Rats respiratory infection

Question
Hello, a few weeks ago my pet rat (who is 3 years old now...) starting developing symptoms of a respiratory infection - sneezing, red eye and nasal drainage, wheezing, and occasional grunting.  I took him to the vet and he was placed on Bactrim for 2 weeks twice daily.  He received the full course of antibiotics and improved, but not 100%.  He was still sneezing and having nasal drainage, now clear, so I called the vet and she recommended giving him some Benadryl.  I tried that a few times with no good results, so he went back to the vet.  His x-ray showed infection in the lungs and bone errosion in the right nasal bone - she is questioning nasal cancer but thinking it is more likely infection...  He was now placed on Chloramphenicol twice daily and Decadron twice a week.  He has received 4 days worth of the chloramphenicol and 1 dose of Decadron with no improvement.  Is there anything else we can do???  I hate to see the poor guy suffer!  Thank you!!!

Answer
I think you little man has mycoplasmosis which is no surprise really since all rats are born with it and many rats end up having it cause some type of illness during their lifetime, from respiratory infection to inner ear infection, even a urinary tract infection can be caused by mycoplasma.  Being it has no cell wall, its a real pain to control and conquer and if the vet isnt using the right medication (he isnt) its not going to do much other than waste your hard earned money.  Antibiotics work on the cell wall of the bacteria. However, myco has no cell wall thus in turn, the meds that he has been given are not working because they destroy the cell wall.  Baytril and doxycycline and zithromax are three antibiotics that work by destroying the cell itself.  These are the three drugs used most to treat myco successfully.

The rule of thumb vets SHOULD know is after three days if there is no change, move on to another drug.  There is no reason to keep using it if it isnt working in that time period.   Three days gives the drug plenty of time to get in the blood stream and start to work on the bacteria.  This is usually seen in 24  hours.  Ever hear when a child gets strep throat they cannot return to school until 24 hours after antibiotic treatment starts? That is because that is the time it takes to start to kill the bacteria.

Your rat needs other meds, starting with baytril for the myco and cefadrops (cefadroxil) for a secondary infection that has probably set in by now since so much time has elapsed from the time he started to get sick utntil now.   I am thinking the bone erosion the vet is seeing is more along the lines of lesions caused by mycoplasma.  The bacteria is also known to cause lesions or blistering of the lungs after several outbreaks that are under treated or untreated which is why its important to keep him from relapsing once he gets better from this.  This means lifelong treatment using baytril once per day.  he is three years old. This would be the best treatment for him and will NOT hurt him.
I would like to see him on daily dose of prednisone rather than decadron but at least he was put on a steroid for inflammation.
Since he is wheezing etc...he needs his airways opened. Albuterol would benefit him in this case. Twice a day would really help open his airways.


Is your vet an exotic certified vet or a regular DVM that sees exotics on the side?