I currently can't take said rat to the vet, so I'm just wondering what people's opinions are on what might be wrong. As soon as possible he will be getting a vet trip.

Our rats will frequently come on short trips in the car with us, and lastnight at about ten we took a trip to the grocery store and they tagged along. They don't come into the store, they hangout in the car, and upon arriving back to the car, one was cruising around somewhere, as usual. The boyfriend and I both hopped in the car, he was less careless than I would have liked and 'gently' closed his door without looking and of course obviously the rat had blocked it. (No squeak was heard.) He retrieved said rat from under the seat where it had retreated, and hugged him for a minute or two feeling him and looking at him to make sure he was okay. He sat still on my lap the entire ride home (unusual), so we knew something was up.

When we got inside it was clear that he'd been hit by the door, since his breathing was strange, it was squeaky/wheezy and short breaths. I felt around on him, to see if he was in pain anywhere, no squeaking, no other signs of pain anywhere. I wondered if perhaps the wind was knocked out of him, but I offered him a piece of a tasty snack and he was having trouble swallowing it so I then thought it must be his neck, like he was looking out the door. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it through the night.

Fast forward to this morning, his breathing is worse, gasping and wheezy, lots of difficulty breathing. I've been thinking about it and best case scenario I think his neck was hit, and it has caused his throat to swell up creating the difficulty to breath and swallow, maybe. My other thought is that it was his chest and he may have punctured a lung. I feel like he would show signs of pain if it were the latter, though.

What do you guys think? We picked up some infant liquid advil to relieve any pain if there is some and to relieve swelling if I am correct about throat swelling. We will see what the advil does for him, I'm hoping he improves as I feel that would point towards the throat swelling. Hopefully it will at least help him until we get him to a vet.