rat update

[ratcreature]

I 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).

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Poor little guy! I'm glad he's basically okay.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, me too. It was really scary with the slime and foam coming out of his mouth and such, and it can't have been fun for him either to choke. It has to have been quite bad if it was still visibly red and irritated almost ten hours later.

[bluemeridian]

I would've been scared over finding him like that, too! And poor Silas! Yeah, choking antibiotics down an already sore throat isn't going to be fun for him, but at least he'll be feeling better by the end. :(

[ratcreature]

Somehow most of my rats are so intimidated they let the vets do anything, also because in the unfamiliar surroundings they see no safer place to flee, so staying with me must seem the best option, meds or not. But at home they have of course no such restraint and see safe, familiar hiding places aplenty if they can only escape my clutches and the meds. And of course at the vet it's two sets of hands, while I have to both hold the rat and administer the meds. Plus today was the first time he got any medicine, so he had no idea how horrible it would taste until it had happened. But rats are not like the proverbial goldfish, and learn quite fast what unpleasant things follow the sight of the oral medicine syringe... So tomorrow is going to be fun. And Silas is the one among my current rats who least likes being held and handled.

[sholio]

Oh wow! Poor little guy. I'm glad he's basically okay.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I'm glad it wasn't worse. I mean, he could have suffocated. Maybe he'll be more careful in the future with chewing and swallowing rather than just scarfing down the food as fast as possible. With four of them there is always somewhat of a scramble for the most popular bits in their rat food.

[oyceter]

Oh the poor baby. One of my rats once ate something too fast and started choking it back up, which really freaked me out because I know they don't vomit. It was thankfully to a lesser extent than what Silas' sounds like, but after that, Ed never touched Oxbow Regal Rat again.... (I think he was so excited to get non-lab-blocks that he inhaled the thing.)

And urf, best wishes on the oral antibiotic. Rats are so squirmy when they want to be!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, antibiotics are a challenge. I hope Silas at least won't scarf food quite as fast in the future. It was really horrible. I mean, I've seen rats spit out things, like after grooming mine sometimes spit out the hairs from further back in their throat and such, but nothing like this. And it's not like you can help them if something is in their throat.