# Vet only prescribed baytril for rats ear infection?



## Ratboy96 (Feb 3, 2021)

Hello! new user here.

I’ve taken my 2 year old girly to the vet for her extreme head/body tilt as she is walking. Her right eye basically faces the ceiling now!
It began when only one of her eye started developing porpherin, then she started walking funny, then full on tilt and struggling to eat (although she eats fine from a syringe).
She seems okay apart from that, she might be a bit sad because I just put her sister down who had cancer. Anyway, the vet said that if it doesn’t clear up with the baytril, then it’s a brain tumour and she will need to be put to sleep. I asked her if there was some sort of combination of drugs used with baytril as I read it online and I said “chloro-something?”, what I was looking for was clavamox, couldn’t be more wrong hahaha. Anyway, it was prescribed 0.1ml twice a day (see below for full details of baytril medication). Thing is, I had already took her before to the vets for what I thought was a respiratory infection and they gave her baytril for it incase it was a potential respiratory infection, however after day 5 of 10 and now that she got taken to the vet for a second time, the time I am talking about now, and this leads us to this point. The vet said if she doesn’t recover in the next few days then it’s best she gets put to sleep. Was she right? What will I do? I don’t want my girl to die because of an treatable ear infection that baytril couldn’t treat on its own.

TL;DR: Rat was given 25mg/ml bayril (2.5%), orally 0.1ml x 2 a day for an ear infection, is this correct? She is 300 grams.

EDIT: I live in the UK.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

The dose your vet prescribed is about 10 mg/kg which, according to the [RatGuide], is appropriate . 

If she just has an ear infection, she should be showing improvement within the first week of antibiotic treatment. The head tilt alone isn't necessarily how you would judge improvement because sometimes that can become permanent after an ear infection. Her energy levels and appetite should improve, though. 

If the antibiotics don't aren't doing anything, the cause of the issue likely isn't an ear infection and it's probably a [pituitary tumor]. If it is PT, euthanizing her sooner rather than later would be the kindest thing you could do for her. 

I'm sorry you two are going through this. It sucks.


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## Ratboy96 (Feb 3, 2021)

CorbinDallasMyMan said:


> The dose your vet prescribed is about 10 mg/kg which, according to the [RatGuide], is appropriate .
> 
> If she just has an ear infection, she should be showing improvement within the first week of antibiotic treatment. The head tilt alone isn't necessarily how you would judge improvement because sometimes that can become permanent after an ear infection. Her energy levels and appetite should improve, though.
> 
> ...


Hello,

Thanks for the reply! I read the rat guide, so for our 2.5% oral solution, we have 25mg/ml, and if she is given 0.2ml a day (0.2ml in total) that is 50mg a day. Multiply that by 10 days, gives us 500mg in total. According to the rat guide you state, it has 10mg/kg, so 0.3kg of her weight, multiplied by 10mg gives us 300mg. So that she will be given approximately 17mg/kg of her body weight which is more than enough. Is this correct? 

She isn't recovering, she is eating through a syringe fine enough, but her tilt isn't going away, and it's been over 7 days now. Is it time to put her down? To be honest when i was giving her the meds i let her lick it off my fingers as apposed to putting it in a syringe but I don't know if that would have made a difference. I think her appetite is still there but she is struggling to walk anywhere.


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## Ratboy96 (Feb 3, 2021)

CorbinDallasMyMan said:


> The dose your vet prescribed is about 10 mg/kg which, according to the [RatGuide], is appropriate .
> 
> If she just has an ear infection, she should be showing improvement within the first week of antibiotic treatment. The head tilt alone isn't necessarily how you would judge improvement because sometimes that can become permanent after an ear infection. Her energy levels and appetite should improve, though.
> 
> ...


Could she have had a stroke? It happened slowly over a few days her side way walk, not instantly or anything.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Ratboy96 said:


> so 0.3kg of her weight, multiplied by 10mg gives us 300mg.


10 mg/kg = Her weight is 0.3 kg times 10 mg/kg equals 3 milligrams. 



Ratboy96 said:


> we have 25mg/ml, and if she is given 0.2ml a day (0.2ml in total) that is 50mg a day.


Not exactly. If there are 25 milligrams of the active ingredient (enrofloxacin) in each milliliter of your oral solution but you're only giving her 0.1 milliliters, she's getting 25 x 0.1 milligrams of medicine per dose (or 2.5 milligrams per dose). 

The dose prescribed by your vet is just a hair under 10 mg/kg. You could try a slightly higher dose if you want.

It doesn't sound like a seizure to me. It sounds more like an ear infection or pituitary tumor but I'm not a vet.


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## Ratboy96 (Feb 3, 2021)

CorbinDallasMyMan said:


> 10 mg/kg = Her weight is 0.3 kg times 10 mg/kg equals 3 milligrams.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Ahh, so she is getting 0.5mg less than what she needs? Will i give her 0.12mg then to make up 10mg/kg? or perhaps 0.15 to be on the safe side?

This is her a few days ago, she was walking a little but her balance wasn't good. 




This is her now, she is a bit doped up so i can imagine that's why she is tired.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Ratboy96 said:


> Ahh, so she is getting 0.5mg less than what she needs?


Not necessarily. A dose can be within a range, it's not necessarily a set amount. Citing the RatGuide page on enrofloxacin, they recommend anywhere in the range of 2.5 mg/kg to 20 mg/kg. A qualified vet makes the determination of how much they need based on the symptoms. You could ask your vet if a stronger dose would be a good idea or if combining the enro with something like doxycycline might help.



Ratboy96 said:


> This is her now, she is a bit doped up so i can imagine that's why she is tired.


Is she taking something other than the Baytril?

...not gonna lie, the most recent video doesn't look good. The Isamu Rat Care youtube channel has a good video called ["Euthanasia: what to think about"] that would definitely be worth watching. If it were me, I'd probably be carefully considering ending her suffering today.


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## Ratboy96 (Feb 3, 2021)

CorbinDallasMyMan said:


> Not necessarily. A dose can be within a range, it's not necessarily a set amount. Citing the RatGuide page on enrofloxacin, they recommend anywhere in the range of 2.5 mg/kg to 20 mg/kg. A qualified vet makes the determination of how much they need based on the symptoms. You could ask your vet if a stronger dose would be a good idea or if combining the enro with something like doxycycline might help.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


She’s on metacam, a pain killer and anti inflammatory 0.33ml a day. 1.5mg/ml. I am off on Friday, I will try to get her put down then. I already put her sister down, I just didn’t want to do it too soon, Incase it was an ear infection.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Again, I'm not a vet so definitely bring up all of this stuff with your vet to get their opinion. I'm so sorry. This type of thing is the worst part of rat ownership


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Heya, thinking about you and your little lady. I hope you're doing well. I've been through this many times and it always sucks. I might be losing my favorite boy very soon, too.


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## Ratboy96 (Feb 3, 2021)

CorbinDallasMyMan said:


> Heya, thinking about you and your little lady. I hope you're doing well. I've been through this many times and it always sucks. I might be losing my favorite boy very soon, too.


Hey, thanks man that is nice to know. I thought I would update you, I had her put down this morning, awful stuff. She brought her back out to my car because I couldn’t go into the vet due to covid, she looked peaceful so I was happy but still very upset. I’m so sorry for your wee boy, I hope he gets better. The lives of rats are a curse for how much of a blessing they are in our lives.


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