what does a URI sound like?

[RatDude55]

at first i thought it was bruxing and now its this thick rumbling sound when he breathes. does he has an URI??

[TheChicagoCrew]

A URI can come across as some sneezing or full out wheezing/sneezing with lots of porphyrin. They'll have rattly lungs and have difficulty breathing, even. Bruxing is a different sound and you can sort of see their head vibrating a little bit when they do it.

-Melina

[JR1030]

My guy Mudge, who seems to always be sick, makes a kind of grunty noise with every breath when he's sick.

[RatDude55]

ok, so i'm fairly new and for some reason i can't hear to samples i found online..

He's been making this noise for a while now, gradually its gotten to where its almost non-stop.
It's deep in his chest, so it must be URI.

What can I do? What do I ask the vet? What should I do to help him?

 

[mandycoot]

Actually a sound deep in the chest indicates that it's coming from the lungs, meaning it's more likely pneumonia that an upper respiratory infection. Honestly, I've found that URIs haven't typically made a lot of noise in my rats, or at least the noise seems to be coming from the mouth and nose rather than the chest. When they get noisy, especially in the chest, it's usually been a sign that things are already pretty bad.

You'll want to get your guy into the vet right away. Hopefully you've got a qualified exotics vet that is familiar with rats. You should be looking to get antibiotics, though -- Baytril and Doxycycline are a good combo to start with if he's already having lung issues.

[RatDude55]

im betting this is from the pine shavings superpet uses as a general 'all purpose' bedding  (its a canadian chain for pets, mega big box store)



theres a small animal vet down the road..