Recovering Rat Slightly Disorientated

Question
Hi Sandra,
One of my rats, a female aged 9 months, had a really bad attack on her respiratory system recently. It ravaged her body over a weekend. She was no longer active, sitting in her cage gasping for air, and had lost a LOT of weight; you could see her skeleton underneath her skin.  I thought I would loose her, she was on death's door.
I managed to get her to a vet in time monday morning, and after several visits after the following week, a few injections and an antibiotics course she started to recover.
Now two weeks later from when it hit, one of the antibiotics (Baytril) has just run out (yesterday), but I still have some of the other antibiotic (Septrin) which she wouldn't touch even if mixed in something.

Since the antibiotics started working, she has been (and still is) full of energy, running around everywhere, although she still is very skinny and a little picky about what she is eating.  However yesterday I noticed that she is now a little disorientated, her head is also tilted very very slightly.
Now, I don't know if it's because of an infection in her inner ear (but she's been on antibiotics baytril for the past 2 weeks?), or if she has injured her neck, and that's causing the slight tilt, and consequent disorientation.
But she is absolutely full of energy and is making no sense of distress, which makes me wonder how serious it is.  

I can't examine her as she won't stand still - should I wait and see if it improves or worsens?

Answer
She needs on the baytril longer.  30 days is what is usually the normal protocol for pneumonia, which I can almost bet that is what she had, hence the weight loss etc.

Seems like a secondary infection has crept up as well.  Depending on the bacteria causing the infection the baytril may or may not help.

Try to mix the septrin  with chocolate ice cream, melted some.  Just use half the dose and the ice cream, about a spoonful....this will mask the flavor.  Wait a few minutes and dose her the other half of the septrin.

The septrin wont touch her if its mycoplasmosis but if it is another secondary infection, it should help which is why she needs it.

She should also be on something for inflammation to help with the tilt. This tilt is because there is pressure on the 8th cranial nerve (vestibulocochlear nerve) which controls equilibrium, and without steroids or at least an NSAID like metacam, it will just take much longer for her to recover from the tilt. Hopefully she doesnt start walking in circles etc.... and if she does, she absolutely needs the anti-inflam meds.

You should phone the vet and ask for an extension for baytril. Again, a full 30 days is rule of thumb. Sometimes if the rat ends up relapsing, they are put on a daily dose of antibiotics to prevent relapse again since too many respiratory infections are known to cause lung scarring, lesions or blistering which is not a good thing at all.

hope this helped