It's not always myco (Mycoplasma pulmonis)

[Raquel Cintron]

Hi,

My rat Carla was losing weight, had hair standing on end and experienced a personality change. The hair condition suggested pain or disease. Wondering about a pituitary tumor, I had a vet test for neurological symptoms and the test was negative.

When Carla's regular vet was back in the office a couple of days later, he took an x-ray, which told us the problem. Carla had a mass in her chest. Carla had arrived in the vet's office breathing a little heavily, but not so badly that it would have suggested lung disease.

Carla is currently maintained on Pediapred (prednisone, steroid), 0.5mg/kg, twice a day, and doxycycline, 5mg/kg, twice a day. We did do lung biopsies via ultrasound guidance, but even without this further test we could have arrived at the current treatment given the mass in the lungs.

Carla's sister, Alice, had for a long time been getting treated for respiratory symptoms. The fact that a mass was found in Carla's lungs prompted us to x-ray Alice. Indeed, Alice had a huge mass in her lungs that was worse than Carla's. The condition was so advanced that Alice did not live long after this discovery and had to be euthanized for respiratory distress. It is too bad that we did not think to do an x-ray sooner for Alice.

The point of this story is that ratty respiratory symptoms are not always due to myco, infection by Mycoplasma pulmonis bacteria, or even other respiratory bacteria, and an x-ray may point the way to proper diagnosis when a respiratory condition is taking long to resolve. Necropsy of Alice revealed lung cancer.

Raquel