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Post by username1234 on May 5, 2015 6:57:18 GMT -8
Over the past week or so, I've noticed my one-year old gerbil, Sprig, has been acting a little more tired than usual. He still eats and drinks and chews on tubes and will run around, but his eyes droop and he spends a lot of time sleeping.
His fur is also messy, like he hasn't been grooming himself, and his nose is red like he's been scratching at it.
Any ideas?
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Post by benster on May 5, 2015 9:02:56 GMT -8
pics would help how red is the nose? maybe allergies makes him more tired?? |
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Post by qtoffer on May 5, 2015 18:47:06 GMT -8
Red nose is usually allergies or some other irritant.
Cedar bedding is bad because of irritating oils. Some gerbils develop allergies to aspen and paper beddings like Carefresh.
What bedding are you using?
Do you have a sand bath? Sometimes gerbils will start looking scruffy if they haven't has a sand bath for awhile.
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Eowyn (F) 11/12/2011 - 20 gallon with 20 gallon topper
Goldberry (F) 11/12/2011 - 20 gallon with 20 gallon topper
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RIP
Maire 11/6/2008 - 4/6/2011; Eithne 11/6/2008 - 10/10/2011
Lori 5/2/2011 - 7/24/2013; Mo 5/2/2011 - 1/14/2014; Carly 5/2/2011 - 5/21/2014
Arwen 11/12/2011 - 2/8/2015
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Post by username1234 on May 7, 2015 13:37:32 GMT -8
Hey, sorry for the slow reply.
His nose has returned to its normal shade, and he pretty much seems to be better. His eyes are wide and he continues to run around and chew. Maybe it was just allergies?
His fur is still scruffy, but he may just have trouble keeping himself groomed. I have him by himself, since his friend tried to murder him. I am interested in getting him a sand bath; Im going to do research on it, but do you have any tips?
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Post by crittercrazy on May 7, 2015 14:26:24 GMT -8
Again, what bedding are you using?
Definitely look into some chinchilla sand. That will keep his fur from being scruffy. Note that there is a difference between chinchilla sand and chinchilla dust- go for sand! (it can be harder to find in stores though, so you might try looking online)
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Post by username1234 on May 8, 2015 9:56:42 GMT -8
Currently I have a mix of two paper Carefresh beddings. When I just went to check, I saw Sprig awake in the middle of his cage, his eyes drooping again. I checked his nose, but it looks fine.
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Post by username1234 on May 8, 2015 9:57:34 GMT -8
My mother is out right now, and she is going to pick up some more bedding for them. We've already tried aspen and he appeared to be allergic to it, so besides aspen or paper what sort of beddings are there?
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redsky
Member
Bournville, Marshmallow and Fudge
Posts: 543
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Post by redsky on May 10, 2015 6:11:46 GMT -8
There are different wood shavings (I don't use any of them, I used to be it upset my asthma), you could try hemp, I've used megazorb but found it had a strong (and IMO unpleasant) aroma, or use other horse bedding such as those cardboard cubes. I also used some soft small pelleted cat litter but didn't like that for them, too hard to dig in.
It could be the dust from the carefresh, when I used it before I found it quite dusty and made me sneeze a lot when cleaning their cage, you could try something similar but less dusty like fitch.
With all of the above I find that mixing in hay really helps hold their tunnels together, but this could be another allergy source... as could anything including something else in the room, a new air freshener, some new perfume, deodrant, their food... Keep listen to make sure he's not making a clicking noise, if he is it's probably a respiratory infection and he will need a vet trip and some baytril.
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Post by username1234 on May 11, 2015 8:05:24 GMT -8
Thank you for all the information, Redsky, that's very helpful. I'll look into alternative beddings and watch for clicking.
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