injured left side of pet rat

Question
QUESTION: hello i have adopted my old roommates pet rat that ive known since she was a baby. she is a little over a year and a half old and has suddenly been walking and behaving very strangely as of today. she was perfectly fine yesterday but when i came home from work today i noticed not only was her left eye half open but when walking around and sitting she is hunched/slanted over to the left often resulting in her walking crooked and tipping over constantly. i got really scared when i saw her try to walk out of her cage and she didnt even go straight at the opening to pull herself up and out. when she finally pulled her self up instead of walking down the slanted platform she decided to take a plunge off the side face first to the ground below. luckily she did half a flip before she hit the ground and landed on her back. but still it seems as if something is really wrong with her. that is very strange and unsafe behavior for her even for her age and she is walking completely different. she cant even hold the food i give her. she tries to eat it like a dog would by leaving the food on the ground and hunching over in a weird possition to try to eat. she is in really bad shape right now. please get back to me as soon as possible i have no idea what happened or what to do. thank you so much for your time ! -brent

ANSWER: Oh no, it sounds possibly like a pituitary tumor.  I wish I could say it was an inner ear infection, but when you said she cannot hold her food, that right there told me it is probably a pituitary tumor, which is a tumor found at the base of the brain. Although it can be easily operated on in humans, sadly, it cannot be with rats and it is not curable and it is eventually fatal.  What she may benefit from is a series of steroid injections to help with the inflammation. What happens is, rats, esp female rats, start to develop these tumors at a young age and soon as the tumor reaches a certain size or presses on a certain nerve, which in this case is the vestibular cochlear nerve that controls equilibrium (which explains her loss of balance and pressure on her eye is causing her eye to close due to loss of muscle control)  
You can also feed her baby food. She may eventually have a problem chewing and swallowing, which is the signal to tell you things are looking grim for her and putting her down is the best thing.

Please go over my website, first reading about pituitary tumors and also about inner ear infection.  If you can get her to a qualified vet, it would be worth it to start her on antibiotics and steroids and HOPE its inner ear infection.  The big symptom with a PT is loss of the use of their front limbs and the inability to hold and grasp with their front paws, but some rats also do this with an inner ear infection too, but its not as common.   Let me know after reading these two pages on my website if you think this describes your girls symptoms.  

I hope I am wrong....I would LOVE to be wrong in this case.....but chances are, I am right. Even so, you can keep her comfortable if possible for a little while at least, until she has no quality of life.  Again the kindest action is to put her to sleep but the vet must also know the proper HUMANE way to do it as well, which means using anesthesia to put the rat into a deep sleep before giving ANY injection that stops the heart.  Sedation is NOT good enough, only a deep anesthesia induced sleep is acceptable.

Here is my website:  Sandyscrittercity.com

http://www.sandyscrittercity.com/pituitarytumors.htm

http://www.sandyscrittercity.com/offbalanceheadtilt.htm

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you for your answer. i read both pages about her possible symptoms and im pretty sure she has a pituitary tumor. im scheduling an appointment for the vet to see what we can do to help her out. thank you so much for your help- take care

ANSWER: Please keep me posted......I was hoping you would say it sounded more like it was related to an ear infection, but I had a feeling it was a PT.  Let me know how the vet visit goes.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: so i took her to the vet today and they said it is only an ear infection! i noticed two days ago that she was holding her food with her right hand while the food was on the ground, so i got a feeling that it might not be a PT because she was still able to use her hand, but she has very poor balance so she couldnt sit up and eat with her hands anyways. she was also moving very fast the last few days, but still kinda clumsy. the vet said she is in good shape her heart is beating fine and everything. they gave me 100MG/ML of Chloramphenicol. i give her 0.24 ML orally twice a day for 14 days. hopefully this helps her out. thank you again ! take care

Answer
Woot!!!  What good news.  Excellent news!!! :)   :)

The only thing is, I wish she was given something for inflammation, but if she is using her front paws and doesn't have a severe head tilt, she should regain her equilibrium just fine as soon as the medication starts to work.  You should notice improvement in 3 to 4 days.  Keep in mind that antibiotics begin to work to destroy the cell wall of the bacteria right away, reaching its peak in 48 hours, 72 hrs max.  If after the 4th full day on antibiotics you do not see any improvement, the medication should be changed to something else, meaning the meds used are not killing the pathogen that is causing the infection.  This is the same protocol used with humans and antibiotics as well: the 3 day rule is for all living and breathing organisms!  LOL   Sounds kind of like geek science or something, doesn't it?   

Anyhow, that said, I am HAPPY as can be about being wrong. Thrilled!!  Like I said, it sounded like one or the other, but with the use of her front paws, it sounds more promising that its otitis media (infection of the middle (inner) ear rather than a scary pituitary adenoma!  Please keep me posted. I really appreciate hearing back from readers and how their rats are doing after writing to me.  I am one rat consultant that truly cares about these little critters and have sat her many times with tears rolling down my face after reading about how a rattie that I was trying to help had either passed away or improved and recovered without incident, leaving me with happy tears too, ESP if the rat had a struggle along the way to get better.  I also like to keep things recorded, ESP when it comes to tumors, from mammary tumors to the nasty zymbals gland tumors. This way, I am actually doing my own small study in specific areas of rat health and this can be a very helpful contribution to the Association of exotic mammal Veterinarians and other associated professionals, including rat owners as well!