Expert: Karen Craft - 4/5/2009

Question
My then 5 month old kitten was diagnosed by a neurologist with this one-
time (so far occurrence). One night she was stumbling around and I brought
her to an emergency vet hospital where they stabilized her, ran some
bloodwork and an xray, and, by the next morning, she was fit to go home.
The kitten had no residual symptoms.
I am moving to New Zealand and live in Vancouver. Will she be able to endure
a 17 hour flight without a recurrence or something triggering this? She is
extremely healthy and happy otherwise. She will be 16 months of age when
she leaves.

Answer
Hi Carolyn,

Did your vet say what was the underlying cause of her symptoms? I ask this because a lot of times it is from an inner ear infection. And if she has this and it's not treated your kitten could have major problems from flying. Here's a copy of an article that should help you a little.

"Up-to 50% of cases of peripheral vestibular disease are due to otitis media-interna. Infection of the middle ear can cause vestibular disease due to the production and spread of bacterial toxins into the inner ear. The infection can directly damage the inner ear with spread to the labyrinth. The bacteria commonly responsible for this disease are Staphylococcus spp., Streptococcus spp., E. coli and Pseudomonas spp. If the culture results are negative but bacterial otitis interna is suspected, then oral enrofloxacin 5 mg/kg every 12 hours for dogs or cats or a combination of oral trimethoprim sulfadiazine (TMP-SDZ) 15-30 mg/kg orally every 12 hours and oral cephalexin 22 mg/kg every 8 hours may be administered. Antibiotic therapy should be continued for 6-8 weeks.
The vestibular signs may resolve in 1-2 weeks but if antibiotics are prematurely discontinued, the clinical signs and infection recur and can be more difficult to treat"

You might want to ask your vet about this. I would rather be safe than sorry. A flight could cause her eardrum to rupture. Go back and talk to your vet. Good luck and let me know what happened..

Ciao, Karen