Weight and Epilepsy?

[kiara]

Hallo,

Does epilepsy have to do something with the weight?

Two of my girls have Epilepsy and both are very small and slim, so one of them weighs only 50 grams and the other girl 57 grams. They're both attained full growth and now I'm not sure of there isn't a connection to epilepsy!?!

What do you think?

Bye Amy

[blackie]

I don't know if weight has anything to do with epilepsy, but I think it is a combination of genes and maybe psychological issues like do they have agoraphobia (fear of coming out of the tank/cage) how tame they are and maybe sometimes anxiety gets triggered when they are outside of the tank and get epilepsy fits? At least that is the case with my gerbil OScar, he never gets the epileptic seizures in the cage, only when he is outside.

If your gerbil is too fat, just give it a little more exercse and less sunflower seeds

Gerbils are prey animals and fear predators so I guess sometimes their instincts make them react to things that seem threatening to them...they never get completely tame.

So that's my ideas on gerbils with epileptic seizures, hope it helps a little bit

[blackie]

I didn't read your post properly, you say that your gerbils are slim, well I don't think that it has anything to do with it as long as they get enough nutrition!

they could be born with epilepsy, a gene malfunction

[blackie]

I read somewhere that one in ten gerbils have epileptic seizures...I don't remember if it was in a book or on a webpage.
Is it like they go limp and start to get seizures? We used to think OScar was brain damaged but don't think so anymore...and if he is there is nothing anyone can do with it. It does look really scary when they have seizures I once thought OScar was going to die. The first time he got a seizure I didn't know what it was and felt really scared and I thought he was dead.

I've got a book about gerbils that was published in the US about 15 years ago, it's probably outdated now, but it has some info on gerbils and seizures.

[pepandmax]

Random question--is his name OScar or Oscar? Just wondering, because you capitalized it as OScar all three times you typed it.

Regarding seizures, I am under the impression that genetic heritage is at least part of the equation. I imagine that body mass is also influenced by genes... but correlation doesn't equal causation! Gah, I still shudder at the thought of my old high school physics teacher.

[AndreaS15]

NGS Information on Seizures - www.gerbils.co.uk/gerbils/seizures.htm

I have had 2 gerbils prone to seizures, both Agouti Sisters (not same litter), one was pied.
The older sister had seizures up untill she was 10-12 months old, while the younger only had them untill she was a few months old.
Inbreeding wasn't a factor. But more an age thing, since both grew out of it as they got older. I also found the gerbils colour to be a factor, after reading up on it and asking others who have seizure prone gerbils, Agoutis seem to be a very common colour prone to seizures.

[ashgerbil]

colour thing could be true, my grey agouti used to have fits, but so did my CP silver nutmeg lol

the grey agouti Dusty, grew out of fits by the time she was about 3 months old, but my CPSN, Rocky, never grew out of fits. he was a runt and was small, but he definitely wasn't thin! ;D lol he was actually pretty chubby lol

i don't think that epilepsy is caused by weight, but weight loss may be caused by epilepsy

[kiara]

Thank you!

The colours of the two girls are gold(?) and nutmeg.
If I take them out of their tank, they get epilepsy fits. I can get them nuts and things like that they don't get bigger and something like that.

Now I've got another problem, my gold girl should go to breed at first, but now I know she's got epilepsy. How can I but her to a girl, if they get epilepsy fits when I put her out!?! I'm really scared, but I can't let her until she's got her first litter, because there can go so much wrong.

Bye Amy

[AndreaS15]

I would not breed either of these animals, Otherwise you will just be producing more animals with this disorder.
You want to only breed the highest quality animals without illness.

[kiara]

Yes, I course I know that, but I don't know how to put her out!?!

Bye Amy

[pepandmax]

I thought you had two females... why are you trying to separate them? What do you mean by "but/ put her out?" Breeding? I'm sorry I don't understand. My brain is a little slow today.

In any case, they do not sound like they are candidates for breeding...

[kiara]

Now, my argente golden (or what ever) girl is sitting with her boyfriend and the other girl is in a group of girls.
I must take her out of her tank and ever if I do that, she got fits and needs some minutes to get well again.
So I should take her to another girl, but when she get fits if I take her out, it's bad for her when I must change the side of the tank every day and it isn't got when I want to put the girls together.

Bye Amy

[doomgerbiluk]

Fitting is a common problem in gerbils.
Some it is genetic, they have fits as pups and these decrease in severity and frequency as they grow up.
For some though it's a stimulus thing. A friend had this problem when she'd been away and her gerbils had been fed but not handled for an extended period. The gerbils where not used to human voices/contact or to being removed from their tanks and fitted every time they where handled. In this case it is fear based and the animals need to be retamed, starting with talking to them while they are in their safe environment and building up to touching and handling.

We do know that if breeders avoid breeding from gerbils that have fitted the occurence of epilepsy is greatly reduced over the generations. But certainly I have had the experience that an apparently healthy line suddenly developed fitting in the 3rd generation, including some that had been given to a breeder by a breeder who had a pup from this line, a 3 generation gap from being with me. So there must be some latent gene that can get switched on.

Gerbls tendency to epilepsy has been very useful to scientists exploring causes and treatments of epilepsy, do a google scholar search and you will see that their have been many studies using gerbils because of this tendency.
.