Diarrhea/Worms.... HELP!

[zic890]

hey, so, both Midnight and Bullet died, and now we have 3 more boys, Cloudy ( grey spotted white ), Peanut Butter ( DEH - dark eyed honey ), and Twilight ( black, not slate ). we recently went to my cottage with a friend, gave them extra food on Saturday, June 28, and left.... we made sure the water was full, and they had a bunch of chew toys...then, on Tuesday or Wednesday, my dad went back home... I laid everything out for him to do, I had sticky notes for what day to give them food and such... he did everything I gave him to do..... then, on Saturday, July 5, I came home with the rest of my family..... I looked in their wheel, ( they have taken to going to the washroom in the wheel ) and it was full of poop & pee..... in their food dish was some poo as well as this thing.... it was stuck to the side of the food bowl, it was pink, and looked like a worm, a baby worm..... I started crying and then I figured I was just over reacting.... either way, I picked it out of the bowl with a square of toilet paper, and then as I put it down, it was straight, with one part of it ( I guess like a worm, the pointy tip ) laying on the square of toilet paper toward the left.... then when I put the square down, on the table in the light so I could look at it, the tip that was toward the left, lifted up slowly, and then slowly went down to the right, and then lay flat on the toilet paper square, and didn't move again, even when we poked it with a toothpick... my mum then carefully cut a little square around the worm thing and put it in the smallest sealable bag we could find.... we put the square with the worm in the bag, and then I sealed it... now, in the morning of Sunday, July 6, I looked at the teeny bag with the worm in it, and the worm looks to be dried out, because it is smaller, and light brown... and I forgot to mention this, but when we first saw the worm thing, it had a piece of their poo stuck to it..... and now, I looked in their wheel, I see Diarrhea in it, and so I showed my mum, and she thought it was just some poo mixed with their pee, but then there even were some poo's in pee, and they weren't mushy-looking, like the diarrhea did.... but what's weird is that they are all still scampering around the cage, chewing and digging and such..... Cloudy always is laid back, and tends to sleep more, and is also a bit slower that the others, until he gets more awake that is... Peanut Butter is quite plump, and has a clubbed foot ( his right front one is curled in, and doesn't have it flat, but we figure it is a birth defect, because he has never showed any pain when he walks on it, or when I go to try to flatten it out sometimes, he doesn't care....) maybe he has no nerves in that foot? and then Twilight is a normal, healthy, gerbil... We got all three brothers in PetSmart......they are all currently active though... HELP!

[qtoffer]

Many gerbils poop and pee in the same area - when it all gets kicked together, it can look like
diarrhea. To determine if they actually have diarrhea, I would take each gerbil out separately, put him in a cardboard box, and observe until he poops - usually only takes a couple of minutes.

About the worm, parasitic worms are very rare in pet gerbils. The most common worm seen in domesticated rodents is called a pinworm - it's tiny, colorless, and barely visible to the naked eye. Affected animals almost never show symptoms unless they're otherwise ill or elderly. Animals infected with other types of intestinal parasites rarely pass a live worm. Usually, the worm spends its entire life inside the host - only eggs are passed.

I think it's far more likely that the worm came in on the gerbil food. My wife used to see flour beetles and their small, brownish larvae in rice, oats, and flour that she had been storing for a long time. If you give your gerbils any fresh fruits or veggies, be sure to remove uneaten bits promptly - fruit flies will quickly lay eggs in it. Is your cage near a window? You may have found a baby caterpillar that somehow got inside.

At this point, I would definitively determine whether or not your guys actually have diarrhea. Keep a close eye on the gerbils for any signs of being ill. Check your gerbil food supply for signs of beetle infestation and throw it out if you find any. If your gerbils do have diarrhea or look/behave ill, get them to a vet ASAP.

BTW, the clubbed foot guy should do fine. I forget who it is, but somebody on this forum has a club footed gerbil that is happy and healthy.

[zic890]

Okay, Thanks qtoffer! it really scared me when I saw the worm thing in their food bowl! and they are all active, running around and such.... and Peanut Butter ( has the clubbed foot ) is almost the one that is the most daring....I have a little cage that we use for sand baths, I left them in there for an hour ( we were cleaning the cage + contents )and I found them trying to climb the cage walls! Peanut Butter climbed farther than the other two did, even though I could see him using his own technique! He hung on tight, and then latched the clubbed foot on the bar as well.... Sorry, but either way, they are all running around the cage and their eyes are bright and coats soft and shiny. Thanks again!