help breathing bad

[windfire]

i got a small hairless ratty out of bad conditions and  is having breathing problems. the rat vet is not open till monday the other has closed down and the animal hospital really doesnt see rats.

i have left over doxy. and gave her .2 on the thingy like was recommended on bottle and every ten hours.  just got her today. aslo gave a tiny bit of dark chocalote and held her over a running stream of hot water to help loosing it up.

what else can i do to help her make it till monday?  i dont have any baytril but figured the doxy should help right?  keeping her warm and way from other rats. she in quarintine right now.

but am i doing everything i can? need more rat vets.

[Dearpie]

It sounds like you're doing the best you can do in your situation at the moment.  Lots of luck to you both.  The only other thing I can think of would be to use a nebulizer, even if you use just saline in it, I'd think it would help.

[windfire]

what is that? most of my ratties have been pretty healthy so never needed anything much.

[Dearpie]

People with asthma use nebulizers to help open their airways when having severe attacks.  They use a variety of meds in the nebulizer though.  When I use one for my rats, I use baytril with the saline.   A nebulizer creates a very fine mist that the rat inhales and gets the meds into their lungs, a more direct application of the meds.

[windfire]

oh  ok will look for one to have on hand . and hopefully this little girl and the doxy will help till i can get one and to the vet.

why does it never fail to happen on the weekends.

[Dearpie]

Murphy's Law.

I found my nebulizer for a good price on Craigslist.    The saline isn't quite so easy to track down.  I actually had to get a prescription from the vet, and I buy it from KVVet.com.  It used to be readily found at WalGreen's, etc, but now they typically have the asthma meds already mixed in, so things have really changed. 

[windfire]

opps forgot to say thanks and will look on craigslist too. thanks agian and keep roo in prayers.

[Poppyseed]

Vaporizers work well too just to get some steam in them. I'm using one now for a boy that is showing signs of respiratory. As is the case with you, vet isn't open till Monday but he seems stable (just is making some horrible noises mostly and occasional hunched over and puffed fur. No porphy and hardly any sneezing I think he's mostly congested) so I'm just doing the best I can with what I have (fortunately I have a lot available since I have a chronic uri here already. Baytril, nebulizer and meds and vaporizer, etc.).

But he was making horrible noises until I put that near the cage. The noises pretty much stopped after that!

[windfire]

well we made it through the night and she is eating baby food and taking the med like its candy.  she still sneezes and sounds congested but thinking i am gonna stay on the plan  for a few days before i go to vets as its working. she is even up and about today.

so we are doing good so far. thanks

[Dearpie]

I would probably still take her in tomorrow.  She may need a round of real antibiotics to really make her better.  If she's congested with the sneezing, that's more concern.

[windfire]

i thought doxycline was an antibiotic?

[Dearpie]

Ooops, my bad! I was thinking ornacyn (other thread).   How much doxy do you have?  Is it enough for 14 - 21 days?

[windfire]

i have a whole bottle    the rat it was prescribed too had a tumor that was thought to be a ear infection.

so after the vet visit she died that evening so never got to use the med. so yea have enough for .2  2 times a day for ten days.

no if didnt have enough would be going for sure tommorow but she is improving so dont want to change what im doing now if its working.

thanks