Graham has lost his appetite - any advice?

[rennmaus]

Graham has been unwell for about five days now. He stopped eating on his own and subsequently hasn't had any bowel movements since it all started either. He is one year and ten months old now.

I took him to a specialist vet, and he had some tests done. Apparently, there is no blockage in his intestines. His kidney labs are a bit off, but not enough to suggest organ failure. The vet does not know exactly what is wrong.

Graham spent two days in hospital. I now have him back at home, he is on antibiotics. In hospital, he was syringe-fed critical care food which he enjoyed eating. Now I have him at home, I'm trying to continue him on this food (and have also tried other things to tempt his appetite)...but he very adamantly refuses any food whatsoever. 

It's day three of the antibiotics, and I do think they are helping him in some ways. He is bright and alert, and his movements are more agile than they were when it all started, so I don't think he is in pain. He will chew toilet rolls etc. If you didn't know he wasn't eating you wouldn't necessarily suspect there was anything wrong with him...

Has anyone experience with a similar situation? Any advice on how to interest him in food again is very much appreciated!

Thank you!
 

[betty]

Very strange.

I scatter feed and so I don't know whether my gerbils are eating half the time - unless I give them something yummy and they take it off me - but not all my gerbils do that. So I presume you are putting his food in a dish and it is untouched and he isn't interested in anything yummy you wave in his face?

Well, healthy animals don't usually refuse food - especially food high in fat and protein (as nature made them that way). Has he perhaps lost his sense of smell? However, even if he couldn't smell the fats etc, if he was hungry he certainly would still eat what looks like food from memory. Perhaps he has had a neurological failure (stroke/meningitis) and his internal messages aren't getting sent through?

So I suppose the key question here at the moment is: Have you weighed him at all through all this - and if so what are his weights through this whole saga?

[rennmaus]

Thank you for your quick and considerate response, Betty.

It is the strangest thing. I usually feed pellets. Graham is alone in his tank at the minute (his brother Tillda passed away only four weeks ago), so I counted the pellets..and he hasn't touched them. And when I try to give him the vet food with a syringe he tries to push it away constantly. He doesn't even want pumpkin seeds or a blueberry (his favourite treats)

The vet weighed Graham on four days ago. He was 117g, roughly the same weight he was when I last weighed him a couple of months ago. So he is quite chubby. I will weigh him again tonight, to see whether he lost weight since.

[betty]

Ok - well 117g is a very good weight for a gerbil and he can afford to lose some at least before you get too worried. So we will wait to see if there is any weight loss.

I did once have some gerbils who would hoard loads of food at the bottom of their tank - so it is possible that before you started counting the pellets, he has stashed some food away somewhere - unless you cleaned out fully on the day you counted. But this would only tide him over for a short while anyway.

It's not like he is refusing to eat the food because they are pellets and 'boring' as he would surely then grab at anything different you offered. You could always start trying to entice him with all sorts of delicacies like live mealworms, baby food, scrambled egg and bread soaked in warm kitten milk, but I suppose unless he drops below 80g you aren't in dire worry to get him to eat.

It may be that he is just going through a 'patch' and he will soon snap out of it. Many of mine have stopped chewing cardboard in this humid weather - even the thin stuff?

[alleyj]

Baby food! Red went into kidney failure in May, god rest his soul and the only thing I could get him to eat was baby food. He was too weak otherwise. Is Graham still fairly active? Is he drinking enough? My vet said to get Red to eat whatever he wanted just to get something in him, I tried all his favorite treats and he was just not well enough to hold them and eat them. However I gave him a dollop of baby food in the top of the jar (he was a very courageous eater and tried everything, and for the baby food he liked sweet potatoes and berry purees) and the poor thing pretty much fell face first in it and ate it easily.

[rennmaus]

Good news: Graham allowed me to syringe feed him the critical care food last night and again this morning. He is drinking independently. And he has also since helped himself to three pumpkin seeds, two peas and two of his regular food pellets! Woooh!

So, I weighed him...and he has lost a couple of grams but not much. Oh, and I did clean the tank while Graham was in hospital overnight, and have since been counting the food pellets I put in - so I do have a pretty exact idea of what he's been eating.

Will get some baby food tonight he is so going to get spoiled!)

I really hope this is a turning point..

[betty]

Hope so - that's great news for the little chap!

[rennmaus]

I came home from work to find that Graham had done five substantial poos..! Finally, after six days.

He is definitely getting better, the antibiotics are working. He is continuing to eat, too. I am ecstatic.

betty, alleyj - Graham and I thank you so much for your advice and support

[jumpyspeedyrule]

Great news! My gerbil has stopped eating it happened after her tumor started bleeding and she hurt her leg 42

[rennmaus]

A quick update on this threat: Since August Graham has actually had another couple of these mysterious periods where he won't eat, or pass stool...The vet checked him over again, there are definitely no abnormalities in his bowls, kidneys or liver. We have found a medication that helps with his digestion now though...he'll probably be on it long term. And he is doing exceptionally well on it at the moment, so fingers crossed...

[catnut]

glad Graham is doing better and the vet found something that seems to be helping him. Glad to hear you took him to the vets and didn't give up as some may have due to finances or time,etc.