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rat update
Sep. 7th, 2012 12:25 pmI brought Silas to the vet this morning, and it looks like he's going to be okay. The best guess seems to be that he choked on something. His throat was red and irritated -- and Silas didn't like it at all to have a light shoved into his mouth. It took me holding him, an assistant holding his head and pulling his jaws apart a bit, and the doctor with the light to check his throat, but at least Silas didn't resist so much that anesthesia was needed (like I had it happen with other rats) and he didn't try to bite anyone either. So really for a rat he was quite a good patient. Also his temperature was lower than the vet liked, so that wasn't great, but he should be okay.
It can apparently look really this terrifying when rats choke on something swallowed the wrong way. I guess he was lucky to not suffocate. I mean, when I saw him like that I did try to wipe his mouth clear of the stuff to help him, but it's not like I could do much in the way of first aid to clear his airways further down. Anyway, so that's the best guess as to what happened.
The vet also put him on antibiotics for his sneezing, for which I had wanted to bring him in to check soon anyway, so this horrible episode gave me the push for that. His lungs thankfully sounded okay when she listened to them, but in her opinion it's best to treat all such sneezing to prevent the infection from taking root in the lungs. So the poor guy will now have to deal with oral antibiotics for the next days too. But he was a trooper when he had to swallow the first dose at the vet (or just really intimidated after having been prodded in all orifices already).
It can apparently look really this terrifying when rats choke on something swallowed the wrong way. I guess he was lucky to not suffocate. I mean, when I saw him like that I did try to wipe his mouth clear of the stuff to help him, but it's not like I could do much in the way of first aid to clear his airways further down. Anyway, so that's the best guess as to what happened.
The vet also put him on antibiotics for his sneezing, for which I had wanted to bring him in to check soon anyway, so this horrible episode gave me the push for that. His lungs thankfully sounded okay when she listened to them, but in her opinion it's best to treat all such sneezing to prevent the infection from taking root in the lungs. So the poor guy will now have to deal with oral antibiotics for the next days too. But he was a trooper when he had to swallow the first dose at the vet (or just really intimidated after having been prodded in all orifices already).