Ear tumour

[GerbilUK]

One of my 18 month old male gerbils has had an ear tumour for a few months now...I first noticed because of his head tilt, when I looked at him the tumour was clearly visible in the ear ... Looked like a small cauliflower type growth. Apart from the head tilt he wasn't ill in himself and could still eat and drink. The head tilt gradually resolved- now it seems to be coming back.

The tumour is even more visible now, again he is still active and feisty. My question is, will the tumour itself keep growing and eventually kill him? Or is it just if it causes an infection that it will be fatal (if untreated by anti-bs)?

Any experiences would be very welcome

Wokette

[betty]

I was just reading about cholesteatoma actually as the NGS said that gerbils can suffer from this - it is basically a cyst-like growth in the inner ear that (from images I have seen) looks like a cauliflower type.

I may be wrong of course as I have only just heard of this condition myself, but it can lead to head tilt and circling behaviours which can come and go.

Perhaps have a look on the NGS website yourself or perhaps someone else on here has experienced something similar and will reply.

[GerbilUK]

Yes it's really quite obvious to look at his ear when compared to the other....one ear canal is practically closed off, if you stretch it open you can see some white cauliflowers attached on stalks down there (grim)

.I read that fifty percent of gerbils have it at two years old...maybe not generally big enough to be visible though? Nothing seems to mention long term prognosis apart from that anti-bs can ease symptoms of secondary infection but it may well return.

I am watching him carefully as he was scratching at that ear for the first time and has fallen over too. Last time it was bad he was going round in circles and totally on a slant, he was lively as ever though. It has gradually improved until he was hardly wonky at all...until yesterday!

Hopefully this will get better too as long as he doesn't get too dizzy to eat and drink.

Thanks

[betty]

I had a gerbil with similar symptoms (although different illness) and I ended up with her in my longest tank with minimum shelving as she would have terrible trouble with the shelves and ledges. Also, I found that in the flatter tank I could actually see when she was having a bad day as she was moving differently in a straight line than she was hopping about.

In a ledged tank of course they are constantly turning and twisting to get from place to place so you couldn't really see her true movement - you just saw her falling over and rolling back on herself ever so often. In the longer flatter tank she hardly fell at all.