when will it end?

[Ziggy]

To sum up for those that didn't read previous topics by me, I have a 9 month old boy, Attila, who one day out of the blue started making congested, horrible grunty noises when he was sleeping. ONLY when he was relaxing or trying to sleep. No other symptoms of any respiratory problems, no previous problems, came on out of the blue.

He was taken to the vet and put onto baytril. The noises stopped completely on the second or third day. By the 7th day or so of his course, the noises were back. Seemed worse but I could be overreacting.
Back to the vet we went. She uppsed his dose of baytril to twice a day instead of once and gave me some more to be going on with.
The symptoms disappeared again and stayed gone for a good week or so. His course finished and he stayed well for about 3 days.

Today, the noises are back

What can I do? English vets will not used the doxy/baytril combo so theres no point suggesting that.

[Christine5000]

As long as his lungs are clear I wouldn't worry about it.
I had a rat who made grunting sounds like that every now and then but his lungs were fine so the vet said not to worry.  Some rats are more vocal then others.  And if he only does when he's asleep maybe he's snoring!

[ckhs]

In my opinion the course of treatment shoulkd be at least 21 days. How long was he on at one time.
Perhaps you could get a stronger concentration of baytril or try another antibiotic.
Has your vet done any cultures to find out what exactly your dealing with, maybe baytril is not the answer.

[Ziggy]

well, when I first took him, when these noises first came on out of the blue, the vet said his lungs sounded bad.

When he went back the second time after having started making them again, the vet, a different vet, said his lungs weren't too bad.

But he's never made these noises before now. It came on suddenly and it's very loud. It's not the usual greeting grunt that some rats do, it's definately a nasal congestion sound. And it's PRIMARILY when he's laying down or relaxing but occasionally he makes the noise faintly when out and about too.
I wondered if it could be some kind of allergies. Summer has just gotten going here in the UK, we've had some of our first hot days. Attila has never seen a summer before, this is his first one. Maybe it's related to pollen or somehthing? But then if it were that, the anitibiotics he was on initially wouldn't have affected it would they?

[Ziggy]

In my opinion the course of treatment shoulkd be at least 21 days. How long was he on at one time.
Perhaps you could get a stronger concentration of baytril or try another antibiotic.
Has your vet done any cultures to find out what exactly your dealing with, maybe baytril is not the answer.

vets round here only ever seem to put you on 0.2mls of baytril once a day for about two weeks. If that. If that doesn't work, they up it to twice a day. Then I'd assume they'd try something different. I will be taking him back if this doesn't clear up so will ask if she can do some cultures......though I have no idea what they are.

[Christine5000]

What kind of bedding are you using?  Pine or wood shavings are bad for rats esp. if they have breathing problems.  Care fresh is best.

[Ziggy]

Don't worry, I know about the pine and cedar. But carefresh isn't available in the uk, at least not near me. They have a huge 3 tier cage and they spend 99% of their time at the top, only ever coming down to the bottom tier to go to the toilet. So I use paper towels on the bottom of the cage, changed daily.

I used to use bob martin's paper based cat litter but got fed up of my rats getting mites from it.

[ckhs]

Cultures they just swab the nose and look at it under the scope to see what your dealing with. In total how long has this been going on?
It could very well be allergies. is there sneezing involved?
My Walter had a pretty nasty bout with a bacteria which caused grunting and sneezing and after baytril did not work we put him on an antibiotic eye drop as well as oral meds and this worked. you can also use an over the counter eye drop for sneezes caused by allergies that works also.
Sounds like cultures are in order.

[Ziggy]

Hm.........in total it started about the 20th of may. Thereabouts. Possibly a little before that.

[ckhs]

Thats not even a month and he has been on and off meds already. I would definitly insist on cultures and a longer treatment plan with meds given every twelve hours.
I saw pictures of your boy and gotta say he's a doll.

[Ravyn]

Saidee has made guinea pig grunting noises several times. The first time I rushed her off to the vet, and she said her lungs sounded clear and there were no signs of nasal inflammation. No porphyrin staining, nothing. She went on a round of baytril and was fine.

Two days after the baytril, she started grunting again. Off to the vet once more, more baytril, again her lungs sounded fine and no inflammation.

Again, the grunting. I've decided that she just doesn't like to be woken up before she's ready...every time she's grunted like that it's when I've poked her out of her house for some reason or other. I think it's just her way of cursing me out

"Hey, Ma! I was sleeping! Don't go and *grunt grunt blankety blank* wake me up in the middle of a *grunt grunt blankety blank* Ace dream! HE WAS IN HIS TUTU, MAN! *grunt grunt grunt"