Last night when I came home, Lisa greeted me with some troubling news: Jessie was breathing weird. At first I thought it was just her overreacting. Afterall, she has made me poke them awake in the past because their occasional habit of sleeping with eyes open makes her nervous. But this one was fairly unmistakeable. There was a raspy wheeze coming from Jessie – almost like a rattle in his lungs. We could only surmise that it was his breathing that was going all wonky.
So I quickly scooped him up and pet him – cuddled him closely and scolded him for being sick. Oddly, though, everything else seemed fine. His skin and fur are in excellent shape. There was no discharge from his eyes. He quickly gobbled up all of the food we gave him ad then ran over for a drink. Plus he had no problem falling asleep wherever he desired. I even put him out on the floor and he scampered around per usual (perhaps even more energetic than usual).
Our nearby vets that handled Teddy were already closed, so it became a debate about he cost and aggravation of driving to he emergency clinic when everything but his breathing seemed normal. After surfing the Web for a while, I determined that letting him rest until morning would probably be fine – even if it meant a rough night’s sleep for me. Instead I would simply check up on him regularly and make sure no other symptoms developed.
Lisa woke up around 3 AM and decided to check on him – no noise! When we woke shortly after 7 in case a vet trip was necessary, I was able to bring the little goober to bed so that we coul both listen to his normal clicks and gurgles. Everything seems fine. Whew! Emergency averted.
I can only think of a few possibilities for such a speedy recovery – possibly something caught in his throat or a stuffed nose that cleared up overnight. But since adding a hutch to the cage a couple weeks ago, their sleeping area has gotten messier faster. I cleaned that up last night, and will make sure to stay on top of it – perhaps this was a respiratory infection that we nipped in the bud. Regardless, I’ll be keeping a close eye (and ear) on Jessie for awhile.