Need help with ear infection/PT

Woke up yesterday and went to check on my rats and noticed that 1 of my girls was moving a bit funny. Pulled her out of her cage to check her out and she was walking really wobbly and falling over. I made a short video to show what it looks like (https://www.dropbox.com/s/mcg4gw7zt0fzk3v/20150425_083938.mp4?dl=0). Other than that, she's eating still (although I have seen her eating their bedding, which is yesterday's news), fur looks the same as always, her eyes are still nice and bright, and she still wanted to go off to explore, but we didn't want her running around like that. She is an older rat though, about 2 years and 9 months, so we were getting worried. Took her to the emergency vet and they gave her 2 antibiotics and a painkill/anti-inflammatory, but I just wanted to see if anyone has any experience with this or if it could possibly be something else? The vet says it looks like an ear infection caused by a small respiratory infection as she heard something in her lungs. I guess I'm just afraid it might be a pituitary tumor. The painkiller did seem to help a little, she was moving around a bit easier with it. She can use her hands to eat (gave her Cheerios and Oxbow, ate both just fine) and she drank a bit of water out of a small cup. She can reach her dripper fine now as well. Looking up PT info, she can use both her hands to grip just fine, but she's still really wobbly when walking and doesn't have a head tilt. I just can't tell if she might have a PT as I'm not sure what other signs to look for. It really could just be an ear infection for all I know, but I want to be sure. I have an appointment with our regular vet on Thursday, emailed him to see if we could get her in sooner though. Thanks for any help, just want my little girl to have the best chance possible if it does turn out to be worse than the vet said. If you guys want more video/photos, I can go ahead and make more when she wakes up, but she's passed out right now. I think giving her the medicine stresses her out a bit, but I'm not sure how else to give it to her other than holding her with both hands while my gf squirts it into her mouth. Sorry again if this seems like a lot of rambling, just worried for her, and thank you all again. Edit: Forgot to mention that when she eats, she does hold the food with both hands, but she is not standing straight up on her back legs. She holds it while balancing on her elbows basically.

She does not seem to be typical PT (can't grasp food well, forgets they are eating in the middle of something, dull, glazed eyes, falls off things...)
I would think either stroke because of the sudden onset, or inner ear infection. She doesn't have to have a tilt. She is circling a bit and her balance is definitely off. Because she seems bright, I would think infection is the most likely. Either way, NSAIDs and antibiotics should help.

Here's a video of her eating a Cheerio as well if that would help: https://www.dropbox.com/s/to6azgneg5puky7/20150426_171221.mp4?dl=0
But yeah, I think I'm just over worried a bit, she is already on 3 medications for this as I took her to the emergency vet. They gave me metacam, vibramycin, and enrofloxacin. Either way, in that video where she is eating, she's holding with both hands and has no trouble distinguishing food. Even put a little bowl with some peas in there for her and she immediately knew what it was, but wasn't reaching in with her hands. She'd reach in with her mouth, pull one out, then put it into her hands to eat. Either way, thank you for the advice.

Good luck - let us know what your vet thinks.

Will do. Plan to get an xray or CT scan or whatever they can do to find a tumor like that, even if the vet doesn't think that's her problem. After reading it, I've just become super worried about it.

Well, a scan may rule out PT, but IF it turned out to be that, the treatment would still be the same: antibiotics, a steroid, and a drug like bromocriptine. If she's already on a steroid with the antibiotics, this, too, will start treating any potential for PT. It's only if further symptoms happen, as described above, that you'd start the bromo. It does sound like an inner ear infection that has offset her balance a little, and these can take a while to clear up too. Wishing your little one all the best in a quick recovery.

I wonder if maybe even a bladder infection? She's on the right meds for any infection so lets hope she clears right up.

Hmm, I never even thought of a bladder infection. In any case, she seems to be doing MUCH better today as well. We had some issues giving her medicine the first few days, but now we just mix it into some strawberry ensure and she laps it right up haha. She's been coming out of her igloo much more often, eating regular food, been grooming us again, and she wobbles less when walking and doesn't stumble over when she grooms herself now. It's made me much more hopeful than I was at first. Still going to take her in on Thursday, but I will mention the bladder thing as well. The emergency vet only gave me 2 weeks of medication to be given daily, but I've been reading and it always seems to be 4-6 weeks in most cases. Should I mention that to my normal vet?

