Shaky runt with severe head tilt.

Question
Hello. About a week ago I adopted a rat from my friend who could no longer keep her. They got her for free at the pet store because they noticed she had severe breathing and sneezing problems, and the woman at the store said that they could take her home and try to treat her. She gave themn some medicine intended for birds (can't find the bottle right now, so I don't remember what it was called), but it was red in color and you put it directly into their water. I stopped the treatment on that and have been giving her .1ML of baytril for the past 4 days. She should remain on this treatment for another 3 days, according to the dosage.

I haven't noticed any improvement. She is still very shaky, cannot keep her balance and her head tilt has stayed the same. Could this be because the Baytril cycle is not yet complete? She has something other than an ear infection? Could it be that she is the runt?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!
Annie

Answer
Hi Annie

For starters, the baytril needs to be given for 21 to 30 days, not 7. This is not nearly long enough to knock this infection out. Second, she needs something for inflammation, steroids are preferred, but many vets use metacam.  The reason she needs something for inflammation is because the head tilt is being caused by inflammation on the Vestibular-cochlear nerve, also called the eighth cranial nerve.  This nerve is what controls the equilibrium and this is why the rat has head tilt. She will have a hard time getting rid of the head tilt without something to help the inflammation, and even this will take a while to go away.  She may even be left with a slight tilt but as long as she can eat and drink, thats ok, too.

I am afraid that she may have a slight head tilt once treatment is done because of the lack of treatment from the original owner. The treatment used that was put in the rats water (it was probably some tetracycline derivative meant for birds) of course, was worthless and did nothing but waste precious time. For starters, its absolutely ridicuous to put medication in a bottle of water and expect the rat to drink the entire bottle in order to get the proper dose of medication. You know that sure wont happen, thats for sure. In fact this way to treat them could make a rat very dehydrated if they dont like the new flavor of the water and stop drinking.  

I assume you have a vet since you have baytril...but your vet needs to know how to properly treat this inner ear infection in order for her to recover.  If you need a vet, please allow me to help y you find    one if needed, that is.