Making a clicking noise and breathing heavy. URI?

[Ratturtles]

Okay guys things seem to have taken a turn for the worst My rat Subie is not being as active as normal and she's making a clicking noise almost constantly. She seems to be breathing heavy and she keeps sitting in the same spot breathing hard for long periods of time. I started noticing this late last night and of course no vets that see rats are open today or tomorrow. I cannot afford to bring her to the emergency vet so for right now I started her back up on the antibiotics she was on a few weeks ago. I gave her one dose yesterday and another today, of doxycycline at .25 ml/cc and of enrofloxacin at .25 ml/cc. She seems more active today than she did last night but the clicking seems worse today than it did yesterday. What can I do until I can get her into the vet on Monday or Tuesday??

Attached is a video of her. The first two videos I took when I first got her about three weeks ago, the other videos after the "Now " slide are all from this morning. Does this seem like a respiratory infection or is it more likely related to her ear infection?? Or is it something else entirely??

(I was told when I got her that she was born with neurological issues causing her to be unbalanced when walking and head tilty. After creating another forum on here I was told that it's more likely she has an ear infection that has went untreated leading to those issues. I plan to bring her to the vet asap but that likely won't be until Monday at the earliest.)

 

[SQ]

uri, she is ill ….. If you post her weight and the strength of each of the meds (mg/ml) we can check the dose.
baytril and doxy are given twice a day

how old is she?

edit: you can also see ratguide.com for dose info

 

[lilspaz68]

Oh first thing I'll say is I love her! In the first video I see inner ear infection but a manic tilty. Instead of a regular tilt these rats seem to move in high speed, waving their heads around, sometimes running in looping circles. This behavior remains even after the infection has been cured. In the Before video you can see how dizzy and unbalanced she was meaning she still had an active infection (when was this?). How long was she treated for? It would need to be a minimum of 4-6 weeks to cure this fully.
The 2nd video is definitely respiratory but if she wasn't treated long enough for the inner ear infection she might be dealing with a double whammy. . How old is she? Can you check her teeth to see if they are even along the top of the incisors? Does she seem to brux a lot lately?

 

[Ratturtles]

uri, she is ill ….. If you post her weight and the strength of each of the meds (mg/ml) we can check the dose.
baytril and doxy are given twice a day

how old is she?

edit: you can also see ratguide.com for dose info

I just weighed her this morning, she is 200 grams, or 7oz exactly. The doxycycline is 5mg/ml suspension and the baytril is 10mg/ml suspension. She is on .25 mL/cc of each twice daily. She's just about a year old. I'll check the link and see if I can figure out the proper dosage for her, but I'm not great at stuff like this.

 

[Ratturtles]

Oh first thing I'll say is I love her! In the first video I see inner ear infection but a manic tilty. Instead of a regular tilt these rats seem to move in high speed, waving their heads around, sometimes running in looping circles. This behavior remains even after the infection has been cured. In the Before video you can see how dizzy and unbalanced she was meaning she still had an active infection (when was this?). How long was she treated for? It would need to be a minimum of 4-6 weeks to cure this fully.
The 2nd video is definitely respiratory but if she wasn't treated long enough for the inner ear infection she might be dealing with a double whammy. . How old is she? Can you check her teeth to see if they are even along the top of the incisors? Does she seem to brux a lot lately?

I love her too, she is such a good girl! She was treated for an ear infection about three weeks ago with tresaderm solution in her right ear for 7 days (per our vets instructions). At the same time she was on doxycycline and baytril for 10 days because she had been sneezing a lot and I suspected she might have had an upper respiratory infection going on. The sneezing seemed to calm down after being on the medicine and I thought her upper respiratory issues seemed resolved for the most part. She was on those medications from about April 16-26.

I know now that she needs to be on medication for longer to completely get rid of the ear infection. I will be talking to my vet about this when I go back in, hopefully tomorrow. That video was taken on the day I got her, April 13.

I thought her upper respiratory issues had calmed down until Friday May 3 when she started acting like she is in the posted video. It was very sudden and unexpected as she had seemed fine the day before, and she had not been sneezing since ending the doxy/baytril. I started her up again on the doxycycline and baytril that same night and she's now had 4 doses as of this morning.

