Upper resiratory

[majeekarevel]

I need some help here. Majeeka has an upper respiratory infection. She had 5 days on Bisolvin a couple of days off (until I went back to the vet) She has been on Baytrill and Bisolvin for the past week now with no improvement. Vet has only put her on a low Baytril dose as not down in her lungs and I've only to give it for 5 - 7 days.

I did question the dosage and length of treatment but was told due to it being upper respy no point in slamming her with loads of Baytril. At the moment I'm inclined to agree as the Baytril just isn't working niether is the Bisolven. She is still active and happy at the moment but I refuse to allow the same thing to steal Majeeka away from me as what took Revel. I am still hurting from Revel's passing if I lost Majeeka I would be suicidal (no exageration) I can't handle the thought of her getting worse then ending up the same way Revel went. Please someone help me try to figure this one out.

I will be phoning the vet on Thursday as that's the 7 days up and I also want to ask about Maisy and her stitches, but I just want to know has anyone had this before and what have you treated it with successfully?

Poor little thing sounds like a little pig

[izzerie]

I would ask the vet to try a baytril/doxy combo. Although it's usually used in lower respiratory infections I found it really effective when my boy was suffering from an upper respiratory infection

[HereticPr1me]

Hey Maj,
I just stumbled on this, how is the wee one doing ?

[laurarobjohns]

Hey there

I had a very rattly rat recently and I was given Baytril and Meloxidyl to give her and she improved quite quickly. She had the sniffles for a while but is fully recovered now

[vegan_jen]

I have lost two to respiratory infection, with a third one on the way :'(. I say you have to treat this aggressively from the first sign (often sneezing). Baytril on its own often isn't enough. My rat Shiloh has been on baytril+ ronaxan (a doxycyclin I believe) and has shown no improvement, so I am yet again going back to see if anything else can be done.

[Neotoma]

I don't see the logic in giving a low dose just because it's upper resp. The bugs are the bugs wherever it is, and you want a big enough dose to kill them - a low dose when it's upper resp seems to me to just be giving them the chance to become resistant, which will make things harder if they then move to the lungs. I'd have said it's either worth treating (in which case you want the standard dose for 2-3 weeks) or it's not. Treating, but not enough to knock them on the head seems the worst of both worlds.

Anyway, if they aren't responding to baytril after a week, I'd personally try doxy, either alone or in combination.

[sati18]

^^^ agreed- how old is the rat? it may not be mycoplasma in which case there are better options to treat a wider range of organisms. defintiely agree that if your going to treat with AB's its better to do too much than too little becaus eof the likelihood of resistance

[majeekarevel]

She's 18 months. The vet will be willing to try something else due to Baytril not working. She's still her normal bouncy nutty self. She's just slightly audible sometimes there is no noise, other times it's quiet grunting or if verticle it's a slightly heavier grunting. The only way to describe it is she sounds like a really quiet little pig (bless her, I normally call her my little monkey) The vet has suggested leaving her just now with no ab's and see how she is and if it starts to get worse or she starts seeming off colour then we'll treat it. I'm just really scared of loosing her. It's bad enough I lost Revel to this evil disease without loosing Majeeka as well.

Another thought that did cross my mind was possible hayfever, mine is playing up something chronic and I know that there are some on this forum have had rats suffer from it. Would it be worth trying an anthihistamine? I'd rather get her better now that wait till it gets worse, but the fact that it isn't getting worse is making me question whether we are really dealing with a respy infection as her chest is clear she's just snuckly (like myself with my hayfever)

Opinions welcome, lets get Majeeka back to 100% Thanks guys.

[Miss_disorientated]

Poor Majeeka, I really she get's better soon. I'm also sorry for your loss of Revel.
I've got a poorly ratty (Clive) with exactly the same symptoms you described especially the 'quiet pig'. I've had him on two courses of baytril and although he seems to be a bit better at times there has been no lasting improvement. It is so worrying isn't it and heartbreaking to see out babies suffer. I'm going to take him back to the vets in the next few days and ask to try something else. Thing is, my vets are good but they often seem to think I am over reacting.

