Mycoplasmosis

Hello.. We have two 7 month old female rats, who, about 3 months ago, developped what looked like a mycoplasmosis infection. We were playing with them the day before, and the next morning, we found them both extremely lethargic and close to death, both had tilted heads and were rolling, hunched backs, but no apparent respiratory distress. Realizing that one, it was a REALLY bad idea to have kept them in a large plastic box while we waited for the large cage we ordered, and two, it was in even worse idea to have kept them where we keep our other two cats' litter boxes. I felt so incredibly guilty, and was not about to just let them die, and  so  I searched out what to do on the internet,found out about the effictiveness of using Amoxicillin in rats with this condition, and being a Registered Nurse, I weighed them both, and mixed the amoxicillin that my husband never finished taking, in order to get the proper dose for each of their weights. I gave them this mixture twice a day, and there was remarkable improvements in both rats. Allie, seems to have made a complete recovery, and Bree seems to be almost back to herself....but since she was sick, it almost seems like she has become a little more hyperactive and kind of "spazy", and still to this day, her head has a slight right-sided tilt. She seems healthy, but is behaving more oddly than she was before, still has a head tilt, which makes me think that she still has fluid in her ear, and she seems to sleep more and more deeply than Allie does. Are these the kind of behaviours that could still be attributed to the Mycoplasmosis? Should we be taking her in to see our vet, or is this head tilt a permanent consequence of her illness? She's NOT rolling, but does seem a little more off balance than our other rat does..but still...VERY happy, playful, outgoing, has a great appetite and drinks A LOT, and jumps around to get our attention. Is she probably alright, or should we assume that she still has the infection?

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

You sound as if you are really taking care of the well and have done your research.  The problem is that this is a chronic problem and once a patient gets mycoplasma p.  they will have it as a chronic problem for life.

I think that in order help Bree's symptoms a course of Baytril or Doxycycline or combination of both may be in order.  These are a bit more effective than some strains of Amoxicillin.  Bree's head tilt and other symptoms may also require a very low dose of Prednisone, which will help with the secondary inflammation.  It might also be wise to have these medication on hand for future possible exacerbation's, since mycoplasma can be a chronic problem.

The following should be done by prescription by your vet:

Doses for these meds:  
Baytril: 5 Mg's per kg bid
Doxycycline: 2.5 Mg's per kg bid  
Prednisone: 0.5 Mg's per kg bid for 5 days than 0.5 Mg's per kg. Sid (once daily) for 5 days than every other day until symptoms are gone.  

I always advocate giving a probiotic when using antibiotics.