Breeders and Respiratory Problems

Question
1)  Do you know of any breeders, Canadian if possible, who breed ratties for healtlh and temperment?

2)  In your experience what has been the best medication to help with respiratory problems?

Answer
Hi Kristine


The best medications depend on what organism it is that is causing the respiratory infection.  If it is mycoplasmosis, there are just a handful of antibiotics that can work. The mycoplasmosis organism has no cell wall and few antibiotics are successful when fighting infection that has no cell wall. These drugs are baytril, doxycycline and zithromax.

Some of these medications should also be nebulized in order to get the medication directly to the rats lungs.

When treating mycoplasmosis, the most successful way to treat it is to give the medication for no less than 21 days, I prefer 30. Newer studies are now showing that sometimes 6 weeks of treatment is needed once the rat is stable.  The problem with myco is that when the rat has a relapse, the second attack is usually worse than the first. With each attack comes damage to the rats delicate lungs leaving scarring and blistering. In turn the rat may suffer from chronic lung disease
(COPD) and this is when other drugs will needed to be added to the rats daily schedule. Life long antibiotics, often high end dose of baytril once a day along with albuterol and steroids for a short time may be warranted as well may be the last resort to control chronic lung disease.

Secondary infection can set in and when this happens, it is a good idea to add another antibiotic such as keflex, cefa drops or amoxil.
If the secondary infection progresses to pneumonia, the rat should be kept at the clinic and kept on oxygen so that he doesnt have to work hard to breathe while the new medications are given. These medications are much more aggressive and should be used just for a short period of time and are given via injection only. They are amakacin or gentocin.

Steroids should also be given and if needed, albuterol as well. I also like to use valium twice a day. This helps with anxiety when the rat is in respiratory distress and this eases the rats anxiety and actually causes the rat to relax and breathe easier.   The rat should be kept well hydrated at this time as well. If there is fluid in the lungs lasix may also be warranted but keep in mind the rat can dehydrate fast so subcutaneous fluids or even IV fluids using a 30 gage needle can be used to avoid dehydration.

As for rat breeders, I would have to do a search since I do not know anyone right off the top of my head and I will get back to you on that.
Hope this helps!