If you have baytril and/or prednisone at home, I'd go ahead and start her on it. Head tilts from inner ear infections can go downhill in a matter of hours. It certainly won't hurt her if it turns out it's not the right treatment. Be sure to keep your appointment, even if you see some improvement.

Thanks, guys!

Talked to the vet since Peanut seems to be getting a little worse... starting her on smz-tmp and metacam tonight... wants to try a non-steroidal first.

When my Norbu got an ear infection my vet tried an NSAID first. I regret not going straight to the Prednisone as it didn't do anything for him and caused him to have a worse permanent tilt in the end. If you have Pred I'd do that -- it's best to start with the big guns with these things.

How's Peanut doing?

Poor Peanut!  Hope she feels better on the baytril and pred.

OOpsie, wrong rat LOL 

I'm worried it very well may be a tumor or lesion considering her ears were clear. 

Waiting to hear back from the vet.  She thought I had 15mg/5mL pred and gave me a .2cc once a day dose... but I've really got the 5mg/5mL pred.  Oops

I think Peanut actually spat out the baytril on me.. lol... at least .1 of it! She got another .1 since it didn't make it in.

Is that once a day or twice a day?

Sounds like she is ranging on the high end of the spectrum if the pred is 5mg/5ml.  Thats the kind of pred I use and Beans was the only one we had on a high dosage at one point due to lung problems.

Only reason I ask is that once or twice a day for the 0.6 cc pred, because I can see once a day at that dosage, twice a day is HIGH for that dosage.  Also personally, if it is once a day, splitting that dosage into giving her 0.3 cc twice a day would be a VERY good idea.  Pred is like antibiotics in that you want to keep them at the same levels of the meds in their bodies for a length of time.  Dosing a rat once a day with ANY kind of medication is not the best of ideas because they have such high metabolism that its out of their system in a few hours.

Jen- once daily

So a higher dose of baytril once daily and possibly split the pred into two .3cc portions?

Usually the vet prescribes twice a day for abs and steroids, so I'm not sure why the change now!

Any tips on seeing if Peanut is drinking enough?  She doesn't seem dehydrated (did the skin test thing), but I haven't seen her at the water buddy.  I can't rely on the levels, because she somehow keeps letting the bottle leak and soak the blanket in the carrier!  She must be leaning against it or something

News! I caught the stinker drinking this morning   Again, she soaked the blanket... and I don't know how... I just heard her drinking this morning before I turned on the lights to get out of bed.

I don't think there is any improvement today.

Regarding meds and doses and timing... my vet has always prescribed baytril and pred to be given twice a day except for this case.  Perhaps there's a reason??  Maybe she wants to hit whatever it is hard with the once a day doses??

I just looked at the pituitary tumor section on ratguide.  Peanut is doing the thing the first rat example is doing... shoveling her babyfood around with her face when trying to eat it.  She made a huge mess last night while trying to eat her medicated babyfood.

Here's the link to see the video of that rat: http://ratguide.com/health/figures/pituitary_tumor_figure_1.php

I am probably going to try to get a video of Peanut after I get home from lab this afternoon.

I'm so sorry about Peanut. I forget the name of the medication that lilspaz used on her girl with PT - dex? Maybe you can switch to that and hopefully there will be a difference? *hugs*

Hey Ratlets,

Aww I am sorry to hear about Peanut.  That was my Maya who was in that sad video.  I wonder if I cried in that particular one?

It definitely sounds like PT/neuro involvement.

Your gal is on pred right now?  I use dexamethasone which is a similar steroid but longer duration, and faster acting.  But pred will do the trick too. 

It sounds like she is advancing quickly. ((hugs))