Apricot has got the snuffles

Just over a week ago Apricot’s breathing started making a really nasty clicky sound. At the time the girls had a plastic igloo and Apricot was spending a lot of time in it. They also kept making the igloo smell really bad by peeing on the shredded paper in it. We took the igloo off them and replaced it with a fabric bed I’d made, that would give them better ventilation. I was concerned that Apricot had inflamed her airways by sleeping in the soggy bedding. To be on the safe side we also took her to the vet to get her some medicine.

Worryingly she hasn’t really improved. Being still quite small and easy to keep hold of I have been able to give her the Baytril straight into her mouth. I follow this with a yogurt drop to make sure it all goes down, so I know she’s getting her medicine. She is bright and bubbly, but there are times when you can see her breathing is getting her down and it scares me.

I know it’s one of the downsides of keeping rats that there is very little you can do for them when it comes to health issues. With her age - she is quite young to be getting respiratory infections - the fact she is otherwise healthy and active and that she’s not responding to the Baytril, we are concerned that there may be something else wrong with her. Our vet did talk to us about x-rays to see if there may be a tumour, but this wouldn’t really do us any good as they wouldn’t be able to treat it and it would only distress Apricot.

It’s hard knowing that all we can do is give Apricot her medicine, love her and hope she can beat whatever is making her poorly. She is our girl and we love her very much so we’re going to keep trying.