Rat rolling around HELP!!

Question
We have a very small rat who was fine we went out of town for a day and a half and when we got back she could not walk she is doing the alligator death roll. We rushed her to the vet who thinks she has neurological problems ( I might add this vet has very little experience with rats) my first reaction was that she had an ear infection. They gave her a shot of some sort of antibiotics. But they are insisting she is not going to get better and want to put her to sleep. Do you have any ideas or suggestions I would hate to have her put to sleep for something like an ear infection. Thank you for any help.

Answer
Your rat more than likely has an ear infection. THe vet is just...well I dont want to be nasty....lets just say you should find a new vet.

Pressure on the 8th cranial nerve is the reason rats lose their balance, tip over, walk or spin in circles, walk backwards, flip, head tilt, you name it. This nerve is what controls the equilibrium and when there is pressure on it, the animal is off kilter.
It is best to treat this with antibiotics and steroids for the inflammation or she wont recover properly and this vet will think he is correct in saying she wont get better.

I have dedicated an entire webpage to this so please check it out and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Here is the URL about dizziness and ear infection etc...

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

Here is a link about vets and finding the right vet along with a link to the AEMV whow ill provide you with names of vets that are for exotic pets (which is what category rats are in, oddly enough!)    

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

hope this helps!