Pneumonia?

Question
QUESTION: I have asked a question on here before, so I figured this would be a good place to go to.

My elder rat Carnelian came down with an illness yesterday afternoon, around 4:00 pm. He was crawling around, not standing completely, gasping for air, etc. I was extremely worried about him, so I took him to the local emergency vet office. They figured that he had come down with pneumonia, but told me without tests they couldn't be sure.

Well, I paid quite a lot of money to leave him at the vet in an oxygen tank, which appeared to help him very much. That was yesterday at around 6:00, and we finally picked him up at 10:00. He was breathing better, moving around, licking my finger, and taking food and water, little nibbles, but still some.

His temperature was up to normal by then, but the vet told me to be careful. So I seperated him completely across the room from my other rat, set him up in a smaller cage, and covered it mainly with fabric to keep it warm in there. He seems way better. I'm giving him oral antibiotics every 12 hours for seven days.

Is there anything more I can do for him? I try to keep the house at around 68-70 degrees F for his comfortableness, and I've mainly been feeding him fresh veggies and fruits to entice him to eat. He seems to be drinking and eating normally. But I was wondering if there was /anything/ more I could do. Any foods that are good for them, or anything really.

Thank you.
Oh, and P.S... that vet charged me a little under $250 by the time it was done. :) I was wondering if that was average according to other vets or if it varied from place to place.

-KatieLee Sliger

ANSWER: That price is awesome!!!!!  Usually an ER vet visit, 02 therapy, meds and an exam would run you well over $500 plus and I am serious as the day is long!

However, you need a good exotic vet to continue treatment. He needs to be on the medication longer than just 7 days.  If it is pneumonia, chances are it is caused by the mycoplasmosis bacteria and this nasty organism needs treated for 30 days at least to prevent relapse.  If he   should relapse, this is when it starts to become chronic and his lungs may end up becoming scarred or worse....blistered.   Should he become ill again the second time he will need to be kept on antibiotics for the rest of his life to prevent a chronic condition that could cost him his life.

Also, its best NOT to put him alone from his cagemates. Doing this will only stress him out further which in turn can make his immune system weak and cause him to get sicker.  If he was contagious, it was when he was gasping when he first fell ill,not now.  The antibiotics would help him from being contagious in about 12 hours or so.
Also the ideal temp for rats is around 72 to 82 degrees.  Do you need names of good exotic vets in your area?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Oh, fantastic. I thought it seemed pretty low compared to what it could have run; keeping him overnight at the vet office would have cost me about $500. Good to know I got a good price. :)

That sounds terrible. I have done some research in my local area and a little further to find exotic vets, and I figured out there was actually quite a good number of them. But I'm not sure which ones are truly fantastic exotic vets. I was on here before, and you recommended a vet named Dr. Shackelford, who I was completely planning to go to. Unfortunately, due to it being New Years, the vet office was closed; otherwise, I would have gone to his clinic.

If you could find anybody else who seems to have a lot of experience, or just knows what they're doing, that would be awesome. I used West Vet Emergency Clinic for my rat's pneumonia, just so you're aware. :)

If he does become ill again and reclaims symptoms, should I seperate him again? I have two rats and they already live in seperate cages, although the cages are rather close together. I thought it would be easier to keep him warm in the smaller cage, where I can cover it easily with fabrics, then in the larger, three story one he lives in.

Thank you so much. Let me know.
And also; are you certain he should be on longer then a week? And if I went to another vet to get more antibiotics for him, how would they know which ones to give? The current antibiotics are... Baytril .22c.

ANSWER: If your rat snuggles with his cagemates, he will be warmer sleeping with other rats than being alone.

As for being on the baytril longer than a week, yes I am absolutely positive it should be longer than a week. The reason being is that mycoplasmosis does not die off easily. It may begin to subside in symptoms but it can cause a secondary infection as soon as the treatment stops if it is stopped prematurely. 7 days therapy is premature.  There are many other rat health care websites that also suggest 30 days treatment and to be honest, the newest studies now are suggesting the rat be treated for 6 weeks rather than 4 weeks.  

As for exotic vets, there are only 130 certified exotic vets in the entire world with most of them being from the United States.  If  you come across a vet that says they treat exotics, simply ask if they are avian/exotic certified and the chances they say yes are pretty slim unless your attending a strictly all exotic clinic.  The vets that see exotics in a general clinic setting have what is called "a special interest" in exotics. This simply means they  have taken an interest in treating pocket pets, ferrets, rabbits, reptiles etc...but have no real formal certification.  In fact, some of these Vets simply read up on small mammal medicine, hang out at an exotic vet clinic from time to time and maybe attend a few workshops here and there but they are no way certified in exotics.  Many people misunderstand this and will tell me that they take their rat to the same clinic they take their dog or cat and that there are four exotic vets there.  One phone call later and I tell the person that the so called exotic vets are NOT exotic certified but simply know a little bit about rats or ferrets and thats about it. They do not all understand many of the rats ailments or how to treat it, often underdosing the rat or making a terrible mistake in diagnosing their ailments.  Once someone wrote me and told me that her rat was put to sleep due to a brain tumor. The rat had head tilt and was walking in circles. This is classic inner ear infection and is easily treated.  However, the Vet, not knowing much about rats, talked her into putting the rat to sleep.  She had just come home with the rats remains and I talked her into going to another vet with the rats body to have a necropsy done.  
Much to her horror, I was right, the rat had nothing more than an ear infection. No signs of brain tumor at all.  this rat was put down for nothing and she was only  6 months old. I remember that day clearly....I wanted to call that Vet up so bad and tell him he better stop treating small mammals because he clearly was clueless about their ailments and in fact he killed a young rat that could have went on to live two more years or longer!  I was fuming.....and this is the very reason why I like to help people understand that just because a vet says they see rats does not mean they know what they are doing. It is vital rat owners educate themselves as much as possible so that mistakes like the Vet made about the rat and the ear infection doesnt happen to their own rat.  Had the owner known more about pituitary tumors and ear infections her rat could have been alive today.   This is why I do what I do. This is why I keep my Critter City website as current and as accurate as possible.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: That is a very dissapointing and depressing story, but I guess a lesson was learned for all around it.
However, where do I go to get more baytril? I really an unsure I can afford another big check right now... being it all after Christmas and such, but if you know where I could get some more doses, I could of course, and will, try to save up for it.
Would I go back to the vet who treated my rat in the first place? Because that might be silly, to tell a vet that they don't know what they're doing. :( Not to misjudge you, of course, but merely that I'm not sure how to phrase that without sounding completely impolite. Do you happen to have any pointers for me?

Thank you!

Answer

How are things going?  You do have a good point about not wanting to sound rude by telling the vet he or she doesn't know much about rats.  I of course did not mean for you to come out and say it....LOL....   You can simply say that you know of someone that works strictly with rats on a professional basis as well as being a rat owner too, and that they suggested this or they suggested that as per their OWN Vet. Make suggestions, tell them you did some reading of your own (which you should) and you read this or you read that.  Sometimes a really good vet is open to outside suggestions.  You can refer to my website, Sandyscrittercity.com for information on various subjects.