Lots of sick rats!

Question
Hi there! I have five sick rats right now. None are severely sick at the moment. (However, the first one to show symptoms worried me for a bit before the vet gave him fluids, now he is doing better). They have upper respiratory symptoms, sneezing, a little discharge, etc, but none are lethargic, all are eating and drinking. They have each been on Vibramycin for a week to five days (depending on when each started to show symptoms), and I have been bringing their cages into the bathroom with me when I shower to help with the symptoms, but they don't seem to have gotten any better, except the one who had fluids. Do I just need to wait longer to see results? Or if there are no results yet, should I take them back to the vet to get a different antibiotic? I don't want to wait and see them get worse, but I don't want to stress them out more by taking them in and switching meds, etc. Do you have any suggestions for taking care of 5 sick rats at once?

I want to come out of this with 5 healthy rat children!

Thanks!

Marisa

Answer
Hi Marisa

Rule of thumb:  When an antibiotic doesnt work within 3 days, its time to switch. Your rats all have symptoms of mycoplasmosis. Vibramycin is not strong enough alone to work. Your vet needs to give the rats baytril and vibramycin for an entire 30 days in order to properly recover from this.  If the vet is not an exotic vet (which I have my doubts or he would have started them on baytril first) ask the vet if he is aware of how to treat respiratory infection due to myco. If he is not sure, allow him to read my website about proper treatment.  If he doesnt want to change medications, your rats will only relapse in time and the next time they wont be so lucky and can end up with lung scarring or even pneumonia from secondary infection.  Recognizing mycoplasmosis and understanding the proper treatment is important for a vet to know. Its also important for the rat owner to also understand about the disease since it is one of the most common cause of illness rats suffer from and one that can turn chronic if not treated correctly, causing a life long of lung problems.
Here is the link to my site with more info on myco:


If your vet is not willing to do anything, I would change vets. If you need, I can find a good exotic vet for your rats to see. You cant go wrong with a board certified exotic specialist. They are hard to come by, as there are just a few hundred real bonafide exotic vets in the United States alone, but its worth the extra mile to get the quality care for your rat.