inner ear infection reoccurring maybe?

[coreline]

so my rat Daisy had a bad head tilt caused by an inner ear infection over the Summer. she was cleared up after awhile on anti-biotics and all has been well with her since!

but the last week I've been noticing slight lethargy (she normally climbs on EVERYTHING, but has spent play times hiding under dressers/night stands), but could not 100% write it off as being spooked by noise (we have construction on our house a lot of the day for the last week and it'll keep going for awhile). but this does occur when the noise is not going on.

she also seems to be not as coordinated as normal. like, she slips off the bed rather than jump confidently like normal. she still jumps up on to the bed, so she's physically able, but not confident/coordinated.

her breathing has been nasally and I'd argue maybe a little too fast as of the last couple days.

I noticed today too when I held her up to look at her pupils (when she had her infection before, one of her pupils rolled and never 100% returned to normal. almost, but just a bit different) to see if they were different at all, she freaked out. she looked like she couldn't get focused/depth (she was rapidly moving her head side to side) and was incredibly spooked after that.

oh! I also have a glass jar in the room filled with cheerios for treats. normally she'll spend a couple minutes climbing too it and trying to pry it open. she looses interest fast though. today she was biting it to get it open, rather than prying it open. I was worried about her teeth D:

though, when she was on the couch for play time the other night, she was normal. actively trying to get off the couch, climb everything, explore, etc.

I admit, I'm on a bit of a hypochondriac kick right now because of the roller coaster I've been on with my rat Blue. I'm a bit paranoid that this is something other than a uri/inner ear infection due to the personality/coordination changes. but she's not going to be 1 for a couple weeks. Jan 7th is her 1st birthday. is that too young for a PT? =/

oh bah, ignore my holiday disorganization my main question basically was: can an inner ear infection present like this? or is head tilt pretty much the norm for that?

 

[lilspaz68]

She could have inner ear infection for sure, she's prone to it. The confusion and freaking out is probably because she is very disoriented and dizzy. I would treat her with a combo of abs and that should also take care of any URI as well.

 

[coreline]

ok, phew.

there's no head tilt, but I'm wondering if one may be slowly starting. ie if her inner ear drum is mildly inflamed, but not enough to cause a tilt.

my vet is open tomorrow, but it's another holiday week due to last week being Christmas and this weekend being New Years. so if I can't get her in this week, I may ask if they'd agree to do abs before seeing her due to her history.

she's not showing any signs of the other stuff I immediately look for with personality changes (PT, stroke, etc). it's mostly the personality change and coordination that caught my attention (she's a danger rat. must go go go. so not climbing/slipping is a weird thing for her).

 

[SQ]

baytril + clavamox would be good for an inner ear infection.

 

[xxchelle]

That sounds so much like what happened to my Atticus. I was worried it was a stroke, he was so disoriented, and really freaking out, almost agitated. The next day I noticed an ever so slight head tilt, and by that night, I could smell the infection in his ear. I called up my vet, relieved that it was an inner ear infection! Haha. My vet put him on Chlorpalm, and within two days he was acting normal again.

 

[coreline]

I am SO hoping it's just another inner ear infection.

I am convinced it's not the noise agitating her (the construction crew is off for the weekend. so no noise since Thursday), but SOMETHING is.

I took her out about 30 minutes ago to give her eyes another peek, just to see if I could make sure there was nothing wrong there. she was so stressed at being out of her cage that her eyes bugged and I could see porphyrin pool in the corner of one of her eyes. she was not that distressed earlier D:

I was debating seeing if my vet could do a drop off since I think their schedule is going to be pretty full this week, but now I am thinking she needs an appointment where I can be there. so she can just go home right after D: it's a 45 minute drive, so it's a long trip either way. but shorter time away from home if it's not a drop off.

poor little Daisy! she's my danger rat! she needs to be better and terrorizing the house again

 

[coreline]

bumping this up because whatever is wrong with Daisy is still a mystery

she's still noisy (nasal noise) and her behavior is still just...off. she's been on Doxy for about 10 days now with no changes.


we were holding off on Baytril since that's what she was on for her ear infection (worried about resistances. especially if she's prone to infections and needs the meds more when she's older).

she hasn't had any progression into physical PT symptoms at all, so I'm not as secretly worried about that hehe.

but my first girl with a PT did start out with personality changes (nipping at her cage mates, refusing to be handled, etc) and then developed the physical changes (balance, inability to hold food, etc).

poor wee Daisy! she just turned 1 today.

 

[mamarat]

Aww your poor baby, happy birthday sweetie.

 

[jorats]

Doxy alone is simply not enough. I'd go ahead with the baytril or try something like clavamox for the possible ear infection.

 

[coreline]

I believe clavamox was actually the next on the list to try!

my vet is just super cautious with antibiotics. they are a very, very good and knowledgeable vet. just cautious with antibiotics (since they like to make sure there are no resistances when they are older, etc.)

but I really agree, in this case I think I'd like to push it and try something else. I normally notice a difference with antibiotics within a couple days to a week (while not always HUGE changes, just signs that it's working). I hate to dose her with the strongest stuff at a young age, but even if this isn't a reoccurring ear infection (met vet thinks there'd be a tilt by now), something is wrong. I've never really had a rat act so skittish from a respiratory issue until it was super advanced.

Daisy will be so upset though. she loves the doxy. I have daily syringe tug-of-wars with her because she wants the whole thing. it usually ends in cheerio bribery because she won't let go

 

[SQ]

Recomended antibiotics for an inner ear infection are either baytril + clavamox or else Chlorpalm

 

[jorats]

I'd give clavamox a try.

 

[coreline]

baytril is what we did for her last infection.

I think my vet did doxy first because he doesn't think she has an ear infection. she doesn't have a tilt, etc. but she's scheduled for a recheck Tuesday and I may call in again about meds before then.

he mentioned at least clavamox if not chlorpalm too.

so my guess is we'll switch to one of those before trying baytril. unless she has some different signs, etc at her recheck.

 

[Godmother]

How is Daisy doing?