:(

[ratcreature]

So the fourth antibiotic didn't help Leo either, and the vet couldn't offer another one that was promising against myco. Leo got a cortisone shot which might help with the symptoms, because it somehow widens the airways or something like that so that hopefully his breathing is not quite as labored, but that's it. The vet pretty much offered to put him down at any time from now on, though I still think he's not feeling quite as bad as that.

I also got a tube of Nutri-Cal, hoping it might help him regain some weight or at least prevent him from loosing more, but Leo has gotten really suspicious of food stuffs he does not know, suspecting foul trickery everywhere, perhaps, even though I stopped my attempts to get meds into him with food early on. But I just offered him a piece of rice waffle with a small dollop of Nutri-Cal paste, which normally rats love (it's a disgusting mix of some sort of fish oil with a high calorie syrup and vitamins added) and which they often take even when they are too sick to eat any regular food, but he sniffed once and then turned away. He did take a piece of rice waffle without Nutri-Cal on it and ate that, so thankfully it's not so bad that he doesn't eat at all (yet), but plain rice waffle is not exactly the best for weight gain. Unsurprisingly my other rats who don't need to gain weight were all over the paste once they caught the fishy-oily-syrupy smell, behaving as I have come to expect from rats.

Comments

[shadowvalkyrie]

*hugs*

[ratcreature]

Thanks. *hugs back*

[lilacsigil]

Oh poor Leo. *hugs to you and pats to him*

[ratcreature]

Thanks. The cortisone seems to have helped his symptoms a little at least, and he's been running around during playtime, even climbing and jumping some. So I hope he'll hold on for a while yet with symptomatic treatment, and he might, or he might decline relatively fast, I've seen both with rats. Antibiotic resistant bacteria really suck for everybody. :( Humans really ought to invent some better way of getting rid of them. Only if they ever find one, they'd probably test it on unfortunate lab rats at some point, but you won't be able to get it as treatment for your pet rat because that market is not worth it. *is cynical*

[bluemeridian]

There's a horrible irony to that for certain.

[lilacsigil]

I'm glad he's feeling okay, at least.

They tested a lot of early psychiatric drugs on cats (because their brains are easy to get to) which worked out well when my cat needed anti-anxiety medication - the vet went back to old studies and checked out a good dose for him! (My partner is a pharmacist, so we can make up pet-sized doses of human medication, which is legal to do in Australia.)

[bluemeridian]

Ohhhh, Nutri-Cal. That would be what I mainly had to force feed Bangkok for so long and she never liked it, but I think, like Leo, it was just that she didn't want to eat more than anything. It's such sticky stuff!

Poor Leo - he needs to eat to fight off the Myco a little longer. :(

[ratcreature]

Most rats are really into Nutri-Cal, but not Leo, apparently. But I gave him a piece of my pancake as a treat that was somewhat richer than rice waffle, and he liked that. He still eats, but between the antibiotics messing up his digestion and labored breathing that seems to make eating at the same time as breathing harder, he lost quite a bit of weight. The vet remarked today that you could see the flabbier skin. But the cortisone seemed to have alleviated the labored breathing a little, at least he's been quite active tonight.

So maybe he'll hold on for a little while at least, and rats often do. They don't give up on life easily, but try for as long as possible to still eat, groom themselves and even play, so he has that going for him, but sometimes pneumonia is just vicious. So I don't know. :(

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

It's so rough when they are sick and there's nothing we can do for them. :( Hopefully he will get on the Nutri-Cal wagon.

[ratcreature]

Maybe his suspicions will die down. It would be nice if I could easily boost his calories to maybe help him hang in a while longer.