Nebulising rats

A nebuliser is probably one of the best things to own when you keep rats as pets. Rats are susceptible to respiratory infections and allergies.

When sneezing or while treated for a respiratory infection, you can nebulise 1-2 times a day to help clear the lungs. You can buy a good quality nebuliser from Dischem or Clicks for about R350-R500.

If the sneezing develops into noisy or labored breathing, take your rat to a vet to be treated with antibiotics as well. Nebulise rats in a carry cage covered with a towel for about 10 minutes.

Some rats may stress so put more than one rat in the carrier and add a few treats to keep them occupied. If your rat has heart problems, do not use a bronchodilator as it increases the heart rate.

The following advice was given by Caryn Ferriere who taught me how and when to use a nebuliser:

Nebulising will definitely provide relief but it also depends on what you use.

1. Plain saline - helps to moisten and keep the lungs healthy. BUT please make sure you get a drip bag/hospital drip of saline to use for this from your vet or some vets sell bottles of it. Contact lens solutions, nasal solutions and homemade saline is NOT safe for nebulising with. 5ml is generally enough for 15mins of nebulising.

Saline is also the base ingredient used for nebulising. So to it you can add the following meds for specific problems:

1. Duolin or Salbutamol (such as used in mix recipe that is given in the post I linked above) is primarily for opening up the airways and helping to relieve breathing that is laboured or asthmatic from infection or lung scarring for instance. It's usually 1 duolin respule to 5ml of saline.

2. F10 Concentrate (dilution info is also in the post above about the nebuliser mix) can be used as a general anti-fungal to help fight infection, but too much of it can be caustic to the lungs, so use with caution. Usually just 0.05ml of it (a drop) is more than enough in 5ml of saline

3. Bisolvon Nebulising Solution (not the cough syrup!) is a bronchodilator and assists in clearing mucous from the lungs when pneumonia or an infection is present. Usually 0.2ml in 5ml of saline

4. Nebulised antibiotics ie: Gentamicin, Amikacin, etc can be used in bad respiratory infections or in the case of lung abscesses to target the lungs directly. Dose to be mixed with saline would vary according to the drugs.