Rat seems to sway and lose his balance

Question
Hi,
I have two wonderful male dumbo rats who I have had for about 4 months now and I brought them when they were ratlings. One of them had to have an operation on his tail recently and I need to take him back to the vet on friday to make sure he has not got an infection. I brought a small cat carrier so that he can travel comfortably. When I got it home tonight I put the other rat in there as he is smaller to see if he would be able to get out of the bars, just so I could make sure the other one couldnt escape as he is bigger. When I put the smaller one in he went crazy and started trying to escape and before I could do anything he had stuck his head through the wire squares on the door. He then got stuck and pulled back really violently-to the point where his eyes were bulging out. He got himself free but now he has changed and is not himself. I inspected him for any injuries and he only has a minor scratch on his ear. When I put him in the cage however he started swaying a little bit and started to lie down-to the point where I thought he was dying. I went to pick him up and he was sqeaking quite a bit. However when I took him out and let him run round he stopped falling over and seemed fine, then when I put him back in he started swaying again (gently). He is normally very very active and climbs the walls in his cage and runs round and he is just not being himself now...he is subdued. This only happened a few hours ago but I am scared that he is seriosly ill, although his symptoms have not got worse. Could he have just made himself dizzy or does this sound serious?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Jenny

Answer

What goes in must come out.  If he got in, he got out ok.  He probably pulled a little muscle or strained something.  The swaying part, do you mean he is swaying his head back and forth?  

Has he ever done this before?  This is also very normal. In fact, check out my site and the two videos on head swaying and see if this compares to what your rat is doing now.

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/myratswaysherhead.htm