Absolutely mention it to your vet!
I'm glad she is doing better.

So I noticed today that one of her eyes is slightly bulging a bit more than the other. Other than that, she is more active, has much more balance, and she was eating her regular food on her own (Oxbow). We have the vet appointment for her on Thursday, so I guess we'll get our vet's opinion then. The only thing worrying me at this point is the eye bulging, but it seems very minor.

We went to the vet today. He gave her some ear drops that we need to apply twice a day as he found some liquid in her ears. He does say it's a bit concerning though that she went from barely able to walk and circling to being able to walk semi-normally again in just a span of 2-3 days though, he says that because of the super fast recovery it could be a tumor. Other than that, she's staying on Baytril and her ear drops for at least another 2 weeks and I'm taking her back for a checkup.

Unfortunately the videos stopped for me after a few seconds but what I could see I would guess inner ear infection as well. Keep up the meds and hopefully she should improve. I found PT rarely responded to metacam so any steady improvement should rule that out. She looks like a sweet old thing and her balance issues and how she eats are normal for her age

Alright. Yeah after a week on metacam/baytril she's stabilized quite a lot. She moves up to the second floor on her cage now by climbing up the slide, and she comes out more often instead of sleeping. I have noticed she bites on her lava ledge a lot more since she got sick though, I'm guessing because it's painful. Her left eye (which is the side she seems to scratch at her ear a lot and behind her ear as well, as if she's trying to get inside it) is a little depressed as well, which I saw was a sign of an ear infection. Overall, I'm feeling a lot better about her chances now. Although my normal vet did recommend getting her off the metacam as it could affect her adversely, but the pain med and anti-inflammation seemed to help her not scratch at her ear as much. I was only given a 2 week supply of that anyway, so I'm thinking I should finish it out. Thanks for all the help everyone.

She will need to be on the antibiotic for a while longer as ear infections can be persistent. You need a couple of weeks after her signs have resolved to make sure it has been taken care of.

I have a large supply of baytril and the ear drops, it's just the metacam that I only have a short supply of. I do plan to just finish off the metacam and only get more if she appears to be in pain.

The pain would pass quickly now that shes being treated. If she's been on it for 4 days you could stop and keep the metacam for another emergency in the future...handy stuff and lasts ages

I stopped her metacam 2 days ago and she seems to be doing fine. She's not chewing at the lava ledge nearly as often, which I imagine she was doing out of pain because she never used to do that before. She's slowly getting her energy back and going back to acting more like she used to, nesting and exploring and all. Kind of amazed how much she recovered in just above a week and a half. Going to keep up the antibiotics for a while though, as Joanne here mentioned. I've read that I should keep them up for about 2 weeks after the infection seems to have fully cleared so that it can kill the infection and best prevent a relapse.

Sounds good! :thumbup:

Quick update, she's still doing really good as far as her balance and everything else goes, but she seems to have developed some kind of eye infection? Wondering if anyone's seen something like this before, is it possibly a cataract? Here's a few pictures of it if anyone could help.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yzeei6ftd4ayeja/20150507_155244.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0joy28ca97lwx19/20150507_155240.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qz9on0yqdap1ipf/20150507_155236.jpg?dl=0

She doesn't seem to be in pain over it, but she does scratch it from time to time, possibly due to the ear infection. I did notice a couple days ago that her eye seemed a little dry. Could it be from her scratching at it and she possible scraped it? Thanks again all.

It does look like an injury/infection. If she is scratching at it, then it is bothering her. My rats can stick a toe or two right into their ear, so if she's scratching her eye, she's doing it on purpose.
Your poor girl!
Sorry, but I'd head back to the vet's for an assessment. You have to be careful if you use eye drops. If there is a corneal ulcer, then steroids can make it worse.