Too young for certain antibiotics?

[EDK]

Hey all, I've been posting about my rats on another topic but decided to ask a question in a more relevent section on the forum. My boys are new to my home, and been here about 5days. One of my boys Dax is about 4 almost 5weeks old now, and eating and drinking great on his own as I've stated. But I noticed of all the new boys that do their occassional stress sneezing or excited sneezing, he does it the most with sneezing fits nearly constantly, a few minutes in between. He only seems to do this though when I'm handling him or I have him out and about on the bed for play with his brothers. But at night when he's playing or sleeping, he's totally normal. I do a rat phone on him every day at least twice to hear for gasping or wheezing. Other then him sneezing, teeth chattering, there's no signs of breathing issues. I do use detergent but its not scented, and I dont use perfume either, and the cage was clean when I brought him and his brothers home.

At this point though I'm not sure whether to assume this is just overreacting stress sneezing, or he's got an URI. But if I dont see improvement by next week Friday, I'm wondering if I should start worrying. I made the mistake of waiting too long to take action on Techno, and the result was devestating, and I dont want to make the same mistake here if there is a problem. So the Question is this:

Is 4-5weeks old too young to have .5cc of Doxy? And should this be the best thing to try first, or should i wait another 2 weeks.

 

[jorats]

This is tough. If you wait at this age, it could be detrimental but we don't want to medicate unless necessary. If he doesn't do it all the time, only when you take him out, it seems that he's sneezing when he's doing lots of sniffing. Rats in new environments do a lot of smelling. If he appears completely healthy otherwise, my gut is to say to wait a couple more days.
I don't know if doxy is safe in your rats. I think doxy for sneezing is a good choice. We'll wait for someone else to say if it's safe or now.

 

[lilspaz68]

I would still say you are in the safe range for new home sneezies as they get acclimated. Dry sharp sneezes, often rapid and following each other? those are safe. Wet liquidy sneezes are not.

At this point I would watch and wait like you are planning. At that age I wouldn't use doxy or baytril (both not pediatric friendly) but would try for amoxicillin or zithromax UNLESS the symptoms become severe, then I would skip the doxy and toss him on baytril ASAP.

 

[EDK]

His sneezes are defiently dry most of the time, an occassional wet one off and on but not often, from what I can tell, but its alot of sneezing in comparison what the others do. I'm on high alert here heh, but i'll give him a few more days to adjust, if he's still sneezing then i'll push with medicine of what you suggested.