Sick rat :(

[colonel]

My rat Pickles is very ill, i discovered her late this evening. shes completely limp and has no energy. i had to take her to an emergency clinic and they said she may just have pneumonia and gave me some medication but they didnt seem very.. knowledgeable..

I love her so much, shes an amazing rat, and i dont think shes even a year old..

I've been getting her to eat, but she only seems to want to eat her yogurt treats, nothing else. And she'll drink water if i put it in front of her.. a LOT of water..do you think she could possibly over do it??
Her breathing is also a little rough.

ugh.. i dunno, i guess theres really not a whole lot i can do, i've been asking around and got some good advice from people, but for now i'll just have to keep a close eye on her and hope for the best.. Any ideas or suggestions on what i could do for her? I know its all kind of vague..

 

[Rachael]

What medicines did the vet give you?
I wouldn't worry about the water. I'd rather they took loads than dehydrate... she may not have been drinking properly while this was working on her and you are offering the water straight to her, she must be so thirsty. Give her runny, tempting foods like baby foods.

 

[jorats]

Hopefully she was put on Baytril and doxy. That could bring her back. Get her some baby cereal and Ensure. She needs to eat. If she's drinking that much water, it might be easier for her to do that since eating is hard on a rat when they can't breathe right so the Ensure should great for her.
Keep her warm too.

 

[maria-mar]

Best wishes Colonel <3
If you need help giving her the meds just say so, there's a lot of useful tricks to give a rat a pill of liquid.

 

[colonel]

Thanks everyone, just over the course of the night she seems to be much much better, shes up and walking about now, im so relieved.

The meds they gave me are baytril, said to administer for a week.

 

[maria-mar]

That's so good to know

 

[SQ]

Good that she is doing better.
She sounded like she might have been dehydrated from your description.
If the batril is helping, then you will need to see a vet because she will likely need to be on baytril for 6 weeks.

 

[minnow]

Baytril is good, better in combination with doxycycline, but a week of it isn't nearly enough to beat pneumonia and keep it from coming back. Call around with the small animal and exotic vets in the area tomorrow and ask all of them who they'd recommend taking a rat to - sometimes there's a clear 'winner' - and get Pickles in ASAP. In the mean time, look up and print out the information you can find on the Rat Guide (http://ratguide.com/) to help the vet you find with the latest info on dosing, medications, how long they're needed, etc. Be sure to include the information that most of the information on the site is reviewed by vets.

Good luck.

 

[sarunia]

If pickle is still dehydrated, I can recommend getting Pedialyte. My Little Rat was pretty dehydrated when he went in with a respiratory infection last week, and it worked wonders. Just be careful-- it spoils after 24 hours, so make little ice cubes and melt down as needed.

Is she feeling any better?

 

[sarunia]

Another quick suggestion (or three!!)

When I buy baby food for my boy's I always check the ingredients. When they're sick I feel like they eat A LOT of sugar (between the syrupy flavored medicines to the means by which to get them to eat the nastier ones), so I always get them more savory choices. If you buy some, look at the ingredients list. I try to make sure that the kind my boys get has a lot of veggies. Sick favorites 'round here include the macaroni and cheese (if it has carrots as the top ingredient), evening stew and noodles and chicken. If you're buying it at Wal-Mart, Gerber sells baby food for about $1.00 that has two containers (they're plastic). After opened they last about two days.

Put some bowls of water around the room, but try to change them daily so they don't get yucky. That will keep the air nice and humid for both you and your girl.

My vet also recommended taking out the bedding they're using and replacing it with flat newspaper. It needs to be changed every day, but doesn't have as much lint, and fuzz for her to breathe in.
Good luck!!

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

If it's pneumonia you will definately need more than a week and you will most likely need doxy to help him get over it. Hopefully closer to the end of the week you can call the e-vet you saw and tell them the symptoms are still prevalent and they will give you a longer dose and you have heard doxy might help in this situation and see what happens.

 

Doxy + baytril is what you need.
Also feed baby cereal mixed with ensure.
banannas mushed up
& baby food (jars).