My rats breathing problems wont go away even with medicine.

[rattieperson7]

For almost 3 months now I've consistently been visiting the vet to try and cure my rat. Ive been given many medications but nothing is working more then a few hours.

My rat is a boy and 1 1/2 years old. He didn't always have breathing problems but it started a little while after I had a rat that had breathing problems pass away. The rat that passed had a massive tumor but my vet doesn't feel any tumors or lumps on my current rat. My vet believes hes sharing his breathing problems with all his cagemates. At the current moment their being given azithromycin and prednisolone daily.

Could there be something in my care causing him to have an URI? I wipe down the cage and replace all fleece once a week. They have clean water, I'm not giving them any fresh fruits or veggies at the moment. Their food is a mix of Oxbow adult rat food, Oxbow garden select blocks, split peas, lentils, oats and dry pasta. It's 5 boys total and they live in a double critter Nation.

 

[MumsyRat]

Go and buy a bottle of liquid echinacea. Give him 2 drops per day, morning and evening. I used to put the drop on a tiny square of bread because that made it a treat that they happily gobbled up. Studies have shown that echinacea improves immune system function in rats. Along with that you can give him one mini DARK chocolate chip at the same time. The caffeine in the chocolate helps expand the airways. If you like you can give this to all of your boys, there is no risk of toxicity of any kind at these small doses. Do this for about 10 days - 2 weeks. It WILL help.