightened up again and his breathing though still labored wasn't as harsh he didn't eat much of the piece he had. Yesterday afternoon he was still gasping and coughing when eating and i noticed his nose seemed red and a bit wet. He has dropped a lot of weight and looks more like a bag of bones than a rat when i witnessed the female taking food out of his hands and chasing him away from the food bowl even though there are 2 in the cage i decided to move him to a separate cage.
I placed him in the separate cage about 2am last night around 4 i remembered we had a humidifier from when my nephew was young and had cancer and found it and got it cleaned up and working. I had the humidifier on him for about 2 hours with a towel propped up around the cage to keep the humidity in, i checked on him this morning a bit ago and turned off the humidifier and noticed he had eaten nearly half the food on the plate and was certainly looking a bit plumper, at the time he had been turning his hide box around and moving the cut up towels around to make a nest he kept popping out to look at me and coming to the side of the cage so i would give him a little rub on the head. He is still breathing rapidly though it doesn't seem as heaving or labored and is sneezing a lot actually. I am wondering if the sneezing now that seems to have increased despite his increase in energy and alertness is the mucous breaking up and he is expelling it thanks to the humidifier. Does this sound like some kind of food allergy or do i need to get really worried and would benydril help ease his sneezing and breathing?
I know he probably needs a vet but as much as i hate to say this and hope no one get's angry my family needs to be fed first, we had something come up with our car and well we are going to be hurting a bit this month as much as i love Zorro my human family does come first in my life over my animal family. So right now all i can do is try and treat him at home and pray that he gets better as well as try and get some advice to do that.
Oh yeah and since i took out the newspaper the female is no longer scratching like crazy and the sneezing has decreased a lot though it's not completely gone but that could be because she likes to stick her nose on everything the only time i hear her sneeze now is when she shoves her nose against my hand or something in the cage her nose is dry so i am not terribly worried about her though i do wonder if i can give her benydril as well (I have some as i have a dog with allergies) i don't know their weight but they are not full grown, i think the male is about 9 weeks old and the female is 11 weeks though i am not positive on that.
