dragging feet/ sneezing

Question
My rat Sammy (2 1/2 years) walks very slowly and drags his back feet behind him. he drags his tail on the ground and doesn't hold it up like he did when he was young and isn't very balanced when he grooms himself. Do you think he might have hind leg paralysis? He also had a sneezing problem so we got him zithromax and gave it to him for a month. (2 doses daily for 2 weeks, each dose=0.1cc; 1 dose daily for 2 weeks)He seemed to be doing better (less sneezing) but his treatment ended yesterday and he was sneezing a bit today so what do I do?

Answer
Hi there

Oh yes, he for sure his HLP. The fact he drags his tail puts the icing on the cake that he has it. The tail is a continuation of the vertebrae, of course, and when they start dragging the tail you know there is nerve root compression going on. You can  go to my website, sandyscrittercity.com and refer to the page on caring for elderly rats. I have an article up on  HLP and also a reader wrote in a long time ago and shared with us a recipe for a dietary supplement that has helped her rats with HLP.  I cannot say one way or the other that this works, but many people have had luck with it so its worth a shot.  Also, you may want to change his cage around  to help him be more comfortable. A single story cage is usually best and its also a good idea to litter pan train him so he  doesn't have to shuffle around in litter with his own waste in it etc...  he will need help keeping his back end clean and would benefit if you brushed his fur daily using a soft bristle brush, such as a babys hair brush. This will help keep buck grease from forming no his back.

As for the sneezing, he should get back on the meds and be kept on it for the rest of his life. Proper treatment of chronic myco, which is what he has, calls for life long antibiotic therapy using the proper medication, which would be either zithromax or baytril and if they relapse soon after stopping the meds, the rat needs to be kept on it for the rest of his life.

Hopefully your vet is the type of vet that knows how myco works and realizes that treating this properly is VITAL to prevent him from getting lung scarring from recurring infections. Sounds like he was on the ball  by giving it to him for 30 days and tapering from twice a day for 14 days to once a day for 14 days, as this is the proper way to treat mycoplasmosis pulmonis, so hopefully the vet will know the importance of life long therapy.
Baytril is better to use long term, however, although tolerance can occur with both medications. The benefits outweigh the risks in this case though as it does with so many other chronic ailments that plaque our rats!