[majeekarevel]

Thank you. At least she's not showing any physical signs of being ill, which I'm really thankfull for. I hope you can get Clive sorted and get him all better. Let me know what your vet prescribes for him and if it works then I'll see if I can get it for Majeeka to try. I think my vet is just trying to avoid pumping her full of antibiotics if she's not showing any physical signs of being ill and I suppose I kind of agree. Though I'm terrified that if I don't act now then she'll go the same route as Revel. I'm terrified of loosing her. When she first started showing the signs of noisy breathing I took her straight to the vets and the other vet said to just wait and see but I panicked myself and ended up asking for the antibiotics a couple of days later. He only prescribed 0.1ml but that time I upped it to 0.15ml and did it for 14 days but it didn't really do anything. As I was at the vets anyway with Maisy I just asked about the noises that Majeeka was making and that's when she got the 5 days of Bisolvin which didn't do anything, then it was the low dose of Baytril and the Bisolvin (I got scared about giving the higher dose because I went against the vets advice on Revel's Baytril and upped it and it improved her for the first 3 days or so then she went down hill and died, and now I feel rotten thinking I may have been partly responsible for her death)

Sorry for the essay but I'm really not sure what to do or think just now. I'm still a bit messed up and miss Revel like crazy and wonder if I could have done anything different and I don't want to make the same mistake with Majeeka. Her little life is in my hands and her life is going to be short enough as it is without it ending sooner than it should naturally. Okay I'll shut up now and post.

[Toribob]

I was sorry too, to hear about Revel. I have similiar thing happening with my Boo at the moment. He is hooting badly with his breathing... sometimes constantly and sometimes for a while and then he will stop.

He had 5 day course of metacam originally, after which he sounded fine for a week. Then he started again, so I asked the vet for 0.25ml baytril twice a day, which i got with another course of metacam. There was no great improvement though, so back to the vets again. I was given 0.3mls Septrin twice a day, and asked for Bisolvon to try. He is also still on his baytril (three weeks now). But he still not massively improved.

I am going to ring vets and ask to try some different antibiotics - probably doxycyline. I have also been wondering like you about trying an anti-histamine.

These are my first grop of rats, and i am so nervous about them getting ill and me not realising, or not getting them onto the right treatment and getting worse. So, I can uncderstand your worry. I hope your Majeeka improves soon x

[HereticPr1me]

I had wondered about rats and allergies too, Im sure the hot weather isnt helping. I would be interested to know if there are any case studies on allergies in rats and how common it is, I only know of one rat myself...
I suppose you could talk to your vet about a low dose of steroid and see if that helps, although steroids are immunosuppressants, so it may be prefferable to keep her on ABs in the meantime...

Certainly with Rhinoa she sounds like its up in her nose, I can hear the occasional honk but thats it and when she clears her tubes, she sounds completely clear (although she's sneezing more throughout the day, so were off to the vet thursday). Conversely, a couple of years ago with Leela, she had a really bad resp infection and sounded like someone scrunching a crisp packet constantly, it was horrible to listen to, but baytril combined with, iirc, doxy and a tiny pinch of bisolvon and she cleared up after a week.

Ive no idea whether up in the nose or down in the lungs is better or which is easier to treat (lungs = bad I expect), but my thinking is to combine ABs for a week and if there is still no change then maybe try a short acting steroid as well - I would think if its allergies then the steroid would work very quickly.
Im sorry you lost Revel, but I suppose that gives you a point of comparison that allows you to mark her progress.
Uncertainty is the worst part of them being ill, I know how you feel
Give scrithes to Majeeka, Clive and Boo from us here

[Neotoma]

Just to say, waiting until a rat seems actively ill before treating is generally a bad idea in my experience. Waiting until there are symptoms, yes, obviously - if you're talking noise, a bit of porphryn etc. But rats who actually look ill in terms of lethargic, floofed, uninterested in food are generally very ill indeed - especially if you are talking about chronic resp disease, where it can brood for months with some symptoms, but no really adverse affects on the rat.

[majeekarevel]

I probably worded that wrong. I definitely don't want to wait till the latter stages this time. (Well I didn't the last time it's just the vet I went to the first time didn't do anything. Maybe if she had Revel would have lasted longer . . . or maybe not)

I gave in and phoned vets today as Maisy is making some sounds now too, so she's given me septrin (sp?) 0.3 twice a day. I'm going to treat them both.

[sati18]

good luck with the septrin- keep an eye for progress. If the septrin helps her then you know it's not a maycoplasma infection but something else. if you see no imporvement within a few days then i would suggest askign to add another antibiotic which does cover mysoplasma to further the coverage. since you say baytril hasn't helped, maybe doxycycline or erythromycin.