Shelter rat with head tilt

[angieluv]

We just got a shelter rat in as a surrender who has head tilt. Now I found out about 2 hrs ago that the kennel operations manager is going to call the on-call vet for the week (this is a small shelter with no vet but town vets rotate by week) and let me bring him in.
I think that the vet that he will be seeing is a young woman who is a surgery whiz with even small animals but I don't think that she has experience with rats (but she is quick study)
I have dealt with her before so I if I offer her some suggestions then I think that she may listen to me.
Problem is is that i am fairly new to rats myself.
So could someone either tell me or point me to on-line material that i can read tonight so that i can klnow what direction to go with this vet in terms of suggestions.
I do know that the treatment is usually a steroid and baytril but i am unsure what this is for. In a rabbit we would be talking a deep inner ear infection but I don't know about rats.
i will describe the rat:
Nothing abnormal at all except a head tilt . no neurological abnormalities; he is energetic, coat looks good ; nothing looks abnormal at all externally. An occasional sneeze but that is it. rat looks like the picture of health except for the tilt.

 

[SQ]

Treatment for head tilt is early & aggressive treatment with antibiotics such as baytril & clavamox or chloremphenicol; and also a steriod or NSAID to reduce swelling and damange.

 

[Dewi]

What SQ said and here is a link that I & my vet have used: http://ratguide.com/health/auricle_ear/ ... thitis.php

With my rats the vet uses Baytril (twice daily) and doxycycline (twice daily) and prednisone (daily). Metacam (a NSAID) isn't enough in my experience. If you use steriods like prednisone you well have to wean the dosage down over 3 weeks or so as stopping suddenly can cause major issues. Also from my experience 3 weeks on meds (including the antibitoitcs) isn't long enough, with my guys it's taken 6 to 8 weeks on antibiotics and about 4 weeks on the steroid which includes the weaning process.

 

[jorats]

The site linked above is a site created by a lay person but documented by vets, so it's all very accurate.

My vet doesn't like using a steroid for inner ear infections. It can make a mild infection much worse. Your vet will already know this and will probably use her best judgment.