Degu Bronchitis - HELP

[GoosofCamelot]

I took my degu Merlin to the vets on Wednesday as I noticed he was having difficulty breathing. We thought it was the bedding as we only then realised it wasn't dust extracted. We've changed it to carefresh.

He's been on antibiotics and anti imflammatory (sorry if I spelt it wrong) since Wednesday.

He's been eating and been quite perky but in the last hour, he has started breathing through his mouth on and off, I think his nose is really blocked as it's making a popping/clicking sound.

I've tried using steam with olbas oil however I'm not sure whether it's helped. He's resting at the moment but I'm really worried about him. Is there anything I can do to help him or will I just have to let nature take its course? 

Thanks

[bouncy]

If he's having trouble breathing, do any vets in your area have an out of hours service?

[moletteuk]

Steam inhalation is the only emergency treatment I know of that you can give. You could try to increase the amount of steam he is getting, I know it's difficult to do a safe steam inhalation for a degu safely though, and go very steady with the olbas oil, they have delicate breathing pipes.

If you can get hold of an emergency vet then an injection of antibiotics can sometimes be more effective for a respiratory infection, but they might be reluctant to do this if he is already 3 or 4 days into an oral AB course. If he gets bloated full of wind from mouth breathing then you can use baby burping medicine with active ingredient simeticone.

Make sure there is no extra dust lingering and try to keep him warm.

[deguconvert]

How is he doing now?

[GoosofCamelot]

Thank you all for the advice, we did consider taking him to the vets as he started breathing through his mouth for about an hour or so, but he seemed to be more perkier later in the evening. I took him in the bathroom to breath in some steam and put a bit of olbas oil in the bath, so I think that may have helped his breathing


He is actually a lot better today thankfully - gave me a bit of a fright yesterday! Panic over for now lol

[deguconvert]

So glad he is doing better today! Don't hesitate to give him a couple more steam/olbas oil sessions, though, just to keep things open.