Ratablog

Zoe

Zoe is not well.

A quick description of her problems is that she is slow, off-balance, and lethargic. Not only is that quick, it's accurate. I took her to the vet on Monday, and he started his discussion with me by saying, "It's an interesting case." He agreed she's slow and off-balance; she didn't get lethargic until the last couple of days. She's not blind, nor is there anything wrong that an x-ray would reveal.

Dr. G doesn't feel she has a pituitary tumor, based on the symptoms above, so it's probably neurological. The two most likely canditates are a stroke or a bad reaction to mite treatment.

She had been scratching pretty heavily about a month ago, so I treated her with something given to us (off-label) by Dr. G, and we had succesfully treated at least ten rats with it: a solution of 0.29% fipronil.

There's a risk with any treatment for parasites: the product is designed to kill (There's a rule in toxicology: The dose makes the poison. In other words, that which is non-toxic can also be toxic in large doses--see digitalis.). You want to use a dose large enough to kill the parasites but not harm the rat. This was the smallest and most controlled application I've ever done when treating for parasites (a bit on a q-tip rubbed into the area between her shoulder blades, versus the couple of squirts we had applied before), she still got sick. We were also treating Oliver for parasites, using the same strategy...so I wonder...why Zoe?

My beautiful licky girl is no longer licky; she's no longer as active as she used to be. During playtime she more often than not wants to go to sleep (in fact, sleeping is now one of her favorite things to do). We can't leave her unsupervised during playtime as she falls off the bed when she's not sleeping.

It's not like she walks off the edge; it's more like she remembers them, but her balance is off and she loses it at the edge of the bed, or almost like she doesn't remember exactly how to deal with the edge. As a result, she's now living by herself in a single-level cage, eating baby food because she no longer holds her food in her hands.

I'd give anything to have her lick my nose once more.

UPDATE: Thank you all for your well-wishes. I forgot to mention we are treating her, with Baytril for any possible infection, and Prednisone for any possible inflammation. At best they'll help her; at worst, they won't make her any worse.

Posted by Publius at October 27, 2005 09:40 PM