Ralphie's breathing troubles...Feeling Better!!!: 4/18

[lilspaz68]

I would think so, if it is pneumonia, don't forget to bring the xrays with you.

 

[Slapdash]

Still up, just getting to post now. We were at the vet till 1, then I had to wrok 2-9!!! Thankfully my husband stayed home from work and was nurse daddy, keeping an eye on them and texting me updates lol

I would think so, if it is pneumonia, don't forget to bring the xrays with you.

Of course I forgot the xrays, :emb: but my tech savvy husband pulled up this thread on his phone(droid) and clicked on the picture which brought it to full screen with a zoom option for the vet lol! :thumbup:

Sorry in advance... long post! :shock:

So he doesn't think it's pneumonia and he said even if it was it would be treated pretty much the same way. But he said for the most part the xray looks pretty good. The white spot on his left lung is his heart which I verified with him, probably sounding like an idiot but just wanted to be sure :lol:
He thinks it's just the combination of myco and bacteria, possibly virus' flaring up. He came from a pet store and seems to have horrible genetics so it looks like each flare up will probably only get worse from here. And of course one of his first questions was did he get prednisone at the evet :redhot: because he thinks it will help, and I was so aggravated, since i specifically asked them to consider it. Anyway the vet gave him a shot of it. Then had him out on the table just watching him for a few minutes doesn't think he looks TOO bad, he's still having some trouble but it could be worse. He also gave us some baytril for the nebulizer, and a good idea of how to set it up in a travel/hospital cage, but I am open to suggestions. :stickpoke: lol

So, since he's still not 100% better we have to see how he does in the next couple days...how long would you say we should wait for all the antibiotics to really take affect before we start to worry he's not going to improve?

I also just want to add while I was happy with the e-vet for the most part in stabilizing him overnight I was pretty pissed off to learn that they didn't have him with Rosie for most of the time he was there. And the Dr assured me they would be together to keep him calm, because he saw how it helped with his own eyes but he left at 6pm yesterday and the overnight doc and techs took over. When I was speaking to the techs this morning the way it sounded he wasn't with Rosie nearly at all. They were just able to "see" each other and I think when he was out of the oxygen they were together, but I'm not even sure of that. My heart broke when I heard them say that because I probably wouldn't have left Rosie in that case, none of my rats have really ever been by themselves or in a strange place overnight :sad3: Rosie and Ralphie are really my heart rats and Rosie only ever wants to be with us, all the time, she's such a people rat, and when I first held her she squished her face against my arms and cuddled in closing her eyes, and she just stayed there for a solid minute while I pet her and gave her tons of kisses :heart: Ralphie was sooo relieved when he saw his travel carrier and Lily and Zoey waiting for him in it!
Then they brought him out in tiny hamster type cage and another tech was holding Rosie, when they saw I had two of my other rats with me in my carrier (they needed to be checked by my reg vet, we were going straight there) they didn't want to give me Ralphie back! They were like "Oh, he needs to be separated, like alone." I looked at them confused, and said "Why?" and they responded "because he doesn't feel good" Then they continued to argue with me because I was trying to assure them he would be much more stressed without his pack. I wasn't rude, I'm pretty non confrontational with people but I couldn't believe them! One of the girls kept saying, "well the doc is the one who put him in a separate cage" So finally, the receptionist goes, let me page the doc. He comes out and I say "I was just confused, you want me to keep him separated from the others?" And he says "Oh, no I think he's fine to go back with them." What a pain that was.
Anyways, my vet said he doesn't see why I couldn't keep him on all 3 antibiotics now, because the evet prescribed him baytril to combo with the doxy but I had already ahd him on azithromycin a day prior and had told him that. Is that really ok? I'd probably do it where he' be getting the baytril via nebulizer once a day and the zithro and doxy orally? I have a constant knot in my stomach, it's so hard to watch him in distress :sad3: Here's a video from this afternoon, does he seem any better in your opinion? Just a few minutes ago he seemed to be a little worse. Since I have to pick the nebulizer up in the morning, I think I'm going to give him a little of the inhaler. The good news is his appetite is goof, he doesn't seem to be drinking too much but he had Sub Q injections at the vet and ensure mixed with baby cereal tonight along with his veggies so I'm not overly worried about his hydration. Thanks again!!!

(Sorry it's kind of dark you can't see his face, but you can see his sides pretty well...)

 

[lilspaz68]

His breathing has eased, he's still breathing costally (through his abdomen) but not as drastically...the little hics where he is trying to shift the fluid are still there but also eased. You should notice a difference in 3-5 days. Poor old man, it sucks when they are chronics...you pray during each flareup that they rally again, and again. :sad3:

 

[Slapdash]

His breathing has eased, he's still breathing costally (through his abdomen) but not as drastically...the little hics where he is trying to shift the fluid are still there but also eased. You should notice a difference in 3-5 days. Poor old man, it sucks when they are chronics...you pray during each flareup that they rally again, and again. :sad3:

Thanks! So, today he seemed to be doing a good deal better, I was home most of the day and able to keep a good eye on him. He's still breathing slightly costally but I think there's a significant improvement at least from where he was Thursday and Friday! :bow: My camera was being stubborn and I couldn't get video for more than a few seconds at a time so I took a few videos throughout the day.

Thoughts? Thanks again!!!

 

[lilspaz68]

Gosh I love your brighteyed old man! :heart: He looks really good in those pics, probably from the steroid opening up those poor lungs...his costal breathing is very minimal, he is grooming normally, not just trying to get the fluid out of his nose, he looks relaxed and content. He is already feeling a ton better. :thumbup:

 

[Slapdash]

Gosh I love your brighteyed old man! :heart: He looks really good in those pics, probably from the steroid opening up those poor lungs...his costal breathing is very minimal, he is grooming normally, not just trying to get the fluid out of his nose, he looks relaxed and content. He is already feeling a ton better. :thumbup:

Thanks! I love him too lol :heart: He's always been such a kissing bug! He seems even better today, still has the minimal costal breathing (it's not there when he's sleeping), but his personality has returned and he was even getting playful with me today!!!
I'm so so so grateful it looks like he's going to pull through this one :joy: :joy: :joy:

Can you tell he's feeling better? :mrgreen:

 

[mamarat]

So happy for your little guy. He's gorgeous.