Marsky-Pulmonary Abscesses & Respiratory Attacks (pic/vid)

[lilspaz68]

Marksy is my sweet big halfie boy, he's been developing pulmonary abscesses for a long time now, and its finally coming to a crux. Pulmonary abscesses are abscesses in the lungs, and as we know antibiotics rarely penetrate them so they are not curable. You try to maintain a rat with pulm abscesses for as long as you can, but eventually they start to lose serious weight, their chests are often hard from the abscesses and very little air gets in anymore. Marsky is at that stage and of course its all happening on a long weekend :undecided: Sometimes you will find a rat with greenish yellow fluid bubbling out of their nose with the smell of infection and this is usually a burst abscess. Rats can drown from these nasty things. Its one of my most hated conditions.

Marsky had a very nasty respiratory attack yesterday. I am very lucky and and was able to give him a sub-q injection of dexamethasone which opens up the lungs, but I wasn't sure he was going to make it. There's almost no air going in and out, its almost silent except for a terrible screech every once in awhile...its very frightening to watch. He became very pale, l;imp, and his nailbeds were darker from deoxygenated blood.

today my poor lad had another one, and after I gave him the dex injection, I video-taped it. Luckily he recovered in about 7 minutes this time, and was eating banana puffs. He's alert and resting behind my computer monitor.



Note here that he just let his hind leg hang off while he gasped

 

[Godmother]

Sometimes you will find a rat with greenish yellow fluid bubbling out of their nose with the smell of infection and this is usually a burst abscess.

This must be terrible. And you are right that things like that always seem to happen on long weekends.

Poor sweet Marsky. I cannot bring myself to watch the video.

 

[lilspaz68]

Sometimes you will find a rat with greenish yellow fluid bubbling out of their nose with the smell of infection and this is usually a burst abscess.

This must be terrible. And you are right that things like that always seem to happen on long weekends.

Poor sweet Marsky. I cannot bring myself to watch the video.

If it helps, I can describe how quickly he came out of it. First he started to swallow, then moved his head, then pulled up that hanging leg. Then he sat there much more alertly while still labouring but no more "big bass mouth". Then he hopped down and found the banada Gerber puffs He's back in with his ladies cuddled under a pile of them.

 

[Sharlees rattakisses]

I have had a few boys that died with this. :sad3:
So difficult and horrifying to watch when there is no way to help them. :cuddle:
Poor Marsky. :heart:

 

[jorats]

It's really scary when one of your rats is going through an episode. I feel so helpless but I have found that coupage can sometimes help. It's almost like you are shifting the gunk around in the lungs, allowing for a bit more lung capacity to breathe.
Sending lots of love to Marsky.

 

[SQ]

:hugs: to both of you ...

 

[Petunia]

that was hard to watch but I'm glad you posted it, if I'd seen one of my rats do that, I would not believe it was possible for them to recover and be ok afterward, I would have thought for sure that was the end, no coming back from that. SO you potentially saved a rat's life with that video and the description of what he was like after meds.
of course around here, finding a vet who would give a client dex to inject at home would be next to impossible
they all seem to have an absurd fear of people having access to syringes :roll: (oh no, they could use them for drugs!!)

How do you know when a rat with these abscesses need to be let go? when the meds no longer work, or do you shoot for sometime before that, so they don't suffer episodes you can't treat? that's gotta be the most stressful part, figuring out what they can recover from, I would think.

Glad he's feeling better so quickly.

 

[mamarat]

Also with lung abscesses the rat appears to be choking after eating (there's no gasping though). My vet says when the abscess bursts fluid goes into his throat. She has done a post and found that in the rat's throat. The choking can also be a symptom of PT. I brought in my little Hobo with this on Friday. She says there was no coming back for him and I let him go.

 

[lilspaz68]

Hobo's gone Mamarat? I am sooo sorry!!

 

[mamarat]

Thanks Shelagh.

 

[coreline]

thank you for posting this! I'm now wondering if a couple of my rats have had this and not just flat out myco, etc.

poor little Marsky, I am so sorry he has to go through this illness. it's so traumatic

are there any other symptoms to distinguish this from other types of respiratory illness?

I've dealt with lots of ranges of respiratory illness before, seen gasping, etc. but never done diagnostics to check for this. is there anything I should look for in the future to maybe ask my vet about? are harder chests a later symptom or earlier?

 

[Bundyrats]

Poor Marsky....what's a coupage?

 

[lilspaz68]

Obviously we scale it back for rats, and only use fingers instead of cupped hands, but often you will ge a reactijon like a cough and that's good Start slowly, and increase the pressure so the rat isn't freaked out, and often they don't mind because it does help. My mom did coupage on me when I had double pneumonia at 18 years and it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrTqco9_jiE

 

[temblabamomo]

Poor dear. Hugs to you both. He is in the best hands with you.