Choking -- is there really anything you can do?

[Scubbs]

Last night when I was saying goodnight to the boys, I noticed when I pet Fitzherbert that he was strangely limp.  Well, not exactly limp, but he was hardly moving at all when I was petting him, where as he usually at least turns around to lick me or fidgets a bit.  I picked him up, and noticed her was drooling.  Around his mouth was green, so I knew he had been eating away at the salad I just put in for them.  I listened to his chest, and his breathing was EXTREMELY labored; it practically sounded like stuff was rattling around inside of him.  I put him on the bed with me, and he continued to hunch up and act as though he was trying to get something out of his throat.  Some more saliva came out, along with a couple small pieces of dandelion greens/lettuce.  I also did what people do to newborn puppies when they're not breathing right away -- wrapped him in a towel and motioned him toward the ground really quickly.  It helped some more -- enough to where he was no longer sounding like a rattling toy whenever he breathed.  I put him back in the cage, and he was extremely exhausted from the whole ordeal, so I let him get some rest.  I was worried about him a lot while I was falling asleep, and kept worrying I'd wake up to a dead Fitzybaby    Thankfully, as soon as I woke up, I looked at the cage to see him happily playing with a couple of the other boys.  Listened to his chest, and he sounded perfect.

I've never had an incident as bad as this.  Usually, they'll get all hunched up, look like they're gagging/attempting to vomit, and then they're fine.  The Fitzy incident lasted for about 15 minutes, and it was made worse by the fact that he was drooling and looked so exhausted 

[kmw]

All the advice I've seen is if a rat is still breathing, the best course of action is to do nothing.  The fling, as you described, is for when a rat is not breathing.  The danger of doing it when a rat is still breathing is the possibility of lodging whatever is in their throat farther down. 

If a rat was taken to an emergency vet, I'm not sure what kind of treatment would be given.  Perhaps try to suction the problem out?  I really don't know as my rats have always worked the *stuff* out, either within minutes, or the worst case - 45 minutes that seemed to last an ETERNITY for me! 

[Lise]

I went through this trauma the other night.  My rat started choking at 5pm, and she finally stopped at 3:30am. 

Yes, thats right, over 10 hours of choking!  OMG.

It was hell, and I didn't know if she was going to make it but she sure proved that rats are resilient and if at all possible they will definitely pull through the choking episodes!

[lilspaz68]

I had a 5 hour episode that almost killed me not the rat.  She was very tired the next day and I gave her very soft food just in case her trachea was sore.  She was perfectly fine after that.  She stopped breathing for a second and I had the rattie fling memorized.  I dozed sitting up on the couch with my hand touching her back to make sure she was still breathing.  Horrifyingly helpless feeling...amazing how they recover.   

[Tequillasmom]

I had a similar experience while medicating one of my girls, Happy. I dont know if she gagged on the meds or what happened but she started hunching and shaking and her tongue was hanging out. I rushed her to the e vet and they said they cant suction rats because their lungs are too small and the suction is too strong. I dont know if that is true everywhere though. The vet we saw recomended we do nothing as long as the rat is still breathing. She said to simply take the rat out of the cage (in case cage mates are bothering it) and put them in a dark room so try and calm them