(Rat tax provided)
Hi all! I have a ~16 month old hairless girl named Gooch. Gooch has been having a lot of respiratory issues the past few months, starting with a URI that cleared up almost immediately with Baytril and an injection + nebulizer treatment at the vet. Then, a few weeks later, it returned at full force. I took her to the vet again, and was put on a 20 day Baytril course, but she wasn’t really responsive to it so I took her back to vet AGAIN :’) They then told me to keep her on the course but added a 6 day course of another medication (it was some sort of steroid to help open/clear airways but I forgot the super long med name).
At this point, the vet diagnosed her with a likely chronic URI and said that she would probably have these flare ups for the rest of her life intermittently. Right now, she has just finished the steroid course and has four days left of the antibiotic. She makes little to no noise while at rest or relaxed, but does get squeaky/wheezy when excited and active or stressed. Additionally, these sounds are consistent day-to-day and I have never heard any of the noises typical for a lower respiratory infection (crackling, honking, etc). There are no other accompanying symptoms and I do not observe any physical signs of breathing difficulty (which I imagine would be pretty easy to see in a rat with no fur). I handle her daily and keep very close watch of her symptoms, activity levels, food/water intake, etc.
My question for all the other chronic URI rattie owners is that is this kind of her new normal? Should I expect her to be fully cured and make zero noise if this is a chronic situation? Or will she just have mild flare ups every time she breathes fast? I will be asking my vet on Wednesday when I see him for another of my rats, but I wanted advice from other owners who’ve been in similar situations. Maybe she’s just in is less of a “cure” situation and more of a symptom management one? Hopefully she is able to live a long life despite this :’) She is a wee girl at only 290g and I fear her little body will struggle with chronic illness. Thank you!
One of my boys deals with it, he takes to his meds well but he will get another flare up 3-4 weeks later once the course ends. So he is on enro and doxy basically every other month. I also nebulize every day, which helps keep things well for everyone in the interim. With chronic URI as far as I'm aware there's no actual cure? Just manage when it comes. Regular nebulizing should help her in staying clear(er) between needing abx courses though.
Going through this with my 2yo- vet said he’ll likely need meds intermittently and rn he gets enro and acytelystiene through nebulization and meloxicam for 15 days and ill probs do nebulizer treatment every day.