Rattie permanantly twists his head to the right

[Petaholic]

A little while ago my boy Tyson started twisting his head to the right. At first it was only slightly, but it was all the time, when he walks, stands, eats etc. But now it is quite severe, his eyes are almost vertical. I also noticed that he seems to be loosing his balance. Not a lot. But he just stumbles every now and then. Does anyone know what would be the cause of these symtoms? Or if there is anything I can do to help or even correct it? I am very concerned for my little boy. His cagemates, Moose and Jude, don't show any signs of these whatsoever. So I don't see any reason to quarantine him.

Any help?

 

[lilspaz68]

Your boy has a head tilt most likely being caused by inner ear infection. He needs antibiotics from the vets and hopefully you can also get a steroid like oral prednisone to relieve the swelling that is putting pressure on his brain. The Pred works very quickly but inner ear infections can take a long time to resolve. If you leave it then his tilt will get a lot worse, and he'll either get really sick and die or recover but have the head tilt, and be prone to ear infections

The pressure on the brain causes the rat to think the world is tipped so they twist their head til up and down seem right to them.

How long since the beginning of the tilt? He's probably dizzy and in pain from the infection. Head tilt can happen with stroke and PT as well but its much more sudden and it sounds like you have inner ear infection going on, which is more common.

Here is Fred when I got him recently

After treatment, his tilt resolved a little but it had been untreated for just too long to go away..I will have to make sure he is capable in his surroundings (shelves, ramps, etc). Its best to keep them in a one-level cage until you are sure he won't fall and hurt himself, or put hammocks that he can fall into as "safety nets"

 

[mamarat]

Your sweetie could have an ear infection. Can you bring him to a vet? He needs meds right away. Leave him with his buddies, less stress on him.

 

[SQ]

What lilspaz68 and mamarat said :thumbup:

I am presently babysitting a rat with an inner ear infection.
Unfortunately he too has had permanent damange and will always have a head tilt, but he gets around quite well and soon will be finished his antibiotics and weaned off the steriod (pred.)

 

[Petaholic]

Tyson looks exactly like the first pic. This has been going on for maybe a month? I feel terrible that I didn't do anything sooner! I didn't think it was anything serious especially because at first it was hardly tilted at all and I thought it would go away...

He is in a cage with multiple levels but I have been keeping an eye on him and he very rarely stumbles as there are a lot of ramps for him to use and usually he has no problems. If he gets anymore clumsy then I will put them in a one level cage.

Thank you so much for your help guys. It looks like we will be taking a trip to the vet.

 

[jorats]

My boy Russo developed head tilt when he was about 6 months old. He continued to live in a multilevel cage, he got on just fine.

 

[mamarat]

Kozar and House both lived/live in a multi-level cages. Their tilt never bothered them, they acted just like the other rats.