Rattled Breathing

[LA]

What did I do to deserve this I swear there is an epidemic going on.

So Pearl has basically been sneezy and raspy pretty much since I got her. Lily has always had sounds in her nose. Hazel started breathing poorly in April and after a bought of Baytril it came back. So now she's on Doxy and Baytril. Pearl is ok for now (I say that because I know it will come back), now today I hear Ruby (Hazel's litter sister) have raspy breathing. Now when we went to the vet with Hazel she said it was mostly nose sounds not lungs. Not sure what that means but I guess it was good. But she still put her on Doxy. It sounds the same so I think that maybe it's the nose again. I am at my wits end with this. I am going to try Pearl, Lily, Ruby and Willow on benedryll for a couple of days to see if that helps. If not I am hoping I have enough baytril for them for the 14 days. ARG.

Nothing has really changed, Wayne seems to think it's the YN we are using, but I told him it's doubtful. He wants to try going back to the shavings again which I don't really want to do. Yes we were busy with the wedding but we still paid close attention to them. Other then that nothing has changed. :gaah:

 

[SQ]

When you find an antibiotic combo that works, keep them on it for 6 weeks and the symptoms should not come right back.

 

[jorats]

We all have a few that are nasal congestion throughout their lives. Recently, I have found Doxy to be super good with the nasal congestion. My Sebbie has been on meds almost his whole adult life, only recently, since trying the Doxy, has he stopped making noise but if I stop the Doxy, it comes back.
It sucks. I know.

 

[LA]

Thanks for the info, I will keep that in mind, I will probably have to convince my vet of that. I guess the worst thing was it that friends of ours that have siblings and mom and dad to Ruby and Hazel - they aren't having problems although they feed them everything, they are in a dirty house. But in a way it's good at least my girls will be taken to the vet. *sigh*

 

[wonderrodent]

Two of my girls have been sneezy and congested (nasal area only - lungs were always clear) since the day I got them. I tried all meds and combos you can possibly think of and nothing would clear it up. One day, Lafawnda's sneezing stopped but she started making "oink" noises (hard to describe). I tried a combo of doxy and baytril again but added metacam for several weeks. It cleared up but a week later she made the noises again. My vet said we should just keep her on metacam for the rest of her life. So far, I haven't heard any sneezing or noises.
Rapunzel's nasal congestion got a little bit worse recently and I have her on Clavamox. Since then it got better.

Often, if it's a secondary infection, Amoxicillin (which Clavamox belongs to I think) helps. Metacam is a good anti-inflammatory med.

 

[Moon]

I sometimes think that we do to our rats what is becoming a problem in the western world... being too clean, doing too many meds. Sometimes stress on the immune system is a good thing, makes us stronger.

Keep in mind your friends may not spend as much time with theirs if they're not so concerned about their care, so they may not notice problems as much.

Remember, the more rats you have the more varied the problems you are bound to see. And, yes, you need to do longer runs of meds. 2 weeks is not enough.

I hope you can find something to help your ladies with their snifflies.

 

[Dewi]

We all have a few that are nasal congestion throughout their lives. Recently, I have found Doxy to be super good with the nasal congestion. My Sebbie has been on meds almost his whole adult life, only recently, since trying the Doxy, has he stopped making noise but if I stop the Doxy, it comes back.
It sucks. I know.

Yes my rat Zac has the same thing. The vet said that doxy has an anti-inflammatory effect and thought that perhaps this was why it works, and Zac's been on doxy and/or baytril for almost his whole life (and loving it too I might add).

LA I suspect that your guys don't have the right antibiotic combo and aren't getting it for long enough. BTW how often do you change their bedding, does it get stinky from their pee? Maybe this is setting them off? My guys start getting breathing probs when I don't change their bedding enough. Now I have to change it 3 times a weeks, when before I was doing this 2 times a week.

SQ, I'm going to try some of my guys with stubborn resp probs on antibiotics for 6 weeks. I've only been doing 3weeks and they get sick again after 6 to 8 weeks. Hopefully this will nip things in the bud for a lot longer.

 

[user 78]

2 weeks isn't always enough. They need to be on a course of antibiotics for a minimum of 14 days in order to prevent resistance to the medication. Often, though, the symptoms persist after the 14 days, at which point the medication should be continued. My vet has a rule of using abs until all symptoms cease + a week. Sometimes this works out to 2 weeks, most times it doesn't. I've used this method for all of my rats over the past 2 years and usually don't have recurring problems of the same sort.

I don't like the 6-8 week regardless of symptoms courses, since the actual problem could be resolved within 4 weeks, but you're continuing medications past that point. This can lead to a resistance to the abs, which would make each problem down the line more difficult to deal with. If symptoms persist that long, then by all means, continue medicating. If the bacteria has been killed off, though, then you just have abs in there doing nothing but weakening their immune system.

I also agree with Moon about how sometimes we may jump the gun and put them on meds when it may not be needed. Not to say this is the case now, just in general. I have a 3 Day rule, that if the symptoms continue, or get worse, within 3 days, then meds are used. During those 3 days I try and remove any irritants I can think of. Doing a good scrub on the cage, dusting the room they're in, adding more humidity, etc.. You would be surprised how many times symptoms have just cleared up without the use of abs. If your vet told you that Hazel's noises were more nasal than lung, have you looked into a humidifier? The addition of more humidity has helped my girls stop their noises alot of the time.

 

[LA]

Sorry it took me so long to reply. Thank you all for your replies. I put Ruby and Lily on benedryll for 4 days. It seemed to calm it down. Ruby has raspy for 30 seconds last night. Pearl is also doing it. From now on I will only give them something if it continues for a whole day or two.
I clean the litter between twice a week and once a week. The levels get wiped down once a week or every two weeks. We started changing the blanket they sleep in every night so they have a fresh blanket.
I will keep an eye on them.