My Little Matilda: It's PT NEW UPDATE pg. 8

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Aida

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2011
Messages
2,323
Location
Florida
Hi guys. My Matilda is about 28 months old. She's been generally healthy her whole life, and for her age now, she's doing great. However, today I noticed something awkward, and I'm thinking it might be PT.

She's walking slower than normal. She's walking slower, and with her head low on the floor-- not touching, but definitely low. Also, I noticed that when she was taking oxbow out of the bowl, she was almost trying to shovel it into her mouth by running her mouth over the food pile, not cramming it in super fast as usual. Just yesterday, she was shoveling it all in like crazy- and today the crazy spark just isn't there. I did a "cheerio test" with some lettuce, and a cheerio. She is definetly capable of taking food in her mouth and holding it normally in her hands. She did that with the lettuce, and she also did it with the cheerio. However, a moment later while chewing it, she let her head droop down and her hands rest on the ground. She still ate it quickly and normally. Also, her eyes seem to be pushed out more than usual...


ON THE OTHER HAND, she was extremely happy to come out and climbed down the door and jumped to the ground, walked away. She's currently running all around my chair like normal. I will take a video now- someone please help.

If something is wrong, will she be OK till a possible vet visit on friday? Tomorrow and Thursday I have school and then a game after school both days. I will be gone until 10pm. If there is any doubt, though, I will disregard soccer completely and take her to our veterinarian.
 
I have girls and oldies that sit like that . She walks good and seems to have good use of her paws. it could be aging but keep watching her. I dont think i would say pt yet but I wouldnt rule it out because it happens so fast.
 
Thank you hope floats. I've also noticed that she seems to be sort-of limping on her left rear leg, and leaning to her right side. She did this this morning when I woke her up to check before leaving, and as she moved around more it became less prominent.
 
In the video, I'd say no but from your description, head low, shovelling the food instead of instead gobbling, those are definitely PT signs.
She's gorgeous and what a beautiful thin rat!
 
Thanks jorats, she is- I love her so much. I hope I can get a while more out of her. I will see tonight and tomorrow and plan vet for Friday. I'll also look.over all the other PT threads, maybe it is just age as hopefloats said. </3
 
Just got home from school. Being gone ALL day, wondering what is up with matilda, was so stressful....

She's eating as of now, I gave them veggies, and was sleeping in the hammock. Obviously she can get up there and out of there. However, she still is keeping her head low as before. I'm thinking vet time tomorrow, hopefully I can convince mom.

Update/Edit: Yay, off to the vet tomorrow. I'm so relieved. :thud: :sad3: :cry4:
 
Hey guys, unfortunately it is most likely PT. The vet told me that it is still VERY early, therefore I was given the lowest effective dose of prednisolone, that is 0.04ml per 24 hours(the concentration is 0.4mg/ml). Because we are giving the lowest dose, it isn't enough to harm her immune system therefore there is no need yet for baytril/doxy. I'm to give this until it stops being effective, and then we will increase the dose. Same with it doesn't work.The vet was pretty optomistic, and said that because she is already 2yrs and 3months, and because we caught it early, she could potentially die of old age before this takes her....

Matilda had a pretty good day at the vet's today, but now it's worse. She's really having issues with her right front paw. It seems to be worse when she just wakes up, and gets better the more she moves it around.

Ugh, PT has always been something that I've looked at and hoped I never would have to go through. I never thought it would happen to my Matilda....
 
Ah, poor thing. If you don't see any improvements within hours of the low dose, be sure to call back for a higher dose. You really want to keep that tumour from doing more damage.
 
Jorats, I unfortunately couldn't see her after the dose. I gave her the medication, and left the house RIGHT after. I didn't get back until about 4 hours later, so I couldn't see how she did directly after the medicine.

Tomorrow, I will be able to watch her as I will be home all day after giving her her medication at 4. Should I already be seeing improvements so soon after one dose?
 
The reason I say that is because I don't have any faith in low doses. So since she's had her dose already...have you seen any improvements now? If not, it might be worth to ask for a higher dose.
 
I'm so sorry your Matilda has PT, I hope your vet optimism is correct and you've caught it early enough. She's a beautiful little girl. I wish you and her comfort in these difficult times. :hugs:
 
Thank you so much Sarah.

Jorats, I think i agree with you. I haven't seen any improvements, and she seems to be faltering. When she is out and running about she is great, but inside the cage it's on and off. One minute she is running around and playing, but another she just sits there and looks... off. She also ALWAYS keeps her paws on the ground while eating now, whereas before she only did so sometimes. It really sucks, because one minute she is great, but the next I get sad again 'cause she isn't doing so great anymore. I will email my vet and ask her if I should increase the dosage.

Is 0.04ml of 0.4mg/ml Prednisolone very low?
 
Thanks for the link. I emailed my vet, they are open saturdays so I should(hopefully) get a response tomorrow, and maybe we'll even go back.

An hour or so after I responded to you, she got MUCH worse. She was sitting on her 'butt'(and not crouching on her hind legs at all), and instead of using her hands to eat, leaning against ground at least, she was "pushing" the food against her mouth with her forearms. It looked very bad. This was about two hours or so after I gave her her second dose of the medication.

Now, however, she is so much better and even ate food HOLDING IT NORMALLY in her paws, ABOVE ground.
It seems to look like this:
1. Medication is given, no change for 3 or so hours at all.
2. Finally, after that time, the medicine begins to work and there is good improvement.
3. Improvement lasts for about 12 or so hours, so not enough time; the negative signs once again resume until it is time for the next dose, and then for the time it takes for it to work.

I noticed this yesterday, and it looks similar now. I know, because her first dose was on Thursday at 5ish, she didn't get better until about 9pm(at this point she started running around, drinking, playing with the cagemates, fighting over alpha position)at 5am the next morning she was still pretty much fine. When I came home from school at 5pm, she was beginning to get crappy again. Meds were given, she got worse and worse, until about now(9pm ish) she is feeling much better. The meds help, but not for long enough-- there is a few hours lag.
 
Godmother, I have read about bromo on here- and when I mentioned it to the vet, she did know about it, so I imagine that will be the next step if this Pred doesn't help. Right now, I'm still at the lowest dose, so I will ask her to allow me to bump it up and we'll see how it fares. It's helping, but not long enough.
 
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