>... help.  Has anyone ever experienced some kind of inner ear infection?
>Symptoms are lethargic, off balance, walking sideways and falling over.
>He's still eating, drinking, pooping and peeing OK.  I'd been keeping an
>eye on Pooh because he wasn't acting quite right and last night I rushed
>him off to the vet.  Temp OK so no fever, couldn't find anything visibly
>wrong or feel anything so we're treating it like an inner ear infection.
>
>Mary (who still has her nurses cap on) and The 12 Munchkins (missing
>Fruity)
 
Mary -
This sounds suspiciously like what I just went through with my Kiwi last
week.  We, too, figured it was an ear infection.  She was lethargic,
shaking her head and stumbling a lot (like she was drunk).  On her first
visit to the vet, the gunk we took out of her ear tested positive for
yeast, so we put her on Otomax ointment.  She was worse the following
day, barely walking, so we rushed her back to the vet.  She went into an
incubator, and was given steroids to try to lessen the swelling that was
apparently happening along her spinal cord.  She was put on Nystatin for
the yeast infection, which showed in her stool as well.  And, they gave
her an antibiotic they have been having good success with in ferrets --
Chloramphenicol Palmatate.  She continued to decline that day, however, and
the next morning she was having great difficulty breathing.  I was told
not to expect her to survive the day (I won't go into my reaction to that
news).  They put her on Lasix.  Same as Pooh, she had no temperature, heart
okay, stools normal (other than the yeast), appetite never faded.  A
complete mystery, but she was totally paralyzed.  Just as suddenly it
started, it started to ease.  The next day, she was shuffling around the
incubator and breathing okay.  The day after that, we brought her home!
That was a week ago today, and she is continuing to improve steadily.  We
still do not really know what happened.  We are hopeful, though, that she
will have a complete recovery.  She is on duck soup now, because she tires
so easily that she doesn't eat much kibble.  She never had diarrhea (except
a little on the day she was at her worst).  She takes over 8 oz. of soup a
day, and has hardly lost an ounce.  She is still getting the antibiotics
and Nystatin.  The first day we brought her home, she could only walk a few
steps without her front legs going under her, or flopping completely onto
her side.  It was heartbreaking.  But now, she toddles across the family
room without missing a step!  Turning and reversing are still a challenge.
 
You can e-mail me if you'd like my vet's phone number, in case your vet
wants to call her.  She said they had seen a couple of these mystery cases
recently.  I would keep a close eye on Pooh, and don't assume it's an ear
infection if his walking worsens.  There's no treatment other than intense
supportive care, if he has the same type of virus or whatever that Kiwi
had.  The good news is that she is recovering (after taking ten years off
*my* life!), and most of the others my vet has seen recovered also (the
one that didn't had other health problems).
 
Please keep us posted on how he does.  Best of luck to you, and I'll keep
him in my prayers, as so many did for Kiwi -- I know it helped!
 
Joanne
[Posted in FML issue 3000]