adopted rat with a head tilt.

Question
I just adopted a rat from the pet store I work at. He had a terrible ear infection that resulted in a head tilt. After 30 days on baytril and doxy (I don't remember the exact dosage but we put the doxy in both ears)the lean was not improving, but he no longer had discharge coming from his eyes or nose. He is active and alert, both eating a drinking, but in my research I came across information about mycoplasma, and I am concerned that this is what he has/had. I am wondering what I can do to continue to keep him healthy and if it is mycoplsma, how I can prevent it from coming back. The vet that comes to our store does not think the head tilt will improve, but it is not so bad he constantly rolls over, he only flips sometimes when I hold him, and he is trying dig through my hands.

Answer
One mistake that the vet made when treating the rat was not using anything for inflammation. Head tilt that is allowed to get bad is hard to clear up and often requires aggressive treatment, including using steroids.  He should be put back on baytril and also be put on steroids for 7 to 10 days. Prefer 10.  The antibiotics are to help ward off any secondary infection that may come along should his immune system become weak from the steroids.  Most vets are scared of steroid use and rats because they are, for starters, not well educated about rat care and easily forget the rats metabolic rate will eat through any medication which is why many vets underdose our rats and they end up not responding to the medication used. Its very hard to over dose a rat. You can give a 280 gram rat 7mgs of valium and all it will do is heavily sedate her for 4 hrs, but it wont kill her. Their awesome metabolic rate burns right through which means she only gets the partial dose and was as if her body only got, say, 2mgs of the valium rather than the full 7. Hope that makes sense.  That said, the steroids would not cause a depletion of the immune system fast as some vets think. A 10 day course of prednisone would not harm their fragile immune system. It would take more like 3 or 4 months to even begin to touch it. Truth. Trust me, I will go nose to nose with any vet that wants to argue this. The benefits outweigh the risks.  Here is why the rat did not improve:  Inner ear infections are usually caused by mycoplasmosis. They are born with it so one little thing can trigger that nasty little organism that lacks a cell wall, which makes it more difficult to treat (esp if your a vet that knows only the basics on treating rodents which sadly, 80% of them are not qualified to see rats or other small mammals!!)  That said, baytril is the drug of choice when treating otitis media in case the culprit is myco. Baytril is one antibiotic that destroys the entire cell and cell wall of the bacteria. most antibiotics are made to destroy the cell wall so if you use this medication for a myco infection, it wont work at all. This is why so many rats do not get better ...they are not given the right antibiotic. They also need to be treated with the right antibiotic for at least 30 days since its a hard bug to kill and its harder to penetrate the cell and destroy it. If they are not kept on it for the proper length of time, they relapse fast, and the second time around can cause damage to their delicate lungs, and this is when it becomes chronic.   Otitis media causes inflammation. This swelling puts pressure on the rats vestibular cochlear nerve which is what controls the rats equilibrium. This is why a rat with an inner ear infection (its the middle ear that is infected, which is where the "media" comes in...media means "middle"  just thought you would want to know that....toss that around to the vet to impress him.  LOL! Oh and Otitis is "ear" Otic means ear, like optic means eye. Info that could either be worthless to some or interesting to others! I am sort of a nerd about this kind of stuff so to me, the more knowledge the better! :)   OH KAY! That said  (second cup of coffee this morning at 5:30am so my mouth is a bit chatty!)  the inflammation on this nerve, which just to shorten it up you can refer to it as the 8th cranial nerve rather than the vestibular cochlear nerve)  needs treated too. The infection should be gone, but this doesnt mean all of the inflammation is. Once the steroids are used, it may take some time, but you should see a slight improvement within a few days and after that, over time he should be back to normal. The fear I do have is since he hasn't been treated properly, this tilt may be more permanent than it normally would have been. This is not ideal, however, but rats CAN and DO live with a permanent head tilt. As long as the rat can eat and drink and seems otherwise happy, I'm happy!   I know what you mean when they flip when you hold him and he is trying to dig. I had a rat that had a nasty infection that left him with a type of palsy like movements. He would flip around when I held him and walk in a large circle when I would put him on the floor. He did fine in his small cage he lived in. I had a ferret ball secured to the sides of his cage. The ball was round of course (no duh! LOL!) and this was perfect for his peculiar moments. It worked with him, he never rolled in that ball because of the arched walls inside etc.... he ate in his ball and slept in his ball, it was like a "wheel chair" for him, so to speak.

Also, a pituitary tumor can mock otitis media. However, if that were the case, he would be much worse now, unable to use his front paws to grasp and hold food, sitting in a very "un-orthodox" position, with their back legs going forward, almost making it look like his back paws are snow skis or something. Its very strange.   Anyhow, please refer to my website, sandyscrittercity.com for any and all info.