Strange illness young rat

[Nyn]

your little lovey has inner ear infection for sure, but she has manic symptoms rather than the classic tilt and circling. It wsan't that common in rats but seems to be more now. You need to treat aggressively with antibiotics (you have synulox and something else?). The active infection will be cured but the manic symptoms will likely remain and you will be the owner of what I call a Manic Tilty. They are lovely rats and adapt to their new situation well even if in head waving high speeds LOL. I have a video of an old lady i took in that was a manic. I treated her for inner ear infection as I wasn't sure she ever had been even though she developed these symptoms as a baby and arrived to me at 2 years of age. She was an amazing little girl my Abbie was.

Can I ask as well, do we need to give her medicine her entire life or just with the antibiotics would be fine? And how do we know if the infection is gone and she is doing okay if she keeps the head tilt? My last question is, will she need help drinking/feeding if she keeps the complaints, because at the moment we are giving her supplement dissolved powder foods (she is eating her sweet peas)

 

[lilspaz68]

She is going to need 3 weeks of the Synulox. The prednoral you should out use for a week but if you used it longer you will need to wean your girl off of it slowly. We can figure out a taper schedule. I have no clue if CBD oil will help.

 

[Nyn]

Thank you all again for your nice replies and help! After 3 days of antibiotics she is finally eating and drinking by herself again. She has lost some weight so we are giving her extra food and also supplement foods but I think she will be fine. Still very hyper but that's okay! The worry is finally getting less

 

[Dena]

I have a girl who got a head tilt around the same age. Infection was treated, and went away, but the tilt stayed and shes DEFINITELY a manic! We love her! She's so crazy, and does things pretty different than any rat I've owned. She climbs up stuff, but instead of climbing or jumping down, she goes kinda limp and pops down (we have low shelves, and tons of hammocks, and baskets for her and my 3+year old). She's so full of character as well. Just so fun.

So only thing I would suggest, is weigh her daily (or twice daily) to make sure she's gaining weight since she's still growing and losing could be not too good. Put her with a buddy, or like you said, lots of hammocks, and soft things to catch a fall. She needs her buddies. She could actually stress more and get sicker without them. She will let them know her limits, trust me. My tilty has taken to running on a wheel. She has so much energy (seems like more than normal rats) and it really helps her.

Hope your girly feels better soon!

 

[Nyn]

Hey all,

Thank you again for all the love and help on this thread. Unfortunately after 4 weeks of oral antibiotics and 2 weeks of local ear drops the ear infection is still not over. We are now back on 2 types of antibiotics again and she has had her ear drum ruptured so the pus can get out. Do you have any tips how to get her healthy?

Kindest regards

Nynke

 

[Rocket99]

Hey all,

Thank you again for all the love and help on this thread. Unfortunately after 4 weeks of oral antibiotics and 2 weeks of local ear drops the ear infection is still not over. We are now back on 2 types of antibiotics again and she has had her ear drum ruptured so the pus can get out. Do you have any tips how to get her healthy?

Kindest regards

Nynke

Ear infections, from my experience, take a LONG time to eradicate. My boy Swag, RIP, had one that was not anywhere near as serious as your girl's sounds, and I treated him for months for it, and every few days I had to take a Q-tip and clean out the discharge, which he allowed me to do once he realized what I was doing. But he never got used to the eardrops, lol. Keep doing what you're doing and pray that the drops do their job.

 

[SQ]

what antibiotics was she on?
Her weight/ the strength of each med (mg/ml)
4 weeks on antibiotics is not usually enough for inner ear infections - it can take months but if the antibiotics are working, then imo the damage and growing infection should not have happened

This link may be of interest: Health Guide: Otitis Media, Otitis Interna / Labyrinthitis

 

[Nyn]

So she is on synolox, 40mg/10mL (we are in the Netherlands so we dont have american meds) and flagyl 15mL/100mL. Her weight is now 270 grams and she is getting 0.13 mL of each. The flagyl is super hard to give her though. The synolox is sweet flavoured so we can just mix it in with any foods and she will eat those, but is does not matter with what we mix the flagyl, she always smells it and does not eat it.. even with Malt paste.. so we unfortunately need to force feed this to her, but afterwards (even if we offer super nice snacks) he tries to wipe her mouth on blankets. So even though we are doing our absolute best, I am not sure she is getting all the flagyl in..

 

[Big Schpog]

your little lovey has inner ear infection for sure, but she has manic symptoms rather than the classic tilt and circling. It wsan't that common in rats but seems to be more now. You need to treat aggressively with antibiotics (you have synulox and something else?). The active infection will be cured but the manic symptoms will likely remain and you will be the owner of what I call a Manic Tilty. They are lovely rats and adapt to their new situation well even if in head waving high speeds LOL. I have a video of an old lady i took in that was a manic. I treated her for inner ear infection as I wasn't sure she ever had been even though she developed these symptoms as a baby and arrived to me at 2 years of age. She was an amazing little girl my Abbie was.

I love your voice lilspaz and how you play with them. You sound like me LOL! And I love the name 'Manic Tilty.' You're a wealth of knowledge too which I really appreciate.

 

[Big Schpog]

So she is on synolox, 40mg/10mL (we are in the Netherlands so we dont have american meds) and flagyl 15mL/100mL. Her weight is now 270 grams and she is getting 0.13 mL of each. The flagyl is super hard to give her though. The synolox is sweet flavoured so we can just mix it in with any foods and she will eat those, but is does not matter with what we mix the flagyl, she always smells it and does not eat it.. even with Malt paste.. so we unfortunately need to force feed this to her, but afterwards (even if we offer super nice snacks) he tries to wipe her mouth on blankets. So even though we are doing our absolute best, I am not sure she is getting all the flagyl in..

Try whipped cream for the flagyl or something else irresistible.

 

[lilspaz68]

the clavamox (Synulox) is good for inner ear the flagyl not so mcuh...its not indicated for inner ear infections, so if you are really really struggling try stopping and see if she regresses at all. Keep going with the Synulox though, at least 4 weeks. Does she seem happier overall now that she's been on these antibiotics? The ear drum rupture wasn't the best idea but its done.
The tilt or head waving will not go away so it can be hard to tell when they are "better".