Head Tilt - Advise Please

[Dyana]

J.D. seemed fine when I got home from work. He ate his dinner and acts normal. But when I looked at him laying (sitting on his stomach stretched out) in his bed, I noticed that his head is tilted to the side. He looks so sad. I called him to me and he acted a little off balance but not much and walked toward me with his head still tilted. Should I be concerned, like do I have to rush him to the ER?
I did notice him "play?" fighting with my other cat about 20 minutes or so before I noticed this head tilt.
I went to the kitchen and got a treat for him and he followed me just fine and jumped up (as much as he jumps up) on his hind legs for the treat. He then followed me back to my computer and jumped up onto my desk trying to get more steak, so he's not that bad, but it scares me.
Anyone know what this may be or might be causing this? I did look into both his ears with a flashlight and they both look the same. Could I have damaged his ears from testing somehow? Maybe my other cat hurt him? It's just weird.

 

[Jen & Squeak]

definitely not from testing! i did a quick search of previous posts and found one from hope on vestibular disease ...please do a search and get to the vet if it doesnt resolve

jen

 

[missyandlittlegray]

One of my civvies started tilting his head a few days ago. The vet got a huge chunk of what looked like dried blood out of his ear. She's hoping it's just an infection, but -- not to scare you -- she suspects he might have a tumor in his ear canal. This is definitely something to check out when your vet's back in the office.

 

[Jess & Earl]

Your cat may have had a stroke, or could have vestibular disease due to an ear problem. THis is an emergency and you should go to ER if you haven't already.

 

[Dyana]

Jess

I took him to the ER about a half hour after I started this post. His head was barely tilting by then. The vet asked me "do you see his head tilting now?" like I was seeing things. She said normally the head tilts a lot more with Vestibular Disease and it stays that way. J.D.'s was barely tilted by the time we got there and he kept going from straight to barely tilted.
Last Saturday, I took J.D. to my regular vet because the Thursday before at 3:00m when I was testing him he had something like the hiccups for about a minute or 2. My regular vet checked him out and said to me when he was done "what do you think I'm going to tell you?" and I said "that he is fine" and he said "yes". I asked him about his teeth and he said there was one back molar that had some tartar building up where the gum was receding. I asked him if it should be pulled, and he said not yet.
I told the ER vet about this and she looked at his tooth. But she didn't seem overly concerned about it. She did give us Clavamox in case he was having a problem with the tooth (which is on the Right side, and his head was tilting down to the Left side) or maybe an inner ear infection. She did look into his ears with a scope and they looked fine to her.
My question is that he still seems less active. Please see my first post in the Lantus forum today and let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance for your help.