Ronny sick again, no vet till friday

[handmeafish]

Ron is sick again, but its way different this time. He's still his normally sneezy self, but I noticed his teeth are whiteish and he's had runny poo for almost a week now. He doesn't have any more poryph than normal.
At first i thought i'd just been giving too many watery veggies and to much baby cereal, so I cut that back to see if it had any effect on his poo, and it didn't. I've decided to take him to a different vet, because the other vet wont try anything other than 10 days baytril and doxy for his uris. This works for maybe a month, and then he's sick again.
The new vet can't see him until friday... and I don't know how serious this could be. He's still pretty active, but I think he's lost some weight. Any ideas on what could be wrong?

 

[temblabamomo]

I am not expert, hopefully those more knowledgeable will respond soon. I think 10 days is short for a course of antibiotics. The minimum my vet will say is 2 weeks, but others may tell you that a longer course is needed. Sometimes with these recurring problems it's just the original infection coming back time and again because the rat isn't on antibiotics long enough. Hopefully a different vet may have some answers for you.

Has Ron been on any kind of immune boosting regimen, e.g. echinacea? This thread viewtopic.php?f=21&t=22590 discusses a supplement that some vets are now giving to help boost the immune system. I'm seeing good results as far as my old rat's energy levels being way up lately because of it. If Ron's not already being given something to help with his immune system, he may benefit from starting something.

 

[handmeafish]

I've thought about that kind of stuff int he past, but I could never find dosing information.

 

[temblabamomo]

The product we are trying now is Sunshine Factor, it has dosing info on the bottle, but when our vet prescribed it she gave us her own dosing recs, which were pretty close to the info on the bottle. And there's a ton of people on this forum who can help you figure out dosing and a schedule for something like echinacea tincture, I can't find a specific thread talking about it, but if you do a search, or post on the topic, someone will pipe up. Starting him on something won't necessarily make him better now, but it could help to prevent these pesky URIs in the future. When you are able to get him in to see a different vet, ask them if they can recommend anything.

 

[jorats]

Too much wet poop is a concern. I'd try to give him unsalted crackers, that might help harden up his poops.

 

[Godmother]

Some rats (and people) get diarrhea when on antibiotics. it would be good to follow jorats' suggestion of crackers (I've been told that bread rice and applesauce are also good) and to make sure he gets lots of fluids.

 

Crackers have worked well for me when my guys needed it!

Get the vet to check his teeth as well, they should be yellow/orange

good luck :hugs:

 

[mamarat]

A rat's teeth can also turn white on long term meds.

 

[handmeafish]

He's been off ABS for a few weeks now. I gave him some dry toast earlier, which he loved, and I am going to get benebac tomorrow at work. If the problem is the ABS, then some probiotics will help him out.