Amoxicillin

Question
Hello I asked a question about a week ago about my two male dumbo rats who had some sort of respiratory problem. The vet put them on Amoxicillin. Anyway it seemed to work quite well-there sneezing was dramatically reduced, and there is no longer any porphyrin on their bedding. However one of the rats still sneezes quite a lot-I'd say about 5-6 times an hour (though this is down from sneezing a one every couple of minutes and having sneezing fits every couple of hours)give or take-he also occasionally makes a faint noise when he breathes-I don't know how to describe it because it's so faint-I just know it's not rattly, more squeaky...does this mean the Amoxicillin isn't working anymore, or that I just need to see it through for longer (is it 21 days still with this antibiotic?)

Answer
Hi Rose

Sounds like he still needs an antibiotic.  Usually when there is respiratory infection in rats, it is caused by mycoplasmosis. However, often it turns into a secondary infection and there usually should be two drugs used to combat these organisms.  I would suggest having baytril added for the next 14 days but stop the amoxil after you have reached 14 days on it. If they are on baytril for the next 14 days that is at least 28 days of antibiotics.  I would also feed them some yogurt to help replace any good bacteria that may be lost. The last thing you want is for them to feel better and because they were not on the meds long enough, they relapse and often the second attack is worse than the first attack.

You can read up on mycoplasmosis on my website here:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/mycoplasmosispage.htm