Shes a year old. Her top teeth look even for the most part. She has been randomly bruxing every once in a while Ive noticed, but not excessively. I know for sure that her teeth are not overgrown as I've been checking them regularly just to make sure.

If the vet keeps her on both doxycycline and baytril for 6 weeks should that be enough to cure both her ear infection and solve her respiratory problems? I want to have a plan when I go in and talk to our vet just in case she suggests something completely different?

Also I found mites on her last night the poor girl!

 

[Ratturtles]

After reading the pneumonia health guide she has many of the symptoms listed. Is pneumonia a type of URI or is it its own classification?

 

[SQ]

It can be caused by secondary infections or myco …. her lungs are filling with fluid and she needs good antibiotics - baytril + azithromycin (10 mg/Ib twice a day is what my vet prescribes) or likely clavamox etc

and ear infections are treated for a very long time with oral antibiotics twice a day and an anti-inflammatory to try to prevent further permanent damage
http://ratguide.com/health/auricle_ear/otitis_media_otitis_interna_labyrinthitis.php

Edit: I messaged lilspaz68 so she can check the doses for you

 

[lilspaz68]

The doses are adequate but yes 3-4 weeks on doxy/baytril. The tresaderm likely did little for her poor beautiful girl. I assume she has scabs on her shoulders neck rather than little visible bugs moving around on her rump and back? You'd need Revolution to treat the parasites

 

[SQ]

http://ratguide.com/health/integumentary_skin/ectoparasites.php

 

[Ratturtles]

The doses are adequate but yes 3-4 weeks on doxy/baytril. The tresaderm likely did little for her poor beautiful girl. I assume she has scabs on her shoulders neck rather than little visible bugs moving around on her rump and back? You'd need Revolution to treat the parasites

Thanks for checking the doses! She does have noticeable bugs on her. They're very small and slightly red. After doing some research I think they might be nits or lice instead of mites.

 

[Ratturtles]

It can be caused by secondary infections or myco …. her lungs are filling with fluid and she needs good antibiotics - baytril + azithromycin (10 mg/Ib twice a day is what my vet prescribes) or likely clavamox etc

and ear infections are treated for a very long time with oral antibiotics twice a day and an anti-inflammatory to try to prevent further permanent damage
http://ratguide.com/health/auricle_ear/otitis_media_otitis_interna_labyrinthitis.php

Edit: I messaged lilspaz68 so she can check the doses for you

Sounds good. Thank you!

 

[SQ]

how is she doing?

 

[Ratturtles]

how is she doing?

I had to rush her to the emergency vet on Sunday night because she was gasping for breath and running around panicking (I'm assuming from lack of oxygen). They put her in an oxygen chamber and did an examination. They said they could barely hear her heart beat over the sound of her little lungs trying to get in air. The vet said she likely wouldn't make it through the night if we took her off of the oxygen and I couldn't afford to keep her there overnight. The vet said she suspected she has something else going on like an undiagnosed illness or tumor (Not sure how she came to this conclusion but I have no reason to doubt her). She said even if we could afford to go ahead with treatment she thought the prognosis was not looking good (She might have just been saying this to make me feel better, I'm not sure) We decided euthanizing her would be the most humane option. I got to see her in the oxygen chamber before they did it and she seemed happy and at peace. They put her under with gas and then injected her. I'm still very sad about the whole thing RIP Subie

 

[lilspaz68]

Ohhh I'm so very sorry

 

[Kye]

Oh no.. I'm so sorry.!

 

[Manishamani]

Hi
I have a mouse male one & he is one and a half year old. But from last few days he become so lazy & all the time he is sleeping. He don't eat enough food and breathing fast. So what can I do?
And is that because of temperature because he loses his weight also.

 

[Manishamani]

And also his one eye is turning white. What happen to him I can't understand...

 

[SQ]

It sounds like he may have an infection and need to see a vet and be put on antibiotics

can you start a new thread about your mouse so people will see it?