Sepsis in rats

Question
Our pet rat, Lowe, is currently at Dr. Griffin's office near Charlotte, NC. It is believed he is suffering from a blood infection and he is being given the most aggressive treatment to save him. I am wondering if this is common in rats and if you know what sort of chances he has to pull through this. He is a three year old male. He is big for a rat but isn't necessarily overweight. He is displaying weakness, loss of balance, lethargy, loss of appetite, he isn't going to the bathroom and he smells very sour and stinky. He was x-rayed and they don't see a block in his intestines and say his spine looks fine. This started Thursday and we got him to the exotic vet Saturday. We took him to the normal vet on Friday with our exotic vet on the phone and started him on anti biotics. We had to wait a day to get him to the exotic vet since it's 5 hours away. Any help or advice would be appreciated. We are very worried about him.

Answer
Dr. Griffin is the best Vet in the South East. Your rat is in good hands.  He was my rats Vet for several yearbefore I moved from NC to Florida, and he has saved many of my rats lives.

I have lost one rat to sepsis  and this does sound like it. Her name was Sugar. Dr.Griffin may remember her. She had alot of mammary tumors and he removed some, but we could not keep her under long becasue she had respiratory issues as well. We put her on steroids to help keep the tumors from growing super fast. Over time, steroids will compromise the immune system and can cause a nasty infection, which is what happened with Sugar. She died from sepsis after being on steroids for 6 months but I have no regrets.  Had we not used the steroids, I would have lost her 6 months earlier, so really, Sugar was given a second chance for those few months.

Sepsis is not common like mammary tumors and pituitary tumors and lung and heart disease are in rats, but it is seen in rats just like leukemia and kidney disease are seen.  Has Dr.G checked his kidney function?

One thing people that read my stuff on a regular basis know about me is that I am not one to praise Vets that see rats since there are probably a very small percentage of Vets that see rats that truly know what they are doing.   Dr. Chris Griffin of Kanapolis NC is an exception. If he is treating your rat, he will do everything humanely possible to save his life. If he cant, nobody can. I put all of my faith in him.  I hope things work out.