Bugger - ear infection?

[whitmoregirl]

Are there any symptoms (eg crustiness) for inner ear infections?
I suspect Pepper might have it Her head tilts to the left, and when I peek into her ears they do look different inside... unless I'm being paranoid.

Her tank has been tilted for the past week or so (been set on the corner of the rug as I've been moving stuff around and tidying up -gasp!-, but whether that could cause a head tilt... ) However Raven is still fine.

[doomgerbiluk]

That's the classic symptom and although other things may cause this in most cases it's ear problems.
As alway...see the vet!

[blackie]

Best to put her on antibiotics ! You can either give it in the water or in the mouth with a syringe. IT' easier to give medicine in the water, Good luck!!

[blackie]

You are not being paranoid, iner ear problems or problems in the vestibular organ is very common reaction to ear infection in gerbils. Unfortunately it cancause serious problems like not being able to orientate or maintain balance. I've had a gerbil that after one week could not drink from the water bottle, so he eventually became dehydrated. I ahd no experience with sick gerbils so I tried to give him medicine and water but I didn't get it right, and he passed away. IT was so sad, but I learned a lot. The best thing to do is to observe your gerbil carefully and give antibiotics in the water BEFORE they get seriously ill, because it's a lot easier to treat a mildly sick gerbil... as long as they drink and eat , there is hope. If it gets too bad you just have to choose if you want to try and treat it or let it go. It's that cruel in the gerbil world. They have a vey fast metabolism and can get seriously sick very qiuckly , much quciker than humans.... Note that inner ear problems can also be a result of a tumor (cancer) in the inner ear! In that case , it would be fatal and antibiotics would not work. Hope you r gerbil gets well, anyway

[doomgerbiluk]

Don't give the ABs in the drinking water. In my experience gerbils do not drink the same amount every day so they will almost certainly not get a full dose or anywhere near some days.
Get your vet to work out how to make a solution which allows you to give just a tiny amount from a syringe. You can see in the photoguide how to give the meds. I squirt gently into the gerbils' cheek as squirting down it's throat may drown it!!!
Do remember that a very tiny quantity of fluid is a large amount for a small animal, imagine being given your meds in a pint glass or worse (in water bottle terms) by the large bucket load.

[ashgerbil]

aww, poor Pepper
have you taken her to the Vet yet? how's she doing now?
i'm crossing my fingers for a quick recovery anyhoo!

[blackie]

In my opinion, giving antibiotics in the water can bea good solution if the gerbil is not yet seriously ill-but maybe it can be a bit tricky to get the right dose. MAybe it can be a good idea to give a slightly stronger dose for the first couple of days, to get the gerbil to respond to the medication-if they've started to get better it will usually work even if they don't get exactly the miligrams they need every 12 hours! I was a bit surpriesed that most people on this forum say they have been using ornacycline and I got baytrill from the vet-it contains lactose, whic is milk sugar I don't think it's good for their digiestion-I don't know if my vet has ever heard of ornacycline. Maybe some gerbils actually drink less than others ,too. Some people don't manage to give medicine in the gerbils mouth with a syringe, and you risk choking the gerbil if you give it too much. I think ear infections are the scariest illness I've ever experienced with any pet...the head tiling thing can be lethal because loss of balance can make it really difficult for them to drink. I had a dog that had a tumor some years ago, and that was less scary than this ear infection-thing! It's good to ask a vet if you have any question, if you know a vet that has experience with small rodents. Like I said, they can seem really sick for a week, and if they get enough fluids and food, their is a good chance that medicine will work and the gerbil wil lget well! Imagine if you had earache and felt dizzy, you would feel pretty miserable and lose your apetite. It's up to YOU how you want to do it.

[whitmoregirl]

I'm going to take her to the vets on Wednesday as it's the only day I have a lift 0_o''

But hopefully she'll get some meds and be A-OK again in a short while

[doomgerbiluk]

Ornacycline isn't a suitable medicine for gerbil illness and is used mainly because people can buy it over the counter. The problem is the medicines they pusrchase are dosed for birds not rodents.
Baytril is the standard AB prescribed by vets but has been proven to encourage fitting in prone animals. As mongolian gerbils as a species are prone to seizures it is not an ideal medicine for them. thsi is more of a problem than lactose.
My gerbils have been given marbocyl with postive results previously and I would personally prefer this. If you search the forum Ed has mentioned other suitable ABs.

[whitmoregirl]

Just so you know, the vet gave me some eardrops for her, twice a day. I'll find the actual name on the packet in a mo if anyone wants it

He checked inside her ears with one of those... thingys... 0_0'... which looked pretty uncomfortable, and then said that her left ear had a build up of discharge/wax. He said it could either be inner ear infection, as I had said, or possibly a stroke.
But she's still fairly merry, bouncing off the walls and begging to be played with, despite having a little of the stuff rubbed into her fur ^^;