I've lost a few rats to illness before and right now I've got a sick rattie who is fighting very hard to hang in there. I'm not sure what else to do for the little guy except wait and see how things go. He has been hanging in there for over a week now, everyday I think it must be near the end for him, but each day there he is waiting for more medicine and yogurt treats.
He won't drink from a bottle or dish, and seems really uncomfortable when you try to give him fluids from the syringe. I've been mixing water with his yogurt and he'll lick it from a spoon though. He still eats his little Yogi drops and he'll eat blueberry yogurt, but that's it. I've been working with him with amox. and tetracycline. Like I said before, sometime he seems ok and other times not at all. In general he is overweight also so that could be stressing his lungs as well.
His symptoms are:
lethargic
red discharge around nose
not eating/drinking properly
very raspy breathing, gasping for air
I have him seperated from the rest of the rat colony, though another rat got sick and died within 24 hours of showing any signs the other day. We did bring a new rat home so I think we made the colony sick with the new baby. Shows you what you get when you don't quarantine properly!
This is Blizzard in a chilled out "I'm relaxing" moment.
