Follow up sick rats

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
I emailed regarding my sneezing dumbo rats purchased from Petsmart. I did bring them to my own vet. Despareaux had a blood tinged mucus from his nose. Vet placed him and his mate Casper on cherry flavored Baytril twice per day for 21 days. He is having me weigh them weekly, so that the dose can be adjusted as they grow. The pet store had no info on their age but they are young according to the Vet.
I noticed yesterday that Despareaux is starting to make a chirping sound, his whole body jumps, like maybe it is a sneeze, however,I only see/hear this after I administer his meds and he is eating his Cheerio.
What can I do to boost his immune system? Also, should I weigh him daily, would loss of weight indicate that he is getting sicker?
Thank you,
Veronica, CT


ANSWER: Hi


Sounds like your rat has hiccups (the chirping sound)  Does he seem to stand in one place and do it?  

Yes weight loss can indicate failure to thrive or improve.  However, the medication is the right choice and the dose is correct as is the duration of treatment.  I prefer 30 days on it but 21 days is good too.

I am confident they will improve with time.   If all they are doing is sneezing and have porphyrin discharge, thats not so bad.  

The blood discharge is not blood, btw. It is called porphyrin.  You can read about it and compare photos of rats that have it from their eyes and nose.  It is not uncommon for rats to have this, esp when sneezing. This is often the normal color of their mucus. Again, its not blood, its darker brown or deep red and can crust around the eyes and nose and make new rat owners fear their rat is bleeding.

Check out the URL and the photos here:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/bloodynoseandeyes.htm

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

QUESTION: Yes, it sounds like my rat had the hiccups, he would stand still while he ate his sympathy treat.
Thank you so much, with your help I was able to make an informed decisions regarding my rat's care and I was able to discuss options with their Vet because I was educated, thanks to your emails and web site.

Answer
Your welcome.   We as rat owners really can help make a difference in our rats health and well being by being as educated as possible about their care.  There are many common ailments that affect our rats, unfortunately, and I tried to cover them as much as possible on Critter City.  I just took all of the most asked questions I get from here and made web pages about them.  I get tons of people worried their rat is bleeding from their eyes and nose, which prompted me to make a little page about porphyrin and what it is all about. I have a page on proper nutrition (too many people buy the nasty seed mix from the pet store thinking it is the best thing for their rats when really, its the worst!) I even have a page about rats when they sway their heads back and forth and what it means when they do this.  One girl was totally freaked because her vet told her that her rat was brain damaged and that is why he did that, which is totally untrue. The vet had no business treating rats, esp when he did not even know what head swaying means.  I also outlined mycoplasmosis, heart and kidney disease and the ever so common mammary tumors that our female rats are so prone to getting.   Armed with knowledge when facing a vet is the best thing because even if the vet is not up to par on rat care but willing to try what he can due to the unfortunate lack of exotic vets for our rats, we as rat owners can even help guide the vet on the right path and unless they are uber arrogant, they are usually gracious about the extra help.

Please let me know how things go.