Casper is a healthy 15 month old rat who is f1 from two laboratory pink eyed whites. He began to show symptoms of a respiratory infection with laboured, noisy breathing accompanied by occasional mouth breathing. These symptoms often suggest an acute pneumonia so I took him straight to the vet where he was examined and our vet pointed out that she could easily hear heart sounds via the stethascope and this would usually suggest the lungs are clear of infection. We considered the possibilities of what might cause such stark respiratory symptoms other than infection - it was almost as though he had something obstructing his upper airway.
Medical treatment
The possibility of a tumour, polyp or abscess were discussed and Casper was treated with Baytril and Cephalexin by injection, plus Bisolovan for his food. I agreed to bring him back the next day for further treatment if the antibiotics had little effect.
The next day Casper no longer had any 'rattle' in his breathing it just sounded 'wet' and obstructed. He received another dose of the antibiotics and we agreed that rather than guess at his condition being untreatable he would have an anaesthetic so that his upper airway could be checked for obstruction - it was just possible this was a foreign body and could be removed.
The explorative procedure
The next day Casper had an anaesthetic with the agreement that if he had an obvious abnormality (tumour particularly) he wouldn't be woken up. The investigation went well but there was no obvious cause for the obstruction that was high enough up in the airway to be visualised via his mouth. However, his larynx was clearly swollen and wet.
We agreed to wake him up and continue the antibiotics but add in steroids - acknowledging that we would give him 48 hours to improve. He wasn't eating much (as it was hard for him to co-ordinate eating and drinking), but he was managing some soft and a little hard food, and although he had lost some weight he was still looking in good overall health.
After two days of steroid injections he was reassessed and I was pretty sure that overall he was more comfortable than he had been previously. His breathing was less laboured and he was eating more readily. Though his strange obstructive breathing remained. His coat was flat and he was bright and cheerful whenever I approached the cage. Interestingly he was completely silent and relaxed when asleep. Neither of us were ready to give up, though I acknowledged that whatever this was this was probably just a temporary improvement due to the steroids. Even a tumour could respond initially to steroids.
These video was taken around this point, whilst the obstructive noise is obvious, he otherwise looks in pretty good shape. Please note that this breathing sound is very unusual in a rat and not associated with normal respiratory infection.
Casper continues on oral antibiotics and prednisolone and this is maintaining his well-being at the moment.
Sadly I had to say goodbye to Casper on the 6th of October, 2008 as his condition deteriorated quickly. Post mortem examination revealed an abscess (?tumour) of his larynx. His illness spanned approximately 3 weeks and he remained on steroids and cephalexin until he was euthanised. He was always a little cautious of life, but gentle and respectful of his rattie friends and his humans. Such a sad loss, so young. Rest easy little man.
