When I was raising rabbits there would occasionally be one that would get an illness, don't recall the formal name but it was commonly called snuffles. It was an upper respiratory infection and if left untreated it would eventually affect the inner ear causing the same sort of head tilt. If the animal was not treated or if the treatment was ineffective it would progress to the point that the animal would literally roll around on the floor because it could not hold its head up. Any attempts to do so would cause it to fall forward and roll, then struggling to get up. Even if an animal was successfully treated it was always susceptible to becoming ill again.



My point is that I believe that this is what you are seeing in the rats as well. I have only encountered upper respiratory infection in my rats once. I purchased two pair of rats from a local breeder and shortly after I set them up all started sneezing. I treated them and all recovered except for one female who continued to sneeze. She had given birth and was nursing her babies when all of a sudden her head started to tilt. She would walk in circles and seemed to only be able to walk in one direction. Since she was nursing I left her with them but continued to treat her for the infection. As soon as the babies were old enough to be weaned I put her down. It was pretty obvious that she was not going to get well and she couldn't lift her head instead looking up at me with her head on the ground.



I think that in the case 0f respiratory infection the best bet is to cull the sick animals. Just my opinion.



Marcia

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• Pregnant female and wierd behaviour help please?? - jusmebabe, Fri May 30 20:24:57 2003
• RE: Pregnant female and wierd behaviour help please?? - JM, Fri May 30 21:01:45 2003
• RE: Pregnant female and wierd behaviour help please?? - Sonya, Sat May 31 16:58:10 2003
• RE: Pregnant female and wierd behaviour help please?? - FroggieB, Wed Jun 4 11:08:32 2003