respitory problem

Question
QUESTION: My new rat (her name is Mousey, but she is a fancy rat) currently has a respitory problem. She was displaying all the symptoms - struggling with breathing, raspy/fast breathing, squeaking painfully, red mucus out the nose, sneezing alot, soft stool, etc. - so, I took her to the vet. Unfortunetly, the vet seemed to know about as much as I did about rats - and although I have done a ton of research, a certified vet should know more than someone in high school! Mousey is about 3-5 months old (don't know her exact birthday) and weights about a half a pound.  She was perscribed .08mL of Baytril twice a day for 10 days.  Does this seem correct?  I'm just in doubt about the vet I went to and I want her to get better!  I am also giving her Nutriphase liquid multi-vitamin, will this help at all? Is there anything else I can do? Thank you!

ANSWER:
Hi Laura

The thing about vets is that they do NOT know about rats or other small mammals other than the basics. They focus more on the small animal such as the common domestic companion mammal which would be the dog and cat and not the small mammals.  Some general vets with take a few extra classes so they can at least try to get a sick small mammal stable, like this vet is doing for your rat, but there are many other things that he should and could have done.  For starters, if she is struggling to breathe, she should be kept in oxygen  in an isolette that is temperature controlled for at least a day or two while the medicine she is given starts to work.  She needs something to open her airways to help her breathe better and she should have a second antibiotic such as doxycycline to help back up the baytril. Also, 10 days is not long enough to trat a respiratory infection if you want to prevent relapse.  The normal protocol is 21 to 30 days. If not, the rat almost always relapses and with each relapse comes damage to the lungs such as scarring.   The best thing to do is find another vet that is good with exotics. I can help you find one just let me know your location.  Either that, or call the vet   you have now and ask about oxygen treatment and other meds such as albuterol for his breathing etc...

Please keep me posted.

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

QUESTION: I wanted to give more info about ehe medicine: 6mL Baytril mixed with 30mL cherry syrup - .08mL is supposed to be taken orally twice a day.  This seems like a very small amount of medicine for a half pound rat!  Do I need to up the dose?   





Do you always need a second Rx when dealing with Baytril?

Answer
Half a pound rat would make her around 224 grams which is not really big. I would say she should get around .10 ml (or cc, same thing) twice a day.

The normal dose is as follows :

.20cc/lb for 30 days

this means she should get .10cc

and yes the vet may not give you refills without seeing the rat. They all differ so it matters how the vet feels.