Possible PT - help

Question
Hi Sandra

You've helped me with an answer once before and I would really, really appreciate your help again now. My 23month old boy, Mo, has started showing some symptoms. In the order I notcied them:
1) For about the last 3 days he's been a bit quiet, taking himself off alone more than usual (though he's always been a very reserved boy), but he still boggles away at me when I talk to him. Appetite still good but he's not keen to get involved in the feeding frenzy with the other boys like he usually would, preferring to go off to his favourite house and wait for them to finish/eat it off my fingers in his house.

2) Sunday night, I noticed he seemed a bit slower than normal. I couldn't work out if he had a limp on a back leg - at first I thought he did. But I manipulated both hind legs and checked him over - there was no sign of pain or injury. He just was slow and a bit bumbling.

3) Monday night, I noticed when he was washing his face, that he was initially using both paws, but then seemed off balance and kept having to put his right paw down on the floor. Then he took two yoggies, both times eating them with only his left paw.

4) Last night, his breathing also seemed a bit laboured - his whole body moves more than normal (not completely sucking his sides in, but his head moves forward and back when he breathes, and so does his body. I also noticed a (very slight) squeak - not as his brother does with a bout of myco, but just a slight noise on an intake of breath. This has now disappeared.

5) Lastly, just once on Monday night, he stretched his head up to the ceiling (as if he were choking, but without opening his mouth (though he did do a strange yawn once without stretching his head up).

If you are thinking what I am, you might say it could be a PT? We went to see the vets yesterday morning. I spoke to her about a PT, but she just prescribed metacam as she wants to rule out a strain or sprain first to his right foreleg. The first dose of metacam did seem to help yesterday - he took a yoggie and ate it with both hands for the first time since Monday. He was also using both paws to wash his face too. He's due for his next dose now.

So, what I'd really like to know is - if it were a PT, would just the metacam pain relief/anti-inflammatory make him show this improvement? If not, might that mean that it isn't a PT?

I was feeling a bit more optimitistic when I saw him use both arms to wash with, but I've just seen a video clip of a doe with obvious PT symptoms, who went on to die from a PT, and she was using both her front paws to wash with, even though she then wasn't using them to eat with. So that means I can't take that action as a positive sign...

Mo hasn't yet exhibited that classic sign of stretching back his head with his paws placed on the floor and wrists up, but he is still mainly just using one paw.

We're back at the vets tomorrow evening, and I need to know then what to do. If the metacam makes a difference again today, is it likely not to be a PT, or could metacam help alleviate PT symptoms? If so, and we do think it's a PT, then I guess we'll go with a Dex injection and tablets. I know males don't repond to Galastop like does do, and that generally treatment doesn't make too much difference in boys, but I'd like to try. Would he be in pain with a PT (in whcih case do we need to get more metacam on top of the Dex?) Please tell me it's not a PT!

Sorry for such a long email and thanks in anticipation.

PS: In case it helps, there are 2 videos here:

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh1/KateWigley/?action=view¤t=MOV04515....

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh1/KateWigley/?action=view¤t=MOV04513....


Kate

Answer

I have some really good news for you (I watched both videos as well)

For starters, I have seen many rats eat using one paw, favoring only one paw so this is not really unusual even if he never did it before.  

I do not see any signs of a PT at all, not even in your description of his symptoms.  The signs of a PT are as follows:


Walking in circles, spinning, walking backwards

Head tilt

Eyes seem to bulge or appear to be pushing out, sometimes just one eye.

Lack of coordination

Stiffness in the front paws

Stiffness in the back legs where they cannot sit properly and sometimes take on an odd position when sitting, drawing their front legs forward. Its very odd to witness and usually sends people to the clinic very worried at what they are witnessing.

Difficulty holding food and weakness in front limbs

Inability to chew and swallow (usually in late stages)


What I do see is a rat that doesnt feel so good and may have a respiratory infection.  I saw him hand his head over the side of the little cubby.  Is he doing this often?  Does he climb on the highest level of the cage or hang his head over the shelves or on top of toys and hang his head?  

I think the extending of the head to the ceiling was possibly him trying to get a bit more oxygen which is common with a respiratory infection.

If he was not given antibiotics, I believe that is what he needs more than anything.