When to take a tilty rat off her antibiotics?

[Pink]

Some of you must be getting to know my rat Sardines quite well.  She's a character.  I wanted to get some opinions about taking her off her antibiotics.  She has currently been taking baytril and doxycycline for 35 days (five weeks).  She still has a head tilt, though she doesn't wave around madly anymore, and is fairly good about not falling.

I would keep her on the antibiotics for another week or two at least, just to be safe, but she's pregnant.  I didn't realize this until yesterday, but I am fairly certain that she is due about Saturday.  If I take her off the meds now, and it turns out to be to early, she could go super tilty again and be unable to handle the birthing process and be very difficult to treat again.  If I don't take her off the meds then the babies are being bathed in baytril and doxycycline until just after birth.  If I decide to keep her on the meds I am going to try my best to find a surrogate mother, but up here that's unlikely.

I've talked to a vet about this, but he wasn't able to help much.  All rats other than PEWs are illegal up here, and there are no breeders or rescues for a thousand miles or more, so vets don't have much experience.  I do have a good rat vet coming up in March, but I have not gotten a hold of her yet.

I know several people on this board have life-time tilty rats.  At what point did you feel it was appropriate to remove your rat from their antibiotics?

Thankyou
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[ratlets]

I'm pretty sure it's the steroid that's reducing the inflammation causing balance issues rather than the antibiotics.

[Pink]

Neither Sardines, or Dangerous Beans (who was the first sister to come down with a head tilt, and is no longer on antibiotics) received steroids.  I didn't realize I needed them at first, and I assumed it was too late for them to be any good after we started the antibiotics.  It was a fight with my vet just to get the doxycycline to go with the baytril.

Would it help Sardines to get a steroid now?  I have a vet I could call that trusts me and would probably prescribe it.  Would that be harmful on her babies?  For all I know her infection could be gone now, but she seems to still be slowly improving, so if the antibiotics are causing that, I really don't want to stop them.

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[ratlets]

Sorry, I thought she was tilty from a pituitary tumor rather than an ear infection.  In that case, I have no idea.

[ratlets]

Thinking about this some more...
If your girl has an inner ear infection causing the tilt, take her back to the vet to get her ears checked out.  Sometimes tilts don't go away.  I'd ask your vet's advice for sure, though.

[rapforjane]

She should have had a steroid with her abx since she has a headtilt. At this point in the pregnancy, I don't think adding pred is a good idea.

The thing about ear infections (and head tilts) is that they HAVE to be monitored by a vet. I can't stress this enough. They frequently will not go away without aggressive treatment, which might involved changing abx combos, but it usually will take a few months of treatment (at least a month). I prefer a zithro/doxy combo, and I believe this combo is safe for pregnant and nursing moms. Good luck!

[Pink]

I wish so much I had a good vet up here.  The majority of the information I have gathered came from my favorite vet of all time.  She unfortunately is 350 miles away, so cannot help me physically, and has little experience with rats (I also have four cats) so she couldn't give me anything to specific.

I asked the vet who I've been working through so far if I should bring Sardines back yesterday, and he said that he honestly couldn't give me any further advice.  He just doesn't see rats enough.  Thats why I've been calling every vet in town, but I just cannot find anyone.  I am waiting for that rat vet that is coming up in March to contact me back, but she hasn't.

Is the complete name zithro for zithromax?  I could call around and see who might be willing to give me some.

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[rapforjane]

Zithromax is the name of the drug, I think the brand name is zithromycin....I'd have to check.

If your vet doesn't know much more, then he should really be listening to your suggestions and doing the best he can to help. I hope that's what he's doing, but I've had some experiences with vets who don't care and just tell me they don't know to get me out of their office and charge me a bundle *Sigh*

If your vet is willing to work with you, he can give you prescription for zithro and you can go to a pharmacy and get the powder and split it up and reconstitute it yourself. It's not good for very long, so this is probably your best option.

[Lise]

I would still keep her on meds for another week to be safe.  After 6 weeks on meds, the tilt is probably residual and may gradually lesson over time.

Although not ideal, the babies may very well be okay.  And it will be no good if you discontinue antibiotics and then mom gets worse.

[Lise]

I prefer a zithro/doxy combo, and I believe this combo is safe for pregnant and nursing moms.

Actually doxycyline is more embryotoxic than many other drugs, including baytril.

[rapforjane]

I prefer a zithro/doxy combo, and I believe this combo is safe for pregnant and nursing moms.

Actually doxycyline is more embryotoxic than many other drugs, including baytril.

Well there ya go.

[Pink]

Every time I think I've figured things out most of the way, I realize how little I actually know.  I'm loosing sleep. missing classes, and not doing any homework, and she hasn't even had the babies yet!  There is still a small possibility she'll reabsorb, and all of this worrying would have been for nothing.

Does zithro alone work well?  Would doxy be ok for a nursing mother?  I'm thinking putting her on zithro until she gives birth, then resuming the doxy along with it.  I really just don't know, and I don't know what vets would feel comfortable prescribing me zithro on request.  I can give them all calls again, I think every vet in town probably knows my name now.  (except the ones and McKinley, but I don't like that place).

I'm in the process of seeing if I can find any information in the scholarly journals my university subscribes to, but we don't have a lot in veterinary areas.

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