my rats ear infection

Question
QUESTION: Hi Sandra. My female rat Scout has had a head tilt for just over a couple of weeks. I took her to the vet and they gave me the antibiotic - Baytril Oral antibiotic for an inner ear infection, which I give to her twice a day (injecting into her mouth which she takes very well, sweet thing).Thanks to reading your website I was expecting it to be an inner ear infection. The vet said that it takes a long time to heal - about a month. Does this sound right? Should he have prescribed an anti-inflammatory? She used to suffer from red eyes, and they got a lot worse when she first had the head tilt, but the antibiotic has helped that but not her head tilt.

She first started showing signs that it was getting better, but over the past few days it has been getting worse, and she flips upside down regularly, and we noticed a couple of days ago that she was chasing her tail on top of her house which I've never noticed before. I have separated her from her sister under the vet's advice to ensure that she doesn't pass anything on, so she might have started chasing her tail out of boredom. She hasn't lost any of the strength in her front paws so I am hoping that it isn't a brain tumour. She is eating well and is sweet and exploratory as ever, so hot showing any changes to personality just always off balance and tilting to the right.

Scout is female and about a year and 7 months. A year ago she had another weird disease which I had consulted you about and the vet had thought it was meningitis - where she was having these weird spasms in her body, but since the vets solution of antibiotic and anti-inflammatory those symptoms have never shown again. We have just finished treating her sister Gem for a tumour which was very traumatic (she had it removed), so feeling rather distressed that Scout is now sick again.

My husband is taking her to the vet tomorrow but as you are the expert I just wanted to double check first with you if she is on the right antibiotic, whether she should have an anti-inflammatory and how long it usually takes to heal.



ANSWER: For starters, put her back with her cagemates.  There is NOTHING she can give to the others, trust me. If anything, this will stress her more and compromise her immune system.  The vet should have given her steroids for inflammation or at least metacam which is like a glorified advil. He must not be real up on treating rats inner ear infections or he would have known to do this.  The only reason it takes long to clear up is because these vets dont give medication for inflammation which is the biggest problem of all since it is why they are dizzy and have head tilt.   She is on the right antibiotic as long as the bacteria that is causing the infection responds to baytril.  I am sure once she has the steroids (which I can almost promise you the vet will get this sick look on his face and probably deny giving it to the rat with a story about how it can cause a super infection to come on blah blah blah, totally forgetting this is short term only and we are using it on an animal with a super fast metabolic rate, so worrying about it causing the immune system to crash is the last thing to be concerned with.  Getting her better is more important and the benefits outweigh the risks.

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

QUESTION: Thank you so much Sandra. I am so impressed by your speedy responses - it's great to have knowledge before going to these vets. For the future I will look for a proper exotic vet, these ones do say that they treat exotic animals but seem to concentrate on cats and dogs.

You must save a large number of rats through this website, keep up the good work!

Many many thanks, Kate

Answer
Hi Kate

Many vets say they treat exotics. The problem is, they did not take the extended education in order to become board certified in exotics. They know a bit more than they were taught in vet school, but they still only know common ailments and nothing further.  Often they are not properly equipped when it comes to things like dispensing meds and use substitutes that are meant for dogs and cats. They also do not have the fundings to invest in the proper machinery needed for surgery for so many species of animals so they focus on the animals they see most, which are small animals such as dogs and cats.  Again, making the surgery even more of a risk to operate since they dont have the small scale apropriately-sized anesthesia machines and surgical instruments for small mammals.  

Let me know where in the UK your at. I can give you some names of vets that may have what is needed for your rats.


Also, did the vet finally put her on the right meds?