Mr. H coughing up liquid?

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

M0onkist

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
2,193
Location
Toronto, ON, Canada
Hard to type one-handed - Mr h wasn't looking good as I was saying goodnight to them - arching at odd moments. picked him up, he had slightly pinkish liquid on his chin, maybe throwing it up (but I know rats can't)?

Please help, I don't like this - will pm cell number to anyone who can help
 
Just a bit more detail,

Tim's holding him right now (I offered to take Mr. H. back and got a very staunch 'he's my rat too, therefore I'm going to keep holding him'), and he pointed out what I'd missed, it doesn't seem to be drool so much as copious stuff coming from his nose. It's all (or largely) clear, possibly a bit of pink tint but not a lot. He's also doing a head thrust movement that Tim said made it look like Mr. H. was going to vomit, but of course rats can't...

Still totally lost for ideas, though victoria is very kindly helping in chat :)
 
He seems to be back to normal - at the worst we had the 'gagging', copious drool/nose snot (all clear, but very thick), slitted eyes, less coordination than normal, an intense focus on whatever was going wrong (so little interest in the world beyond him), and a definite feeling in both of our guts that something was wrong.

No more drooling/whatever, no more gagging, showing a lot of interest in the outside environment, passed the Cheerios test with flying colors and also protected his cheerio from Cera (who'd finished hers and thought she'd take his - we grabbed her but only after Mr. Honeycomb had sidled away from her once or twice, he did finish it though!). The Pips each decided to help clean his chin, and came over a few extra times to see if his chin needed more cleaning, but of course it hasn't (which is a good sign).

Lord knows what this was... besides very very scary. Tim's still upset over it and keeping a hawk's eye on Mr. Honeycomb.
 
Sounds like he was choking, and he managed to get it loose himself. I've never seen it myself but I know excess drool/snot/etc is a strong indicator, and being clueless to the world around him makes sense too. I know if I was trying to get something up I would be panicky and wouldn't care what was going on around me.
 
Choking is scary! Quilt has done it before, you just feel helpless watching them drool and whatnot as they are working to clear their throats.

RatGuide says something about if they are still doing it 12 hours later, take them to a vet. Our Quilt worked on something for about 3 hours. Nerves = shot during that time.
 
Mr. H. had choked once or twice before, and I'm totally with you, DadRat - I think it was only 45 minutes for the longest, but boy, those 45 minutes were torture... The only odd thing about it being him choking is the other two times he's choked, he's never drooled.

Might just have to chalk it up to a mystery...
 
I'm pretty sure it's choking. They can do all kinds of different things, drooling being a big one. The other times, he probably didn't need to generate so much saliva to help break down the obstruction.
 
That's a great point, Jo, I didn't think of that before!

Now, if I could only figure out what it was that he ate (lab blocks, lab blocks, lab blocks) that made him choke, lol

He's currently sleeping in his much-adored cube with two of the Pips (the other is sleeping right outside the cube). Life is good, isn't it?
 
The Pips were as good nursemaids to him as he was to Chance - it was really beautiful to watch. Obviously when he was choking we had him out, lying against our chests in that kangaroo-style they use with human premies, but once he was feeling better we decided to put him back in the cage with the girls.

They swarmed him very gently, and kept fighting each other for the right to be the one to clean his chin of spit-whatever. Once they'd done that, they let him be for a few minutes to clean himself, but one after the other they came back to check to make sure his chin was still clean. We watched their behavior as much as his for an hour after he went back into the cage, just to make sure they didn't think something was still wrong.

And of course, waking up today to see Mr. H. with two of his lovely ladies, looking so good as if last night had never happened. :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top