Tilley-Probably PT-RIP Sweet Baby

Advertise with us
Fins us on Amazon
Shop with us on Ebay
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
D

Dazzle87

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2010
Messages
1,421
Location
Connecticut, USA
Tilley seemed a little weak lately, but I chalked it up to old age (she's 28ish months) and her eye issue. I'd been keeping a close eye on her, and today she was slightly clubbing her front paws and crossing them a bit some of the time. She's also a bit wobbly. I rushed her to the vet, they think it is probably a PT. They also checked her blood sugar and it was high at 290 though that is not definitive since stress makes the blood sugar spike and I'm sure a long ride and then getting poked in the hind leg is very stressful to a rat.

She wasn't clubbing her paws, but this video shows her poor coordination:

[BBvideo 425,350:380rszc6]http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv236/smesyna/PT/?action=view&current=tilleypt009.mp4[/BBvideo:380rszc6]

Pics:

tilleypt002.jpg


tilleypt001.jpg


I had to borrow a camera for this but I'm really trying to document this.

She is on the max dose of prednisone but split into half and twice a day.

I'm also considering cabergoline or bromoctopine..I sent my vet an email about it with a link to an AVMA article about it.
 
She really doesn't look like she's feeling well. If it's PT, it looks like you caught it in the earlier stages and/or it's slow growing, so the Pred will hopefully help.
 
Yeah I was just going to ask if it seemed like it was early or slow growing or something since it seemed less severe than most of the posts about it that I have seen.

I took another video, she does poorly with the cheerio test (yes its a piece of cookie, I didn't have a cheerio).

[BBvideo 425,350:3de9cj6c]http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv236/smesyna/PT/?action=view&current=tilleypt018.mp4[/BBvideo:3de9cj6c]

I really hope I see improvement soon :(
 
It does seem early to me, she's wobbly but seems to have quite a bit of control of where she's going. Every case is different though, so there's no guarantee the Pred will work even if it is early either. It sucks. I haven't tried the chemo options myself but it seems like it benefits younger rats more. My vet looked into Cabergoline (it's way to expensive for it to make sense to offer it at the clinic - about $100/week here) and said that some vets in Europe were getting results even at a lower dose than usually prescribed, so if you do go with one of them and the side effects are too much, going with a lower dose may be an option to keep in mind.
 
victoria said:
It does seem early to me, she's wobbly but seems to have quite a bit of control of where she's going. Every case is different though, so there's no guarantee the Pred will work even if it is early either. It sucks. I haven't tried the chemo options myself but it seems like it benefits younger rats more. My vet looked into Cabergoline (it's way to expensive for it to make sense to offer it at the clinic - about $100/week here) and said that some vets in Europe were getting results even at a lower dose than usually prescribed, so if you do go with one of them and the side effects are too much, going with a lower dose may be an option to keep in mind.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know not to get my hopes up, I just hate wait and see things (I'm sure we all do).

Thank you that is really good to know, I didn't know that about the dosing.

Wow $100 a week? That is really high. If it turns out to be that high for me I may have to consider bromoctopine then since I understand that it is cheaper.
 
I am sorry to hear about Tilley. Bromocriptine is definitely worth a try. At the full dose, my rats have developed taste aversions from it. So the next time I started at a low dose and worked up. I was lucky with 2/3 rats to get a few extra months.
 
Thank you. She's a difficult one to get meds into so if I go with bromoctopine I will probably try that. I would love for her to have a couple more happy months left.
 
I don't really know much about the meds that are being discussed, but I had to post: She is beautiful!!!

I hope she responds well to the meds!!
Send scritches (or whatever she likes best) her way.
 
Thank you. I was just about to update before I leave for school, she already looks better, brighter, and seems a bit stronger :joy: She's still not 100% but she just started and I honestly didn't expect this much improvement this quickly. She was able to eat her prednisone baby cereal much more quickly lol.
 
Thank you.

Well I'm on a short break so I made another video (doing this daily will help me see her progress, and eventually, regression). Look at her front paws grasping it and she even lifts them up some!

[BBvideo 425,350:89vcuytj]http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv236/smesyna/?action=view&current=Tilleypt2.mp4[/BBvideo:89vcuytj]
 
She is doing much better. I've had rats live another good 3 months on Pred and Baytril. Fingers crossed for your little girl.
 
Well, she has improved immensely! She is still weaker than the other rats, but she is running around, grasping properly with her front paws, and acting like her normal self. She even gave me a heart attack trying to climb the CN! :giggle:

I talked to my vet and we are going to try cabergoline. I will find out today or tomorrow if she can get it or if I should go to a human pharmacy. If this is successful, I may submit her case to the ratguide. It is of course perfectly acceptable to humanely PTS or try steroid therapy, but I personally believe the ratguide should mention if it more people try it and bromoctopine with success.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top