rat going in circles and flipping over

Question
Hi

This may be complicated but here goes. About 5 months ago,  my little male rat started to spin in circles and fall over sideways. He had no head tilt, though. He continued to eat and drink and act fine. He was put on antibiotics and steroids and still continues to walk in circles and he even flips over alot too. Its very strange. Our vet is also stumped but as long as he is eating and drinking and acting fine otherwise, he said not to worry. Tests were run including blood work and all came back negative. Do you have any idea why a healthy normal 1 year old rat would to this out of the blue and continue to like this way months later with no change?
thank you

Answer
Hi Clarice!

I have seen this many times in rats. When it is not associated with inner ear infection, stroke or brain tumor, it is often, believe it or not, from infection such as meningitis, which is an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.  The antibiotics took care of this but pressure remains on the 8th cranial nerve that in turn, has caused the rat to continue to display some neurological signs.
He still may improve some even though this happened several months back.
He is not on any other medications I am going to assume as per your message but I would do this:
I would continue on (at least) metacam instead of using nothing for inflammation. The few days on steroids usually isnt enough to reduce inflammation but keeping a rat on them for a prolonged period can compromise the immune system, which is why they did not keep him on long. Metacam is an NSAID that works fairly well taking the place of steroids mainly due to safety reasons (super infection such as sepsis can be seen in cases that involve extended use of steroids)

Talk it over with the vet and see what he or she has to say about it.
It is worth a shot.  However, if he is living a happy life despite his disability, I would not really worry too much as long as he is not displaying any signs of illness and he continues to eat, drink, come out for some attention and affection and lives a happy life with you! He sounds very strong and brave, as most rats are!

thanks for caring!


Sandra