my sick rat is dying(please ignore the other question)

Question
QUESTION: I don't know what happened, maybe was the speel check, it changed a lot of the names I originally used. THIS IS THE NEW QUESTION - please ignore the previous one.

"Hi, I wonder if you could give me an advice about my rat. He had mycoplasm several times in the past year (he is 22 months old), and had pneumonia about a month ago. He is on baytril and  dyoxicline, and after a month of medication, he is not getting better. When it started, only one side of his lungs was compromised, now both are. The vet says he is on the stronger and most effective medication available and changing it won't make a difference. She said he has probably about 3 months left, but considering how fast the disease progressed in the past 2 weeks, I think he has no more than 2 weeks left. I also give him nebulizations twice a week with albutterol and gentamicin. I wanted to nebulize him everyday, but the vet says once you get to this point he is at the end. Please, help! Should I try a change of antibiotic to see if he responds better? Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help.
Regina


ANSWER: Hi Regina

I did read the first one and had a feeling spell check mess things up. It doesnt recognize words such as mycoplasma and that is why it changed it to neoplasms etc.....no worries but I do appreciate the second one since the medication names were messed up on the first one.


That said, your vet is not correct saying the rat is on the strongest medication going for your rats pneumonia. Chances are the rat has a  secondary infection on top of the mycoplasmosis infection. Baytril and doxy together work beautifully when its myco but when there is a secondary infection, its best to add one of the really aggressive medications.  He should be getting amakcacin if the gentocin isnt working and should get this daily. He should also be getting the albuterol three times a day, not a few times a week. It doesnt last in the body more than a few hours. Giving the genotcin just twice a week is not going to do a thing. It wont even build up in his system to help fight off any infection.
Has the vet tried steroids?  Has the vet considered the rat may have heart disease on top of all of this which is not uncommon and in fact often is expected in cases like this when chronic lung disease has been a  problem.

Does your rat have lung scarring or blistering of the lungs that you know of?

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

QUESTION:   Thank you so much for your advice.
 I don't know if my rat has any heart disease, the vet took X-rays, but didn't mention anything about it. He does have a lot of scarring in his lungs and I think blistering too, but since new areas of his lungs were affected 2 weeks after the treatment started, I suspect he is not reacting to the medication. I will increase the albuterol sessions to 3 times daily (his dose is .2 cc of albuterol in 8 cc of saline solution - not sure if it is adequate, he weighs about .50 lbs. Should the gentocin(.2cc) be added to the nebulization 3 times as well or just once a day? Should I keep giving the baytril/dyoxicline a little longer while increasing the nebulization sections to see if it works, or should I stop with them and give him steroids instead? The vet didn't prescribe steroids,but I will talk to her about it, or maybe find another vet (hard to find one who knows about rats).
Thanks again. I do have a feeling with the right medication/dose he would be able to survive this. He is such an adorable and very very smart little creature, I don't want to lose him without exhaust all possibilities.

Answer
Do the gentocin at least twice a day as well.


As for the vet, is he/she a true exotic vet or just one that sees rats but did not take the extended and required education including state boards for avian and exotic certification? Often, vets will say that exotics is a "special interest" and this in no way means they are board certified but it also doesnt mean they arent going to know what they are doing, either.  Its scary and confusing when it comes to vets.

I can find one for you or check your vets creds if you want.....or at least give you some names of exotic vets around you.

I do have to say that with blistering and or scarring, it can be pretty hard to keep them comfortable but from what you have told me it doesnt look as if everything has been tried either and I am all for exhausting all options first, as long as the rat is comfortable while doing it.