HELP!! Female breeder rat cant' control its head movements

[MaxT815]

Ive been small scale breeding rats for my collection. Tonight one of my breeder females who recently had her 2nd litter seemed very lackluster in her mothering, i observed her over some time. I noticed she has given up on anything that resembles a nest, and has neglected a few babies during nursing. I scratched her back and she kind of "woke up" to check me out and she has lost all control of her head, she has a hard time walking and just generally functioning when in motion. Can anybody identify what the issue is and what i should do about it. Any info would be great. I can euthanize her but then what do i do with the pinks? Im at a loss ive never experienced this before. Thanks in advance for any information

[barbie.dragon]

I would just cull her and find a different female to breed

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[Evildrdee]

I had a similar issue with a mouse, day by day getting weaker. She died within a few days and upon inspection she looked to be loaded with cancer or cysts. Its your decision on whether or not to let her keep attempting to nurse or euthenize her.

[aldebono]

Is could possibly be an inner ear infection.
When something is feeling bad or already doing poorly, I cull instead optioning to go through treatment where the rat could still suffer for more days, may not fully recover, or die anyway.

Do you have another nursing or even lactating rat you could give the pinks to? Can you feed them out to anything?

[DOArodents]

Head tilt from inner ear infection. Effects their balance. Check this link out:
http://ratguide.com/health/auricle_e...yrinthitis.php
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[PatriotPythons]

I would cull everyone in the bin just to be certain.

When you breed rats it is so so so important to cull heavily in the beginning. It will save you years of trouble down the road. I don't have the money to be taking rats to the vet. They get gassed and frozen here.

[aldebono]

Why would you need to cull the bin from an inner ear infection?

[MarkS]

Why would you need to cull the bin from an inner ear infection?

You don't. I used to have that from time to time in my colonies, sometimes I've set the individual aside in it's own tub for quarantine and often they just get over it on their own though they look pretty miserable for a long time, But usually I just euthanize and freeze them. I don't see any reason to cull the entire tub.

[MaxT815]

Thank you guys very much for the advice and info. I'm not really sure what was wrong she actually passed this morning. The head wobbling seemed to disappear for the last day or two but she still was clearly affected by something She still attempted to nurse the whole time though. Made the situation a little sad to watch. I was planning on culling her today. I attempted to foster out the pinks to another female but the two were not from the same colony so she refused to nurse them. She is also pregnant with her own litter should drop in about two weeks. So unfortunately with nothing small enough to feed pinks to they will also pass without a mother. Thank you all again for responding i appreciate it. Teachable moments. Just part of gaining experience i guess.

[nimblykimbly]

I'm going to be a total softie here and admit that this was really kinda sad to read...