Squinting in Dark Red Eyed 2yr+ Old Male

[kristinenote]

Smoke has been in my home about <2 yrs, I got him already full grown. He lives with a <1 yr old male.

Smoke has dark red eyes and silver fur, all pink paws and white claws. He is a very mellow gerbil and it seemed whenever he was happy he would squint. For example, when being groomed, his eyes are half closed, or while eating a treat like a yogie or a pea, half closed eyes.

Now he's kinda squinty and more than half of the time his fur is puffed up. Right now he's digging through the food dish, his fur is not puffy, but his eyes are narrowed.

No signs of illness, no lethargy. He's pretty active at night, chewing through a lot of cardboard every night and taking turns on the wheel with his gerbil friend.

I wonder if this is a sign of old age or eye sight going down hill?

I read the avrg life span of a gerbil is 3 yrs but can live up to 5 in rare cases. I'd say he's reaching the 3 yr mark soon. He's somewhat fatter than Silver, my younger, smaller gerbil, who has black eyes and never squints.

[kristinenote]

A quick update. Smoke is getting a little more sleepy now. He's not going on the wheel as often, and mostly just eats and sleeps now. He chews up cardboard, but not as soon as I put it in the tank. I mean I put his favorite type of cardboard roll in there yesterday and it's only half chewed up, not completely gone.

I'm of the opinion he's just getting older.

His fur is much nicer now, I let him have a sand bath last week and ever since he hasn't had any puffy fur. He's not squinting as much, but still does, mostly when he's eating.

I also got him a coconut hut bird toy and they both adore it. But he's not chewing as much.

I read that puffy fur and squinty eyes = pain / illness. But I don't think it's that.

[gerbilwhiskers]

Sounds just like our older male in his last 6 months. I would check his teeth regularly as gerbils can get tooth problems when older as they chew less. Our older male was also very mellow and sleepy when he was a gerbil pensioner. He liked to sit on the sunny windowsill behind the net curtain in our living room and fall asleep there for a couple of hours.

[crittercrazy]

Is probably just old age, but just in case check his teeth as gerbilwhiskers said and keep an eye out for any other symptoms.

[kristinenote]

He's getting much slower now. He doesn't use the wheel at all. His teeth are fine, though, and he's chewing more than he was a week ago.

I was wondering if I could add dry vegetable pasta (or whole wheat pasta) to his diet (and the younger one's diet too lol) as a staple diet. To help him file his teeth down more? I give him the usual gerbil mix from the store and occasional fresh vegetable treats.

Oh! I grow pea sprouts in my herb garden (in my kitchen) and I gave them a few pieces and he loved it. So I'm spoiling him a bit now.

[kristinenote]

I believe he has developed a mass in his inner ear.

Some blood was coming out of his ear, the ear was twitched back. He has no head tilt or wounds.

He seems fine. But I wonder if there's anything I can do for him if he's suffering?

[gerbilwhiskers]

I think the best thing to do is go on his overall quality of life. While he is still chewing, grooming himself and cage mates, happily eating and drinking, having occasional runs then he is still enjoying life. I had a gerbil with the ear symptoms you describe and there was nothing the vet could do about it at that point. The gerbil subsequently developed an ear infection that was treated successfully with antibiotics so keep an eye on it. Other than that it didn't affect him much, other than that he couldn't perk that ear up after that point. We just kept him happy and warm, used a hot water bottle next to the cage to warm the glass next to the nest which he loved. You know him best - play it by what you think he wants and likes. Personally I'd say that at his age just feed him what he likes within reason. Pea sprouts sound lovely for him. Later if you think he is suffering badly and has no quality of life then you can make the decision to put him to sleep. Personally I'd wait a bit and see - our gerbil recovered pretty well from the inner ear problem and lived happily on for another six months from that point. Here he is with his tilty ear (on the left). He finally passed just before Christmas and I miss him, but we have four other gerbils in our family still. I hope your chappy is happily recovering.