PaigeRobinson_
New Member
I think my rat developed pneumonia a few weeks ago.
It started off with just some loud breathing but knowing that it was likely just a URI I took him to the vet almost straight away. The vet prescribed baytril and that night I brought him back he started to really deteriorate, he was mouth breathing and really looked to be in pain. It didn’t feel like a typical URI and all the videos and forum posts I read lead me to the conclusion that it was likely pneumonia.
He got a lot better on the baytril in a couple of days and after 2 weeks I finished the course. He seemed much better but after 3 days of being off the medication he started to decline again. Took him to an emergency vet who prescribed him another course of baytril but he did not seem to get better over the next couple of days and only seemed to get worse. Mouth breathing, very lathargic, not grooming himself, then noises when breathing like you would hear with a uri but you could clearly tell it was because he was struggling so much.
I took him back to the vet who then prescribed doxy, within 12 hours he went from being the worst he’s ever been to nearly back to his normal self. Sprinting around, eating, wrestling with the other rats - almost completely back to normal.
He’s been on doxy for a week now and I plan to continue for a good while longer. But his breathing is still loud? No noises or crackling or anything like that just that his breathing isn’t silent anymore and I can hear it, to be fair you wouldn’t even be able to tell unless he was close but compared to my other 2 whose breathing is silent it just worried me that his isn’t anymore.
I just wanted to know if this was normal? Maybe he has some scarring if the infection was so deep in his lungs. Other than me being able to hear him breath he is feeling fantastic and is defiantly making a good recovery which I’m so pleased to see.
I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience on this?
It started off with just some loud breathing but knowing that it was likely just a URI I took him to the vet almost straight away. The vet prescribed baytril and that night I brought him back he started to really deteriorate, he was mouth breathing and really looked to be in pain. It didn’t feel like a typical URI and all the videos and forum posts I read lead me to the conclusion that it was likely pneumonia.
He got a lot better on the baytril in a couple of days and after 2 weeks I finished the course. He seemed much better but after 3 days of being off the medication he started to decline again. Took him to an emergency vet who prescribed him another course of baytril but he did not seem to get better over the next couple of days and only seemed to get worse. Mouth breathing, very lathargic, not grooming himself, then noises when breathing like you would hear with a uri but you could clearly tell it was because he was struggling so much.
I took him back to the vet who then prescribed doxy, within 12 hours he went from being the worst he’s ever been to nearly back to his normal self. Sprinting around, eating, wrestling with the other rats - almost completely back to normal.
He’s been on doxy for a week now and I plan to continue for a good while longer. But his breathing is still loud? No noises or crackling or anything like that just that his breathing isn’t silent anymore and I can hear it, to be fair you wouldn’t even be able to tell unless he was close but compared to my other 2 whose breathing is silent it just worried me that his isn’t anymore.
I just wanted to know if this was normal? Maybe he has some scarring if the infection was so deep in his lungs. Other than me being able to hear him breath he is feeling fantastic and is defiantly making a good recovery which I’m so pleased to see.
I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience on this?
