Head Tilt and Rolling- Need Help!

[nether]

Hi. One of my ratties developed a head tilt almost two weeks ago. He was walking in circles, rolling and had poor balance. He was still active and eating and drinking with no problems. He had no signs of illness until then except for some sneezing. He is about 5 months old. The doc said that he prob has an ear infection and prescribed chloramphenicol.

After three days, I noticed no improvement with his balance and rolling so I took him back to the doc. They changed his meds to Zithromax at that point (.30 ml once a day). After three days of being on zithro, and seeing that his balance and rolling was getting worse, I decided on my own to change his meds to Baytril (.08 ml twice a day) and Doxy (.04 ml twice a day). Still no improvement. When I put him on the ground, he just rolls and rolls. Sometimes he finds his footing and just slithers around aimlessly.

The doctors seem to be in denial about the severity of his illness. I understand that a head tilt may be permanent but shouldn't the rolling and poor balance go away eventually or get better? I asked them for steroids but they refused since they believe he has an infection and the steroid may lower his immune system. Since they refused to give me steroids, I have taken it upon myself to give him Meloxicam (.20 ml twice a day) and malicetic otic eardrop with hydracortisone to hopefully reduce inflammation. Should it be taking this long for him to get over an ear infection? Shouldn't the rolling and balance problems improved by now? Should I try taking him to another vet that will prescribe steroids or is it past that point now? I don't know what to do anymore. He is still active and eats and drinks. He just has incredibly poor balance and bad head tilt.

 

[lilspaz68]

inner ear infections can take a long time to resolve, and you just need to keep plugging at it longer than a basic URI. My favorite combo is baytril/zithromax, I have found it knocks out most URI's, inner ear infections, etc. If you still have the zithromax and have enough for at least 14 days I would do that along with the metacam for inflammation. Is there a smell from his ear at all? There often isn't since the infection is deep in the ear. The other thing that may have happened is a stroke...does he seem weaker on one side or the other?

 

[Argent]

When one of my old rats, Joey started tilting and rolling, he was put on steroids and abs right away and he improved within days (so most likely was a stroke). If your vet's still being stubborn and no other combo's work, I'd take him to another vet for some steroids. Hope he starts to recover soon...

 

[Scythe]

My Roy had a really bad tilt, as well. So bad he wouldn't eat and lost 100g in about a week or two... The vet and I tried everything, Baytril, Chlorpalm, Doxy, we tried giving him anti-nausea meds so maybe he would eat(knowing rats cant throw up), we gae him tramadol and metacam in case he was in pain... Nothing worked. So in the end, my vet injected three shots of Dexamethasone and Genotocin(? its an antibiotic but i think i butchered the spelling) into him, every three days he would get one shot. And in combination with that, he got Baytril once a day, and Metrozinadole twice a day. That seemed to have kicked it, and he's got a permenant tilt, but he's adjusting.

Keep in mind that eventually, you may kill the infection, but the tilt may remain permenantly, whether its very noticeable or not at all. He will just have to adjust.

 

[SQ]

The recommended treatment for inner ear infection is aggressive treatment with an antibiotic (either baytril + clavamox or else chloramphenicol is recommended) plus an anti-inflamatory (usually a steriod such as predisone, however starting with a couse of dex injections can be very beneficial esp. if the ear infection has advanced to the point that the rattie is rolling).

Inner ear infections need to be treated for quite awhile.
In my experience they need to be treated for at least 4 weeks and I have had to treat them for 2 to 3 months before the infection was cleared up.

Permanent damage may leave rats with a permanent head tilt.
If the ear infection advances to the point that the rat is rolling there are things you can do to help your rattie cope while waiting for the rattie to respond to the meds.