# Weight loss with ear infection?



## Yoggy (Oct 29, 2012)

My girl Natalie had a sudden head tilt last Wednesday night, so I took her to the vet on Thursday. As her limbs were all working fine, the vet suspected an ear infection and put her on antibiotic and anti-inflammatory ear drops. I've been giving them to her exactly as prescribed.

Even before the vet appt, I had a vague suspicion that Natalie had been losing weight, but it was hard to tell for sure because she was pretty chunky to begin with. But I weighed her last Wednesday and she was 395 g, and now this morning she was 375 g. I think 20 grams is a pretty big weight loss in just four days. She is still eating and drinking, but as I have two rats, it's hard to tell exactly how much she is eating. 

Is weight loss normally associated with ear infections?


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## Voltage (May 15, 2013)

My girl Toast had an ear infection and she lost weight too. She also has a permanent head tilt.

Sorry for the very short probably not helpful answer

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## Nathan4d (Feb 17, 2013)

If she is anything like my girl then she will start putting the weight back on. They seem to lose weight when they have the infection but as the mess work they return to normal but she has still got a tilt 


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## Mazlet (Feb 2, 2012)

My rat watson did the same thing her head tilt and ear scratching (cos she was trying to insert her whole foot in her ear - was definitely bothering her) has gone but she is a much leaner more active rat now, I think she had got lazy cos she was dumpy. But she seems fine now that was about 4 months or so ago.


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## Yoggy (Oct 29, 2012)

Thank you for the encouraging info. I'm hoping that Natalie's problem is still only an ear infection. She still has the head tilt and has lost more weight. She didn't lose any weight between last Monday and Thursday, but she has lost 10 g since Thursday morning. She still seems eager to eat, but is having trouble balancing well enough to hold her food. She also seems to have a bit of jaw weakness; it takes her a lot longer to crunch through a kibble or even a flake of breakfast cereal. I've been soaking some of her food in water to soften it up for her, so hopefully that helps.

I'm going to call the vet again on Monday though, because I don't want my girl to be in any pain. If she keeps losing weight, I'm definitely going to be worried that it is worse than an ear infection


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## franjf (Dec 13, 2012)

When one of my boys had a pretty bad URI he lost quite alot of weight, I bought some weight-up baby from ratrations. (it's a UK site) and syringe fed it him. He got so excited over it and quickly started piling on the weight again. Nutrical is also good as it's a high calorie, high vitamin paste. 
My eldest girl Bella is off her food right now at the moment (well solid food) and she has also been losing weight. So i've taken her normal food and blended it with ALOT of water so its just liquid and I am syringe feeding her that. It's working well! 
As you've said you've been soaking her food in water but maybe blending it would be easier for you. And there is always the baby food option!


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## Yoggy (Oct 29, 2012)

Thanks franjf! She was so lethargic and sad-looking over the weekend that I brought her back to the vet today. He said to stop with the ear drops and gave me some steroids for a possible PT  . I must say I wasn't surprised, as she's been getting the ear drops for 11 days and has only gotten worse. I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things or not, but only 5 hours after giving her the steroids, she seems a bit more active and her appetite is up - though I did give her some fries and mushroom gravy LOL, so maybe that would get any rat's appetite up


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## Yoggy (Oct 29, 2012)

So she's completely back to normal now after 2 days on the steroids. I'm happy, but sad to know that it's a PT for sure now.

My timing is so terrible though. I have to go away Friday for 12 days. I'm leaving my girls in the competent hands of a small animal sitter who will give Natalie her meds and some quality time, but I'm sad that I'll be missing a lot of the last days I'll have left with my baby girl


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