Medications

Question
Hi Sandra, I have another question about a rat that we are treating at my place of employment. He has had a resperatory infection for about two weeks. The vet originally had him on baytril and he has developed tilt head. When they took him back to the vet last week the vet started him on a round of a drug called Chloramphenicol. Our instructions are to wear gloves when we medicate him. I have some concerns that if I am required to wear gloves this may not be the most suitable medication to give him orally. Can you please tell me a little bit about what this drug does and if he should maybe be receiving something else? They are planning on me taking him home when his treatment is over (I get all the ones with tilt head as they are not viewed as being sellable or adoptable, but hey, I have two others and they are excellent pets)and I would like to ensure that he is getting the best treatment possible so his tilt head does not get any worse. Thanks for any input on this.

Answer
Chloramphenicol is RARELY used any more because it is highly toxic. The reason you are to wear gloves is because this toxic drug can penetrate your tissues and cause serious side effects, including bone marrow supression. Care must be taken when handling the powder also and avoid inhaling it.  Frankly, the vet is half baked for using this on inner ear infection. THis drug is reserved for treatment of super tolerant infections and because he has not treated the rat properly using the right medications for the tilt itself, he is thinking he has some tolerant bacteria. This drug is dangerous and toxic and should not be used on rats except for extreme cases, and even then vets usually find a safer and less toxic broad spectrum. The reason this animal is not getting better is because of the lack of use of anti-inflammatories.  The reason his head is tilted is because there is pressure from inflammation on the 8th cranial nerve and to get rid of head tilt faster, steroids should be used or at least an NSAID such as metacam.  This rat would have done just fine on baytril for the next 21 to 30 days as long as he had something for the inflammation.  I prefer using cefadrops and steroids and within a week or so you should see some positive results. My next question is, is this vet that treats this animals are board certified exotic specialist or just a vet that treats exotics and dogs and cats and other stuff too? Something tells me absolutely not, or he or she would know the proper procedure to treat head tilt, which is usually resulting from inner ear infection.