My rat wont stop wheezing

[Hiccup28]

Hi everyone

So my rat became sick about a week ago all of a sudden. He 'squeaked' a bit, but it has gotten worse over the last few days and he does not stop. I took him to a vet who gave me Baytril and we finished the course but he is still not better, in fact, he is worse. I drove to his other vet that we normally see to get him some Doxysyrup yesterday and he still sounds the same with no improvement. He is not eating on his own and not leaving his hammock either, he just lies there the whole day. I take him out of the cage to feed him as much as possible, but its really breaking my heart to see him like this. He has no porphyrin coming out of his eyes or nose, its just the wheezing that wont stop. Please help!

 

[lilspaz68]

How long was he given the baytril or the doxy?
Can you get a video of him so we can see the severity of it?
Also,how old is he?

 

[Hiccup28]

Hi lilspaz68. He is now 2 y 4 months. He has been on the baytril since Friday 24th April. The doc told me to give him like 2 drops in the morning and evening and i mixed it in with some purity for him as it smells gross. It became a bit worse from Thursday so i rushed him to the vet again and when i got there the vet daid i should continue on the baytril and give him some orange to help with the congestion. There was no improvement by Saturday morning so I got some Doxy and started that since yesterday as that has always helped my boys in the past. So he is off the baytril since yesterday morning and on the doxy now but still no improvement. I am seriously stressed out about this already and it hurts me to see him like this.

I tried uploading a mp4 with his squeaking but i could not for some reason. Any idea as to what files i can upload?

 

[lilspaz68]

Try taking a video, uploading to something like youtube and pasting the link here.

Ok he's 28 months old which means his immune system isn't very good anymore. His antibiotic treatment is vague so he's likely be massively underdosed. Antibiotics are usually dosed by weight, the concentration of the antibiotic and the recommended dose for the antibiotic. For eg.
400 gram rat given 25 mg/ml baytril (at 10 mg/kg) woukd get an exact dose of 0.16 ml twice a day.

Do you know the weight of your boy and the concentration of your antibiotics?

 

[Hiccup28]

So i was told the baytril must be no more than 4 drops out of a syringe a day so i gave him 2 drops morning and 2 drops in the evening. I am not too sure of the concentration of the baytril unfortunately. I have never had baytril before for my rats so i was unfamiliar with this and the vet said it is strong and better than the doxy so i trusted him on that and stuck to the dose he said.

The doxy on the other hand i have been giving him 0.4 ml cause he is 400 grams and that one i know is supposed to be 0.1 ml per 100 g. The concentration of the doxy is 10mg/ml doxycycline hyclate.



This is the video i took on Friday night of him. Pleqse excuse the towel. It is his eating towel and it is clean, i just cant get the spots out of it ☺

 

[lilspaz68]

Does he mainly make this noise while sleeping? Does he wake up, start moving around,sneezing and rubbing at his nose and the sounds stop for awhile?

The doxy dose is fine, but make sure to give 0.4 ml twice a day.

Can you check the baytril bottle for mg/ml or %?

 

[Hiccup28]

He is constantly making this noise, not just at certain times or in certain positions anymore. Thats how bad it has got. The vet only gave me some in a syringe so I don't have the bottle unfortunately.

I am currently giving him the doxy twice a day yes

We took a chance giving him some salbutamol from my partners inhaler to see if it at least opens up his airways and it seemed to help a bit. He was not wheezing as loudly as normal, but it still there. We tried this with our boy that passed when he couldnt breathe and he made it through 3 of those nasty respiratory attacks miraculously (he died while in surgery removing a tumor unfortunately).

 

[lilspaz68]

The inhaler will only help temporarily though. Do you have any leftover antibiotics from yourself? A lot of human antibiotics can be used for rats.