Cecil and I had a very bad night :/

I had Chloe out and was cleaning her cage when I looked over to the Hamilton Brothers cage and saw Cecil lying in the corner litter pan, with his head propped up, his eyes closed and heaving away...ugh. I took him out and he kept running towards me but then didn't want to be touched...very typical of a rat going through a respiratory attack. "Help me Mom!" but then they don't want to be touched as it might interfere with their fight to breathe. :sad3:

I finished up Chloe's cage, and then checked on Cecil again, hoping he was okay (I have seen him like this before) but this time he was not. Chloe got her run cut short as she is aggressive to other rats and I couldn't take a chance.

His extremities were cool, he had very laboured breathing, and was breathing costally (using his abdominal muscles to breathe), but his lungs weren't congested or liquidy, rather it sounded like he wasn't getting enough air through. So I gave him fluids and an injection of dex to get him through the worst. i also am trying him on enalapril to see if he could have a possible heart issue just in case. I have a "throw the kitchen sink at it" approach when I think I might be losing someone.

Here is what he looked like prior to treatment


He really hated the sub-q but it was over quickly, and after a few little runs and flops on the bed, he finally settled on my pillow. It took almost an hour before he started to really relax and become calmer.




then he went into a relatively peaceful sleep for a bit, which was good.


This is him doing a bit better



Later on he sat up and decided to clean his netherbits...a very good sign! :lol:


He stayed out all night with me, cuddled up and staying warm. Funnily enough he liked to hang out by the pillowcase where Malcolm spent his last night. I would reach out and gently touch him all during the night. About 3 am he got the wanderlust and decided to crawl around and ended up on my side for awhile. He was warm and his breathing felt good.

This is the little man this morning...his extremities are warm, his eyes bright, his breathing back to normal for him. He looks like he got more rest than I did.