Kiki just sighed.

[Kibble]

Like, looked up from eating her cornflakes and literally heaved a sigh. Just one. I can't hear any other strange breathing noises, but I guess I'll be taking her to the vets to see if she needs antibiotics tomorrow.

The metacam is still giving her pretty wobbly side-effects, even at a much lower dose. Is there any other sort of painkiller I could ask my vet for? I've got some childrens' paracetamol at 120mg per 5ml. Or is there anything else I could do? Has anybody else ever heard something like a sigh without any other sign of respiratory distress?

 

[KayRatz]

I don't know about rats, but my dog sighs sometimes so I don't know why rats couldn't...?

 

[jorats]

I've never actually heard a sigh before, but I've seen them sigh and they were not sick.
Why is she on metacam?

 

[Kibble]

Because she is ooooooold. She needs painkillers, without them she can't stretch to groom and goes all scruffy, and doesn't get up to pee and gets soaked. But the metacam makes her all wobbly for a couple of hours, even low doses, and I'm pretty sure she hates that, because any food that has had metacam hidden in it, she won't touch again D: She doesn't need to be PTS, she's still got a great appetite and enjoys exploring (she's allowed under the bed now!), and even still has favorite toys. But her quality of life is going to start really going downhill unless I can take some of the achiness away D:

 

[jorats]

Have you tried children's motrin instead?

 

[lilspaz68]

you could probably also lower her dose of metacam, you want to find her happy medium...enough comfort. For most of us with oldies we take over the grooming details, as they are just too stiff to reach things anymore.

 

[Kibble]

I groom her as and when she needs it, but she'd rather do it herself. If you gently sit her up and fold her in half, she'll wash her loins quite thorougly. Then when you put her down she'll, creeeeak, reach her head around and, nnrrrrrggh, stick her little tongue out as far as it will go, trying to wash her flank. She just seems to absolutely hate the metacam, and I don't want to make her feel worse. I am rambling... please forgive me, Kiki is my first very old rat.

She took a little ibuprofen, though. I will keep a close eye on her.