head-tilt

Question
I have an 8 month old female (non-spayed) rat that developed a head tilt on 1/1/09. She has no porphyrin around her eyes or nose, no wheezing, no circling, rolling,paralysis or inflammation of the ear. She is eating, playing and drinking normally. I took her to the vet anyway on 1/7/09 and was given two prescriptions. One is Baytril .015 mg twice daily and the second is doxycycline .003 mg twice daily. I know it hasn't been that long but I have seen no improvement in her head tilt. Will this go away?  I am a first time rat owner, am I over-reacting?

Answer
No, you're not over-reacting. A head tilt can be indicative of a lot of different, sometimes very serious, things. Within three days the head tilt would have been much better if it was going to correct. Your rat may be like this permanently, although the tilt may lessen with time.. luckily they can live a very normal life, I had a doe with a tilt for nearly 3 years and she did fine. However you need to figure out what caused this. Do you know if she had any head trauma (a fall, a clonk on the head, anything)? Finish the medication as per your vet to rule out infection - but keep an eye on her. If she develops any new symptom, go back to the vet immediately.