Rat alert!

August 11, 2007 - A week ago I saw Pancho's head tilt slightly to the left. When it hadn't cleared up the next day, but in fact had gotten worse, I took him to the vet (yes, even on a Sunday). The vet agreed with me he very probably had an inflammation of the middle ear (otitis media). I got antibiotics and took a tilting but otherwise fine looking Pancho back home.

On Wednesday it turned out Pancho wasn't the only rat in the lowland of Holland to suffer from otitis media. In fact he was the 9^th who was reported to The Rat Sewer, and so an "official" warning (called a RatAlert!) was issued.

However, it wasn't until yesterday that my own internal warning system went to red alert: I discovered that Lefty had a swollen, squarish nose. I thought it might be related to Pancho's illness, and then perhaps the other three were also infected... ! But as it turned out, Lefty is missing one of his upper incisors (and he has no idea where he's last seen it *LOL*), which caused the lower incisor to overgrow. The vet has trimmed his lower incisors, and she has prescribed antibiotics to take care of an inflammation Lefty has where his missing upper incisor was supposed to be.

Meanwhile Pancho showed absolutely no signs of improvement, but this isn't uncommon with otitis media. Nevertheless I've asked the vet to extend his treatment with another broad-spectrum antibiotic. Although he looks rather cute with his head-tilt, I'd rather have him back to normal ASAP.

Lefty is still a bit shaky, because he's had his teeth trimmed