Pituitary tumor, inner ear infection, etc.

[Raquel Cintron]

Hi,

When a rat shows symptoms for any of these conditions, please ask your vet if he will consider treating for all of the possibilities:
inner ear infection
pituitary tumor or other brain lesion
stroke

Treatment:
Steroid
Antibiotic
Pain medicine if still needed
Cabergoline (prolactin inhibitor), 0.6mg/kg every 72 hours or 0.2mg/kg once a day. Cabergoline can give a rat with a certain type of pituitary tumor (prolactinoma) many months of life, so it should be given for any suspicion of pituitary tumor. If that's too expensive, use bromocriptine at the right dose. Here is the paper for your vet: 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21879967

Thank you,
Raquel