Laboured breathing

One of my boys has had an intermittent wheezing noise while breathing for the last few weeks but it went away once he changed position. Since yesterday, his breathing has been noisy all the time and his sides, below his ribs, have been noticably working very hard to breathe. The noise appears to be coming from his nose. Over the past week, he has begun to walk differently and sometimes limps and/or loses his balance. He looks to have lost weight and his skin seems to have gotten very saggy. He is approximately 2 years old. I'm bringing him to Bairbre O'Malley in Bray in the morning but I was just wondering would anyone have any idea of what might be going on so I can give him some extra tlc and give my daughter a heads up in case it might not be good news.

thanks

The last few weeks? oh dear... I hope the vet will sort it out.

As soon one on mine is having any problems breathing, its straight to the vet. My 2 girls seemed to have a bit of a wheeze, We took them to the vet straight away, they are now on their 4th day on Baytril and they are improving a lot. Another measure I had to take was controll the humidity of the room as I had the impression it felt very damp. I just got a humidity regulator in today and wasn't surprise to see it gauged at 89% humidity, which is way to much. I set it to 50% and within 10 minutes it got the air in the room to 50%. It was an investment of 160 Euro, but heck, its worth it.

It's hopefully just an upper respiratory infection since you said it seems to be coming from his nose. Good luck at the vets. Mine seem to have the sniffles on and off at the minute, but you've done the right thing to take him now his breathing has declined/changed.

With regards to his walking, it sounds like he may be developing hind leg degeneration (HLD). This can be common in older rats, especially males. For some, it progresses quickly and they lose complete use of their back legs, but can still go on living comfortably for many months. I have one boy at the minute, he's had it for a good few months now but his seems to get better some days ie. he can run but is very wobbly and falls over and some days he cannot use his back legs at all. If it continues to decline you may need to change bedding and feed soft food as it can affect their ability to hold food with their front paws. If you want to ask any questions about it you can pm me, and I know Zoundz knows a lot about it, probably more than me.

Regarding his skin, it's another sign of old age. Are you feeding him any extra vitamins such as senior aid? If not I'd recommend it and Dr.Squiggles.

The side sucking while breathing is a worry - it could be a secondary infection such as CK or pneumonia - which can be devilish hard to shift. I personally would be going down the triple jab route - certainly a bronchodilator, antibiotics and maybe a steroid.

xx