Yellow Mucus

[cinnycinnamon]

Last night I noticed that Squirt was not his usual self-just being sluggish and not very responsive. Just a few minutes ago while observing him, I saw that everytime he would go clean himself "there", a smelly yellow mucus would come out and he then ate that mucus. Another thing is that when he would go to clean himself every few minutes, he would end up rolling over like he was doing a summer sault. Any ideas as to what this yellow mucus could be?? He's still NOT very active, either. What can I do to make him better?

I'm now goin to the vet to take my diabetic cat to the vet cuz I think he has an URI........(a cold)

Thanx!

[doomgerbiluk]

I suspect your gerbil has a urinary tract infection or maybe something even more similar. He should see a vet asap

[sandy]

Sounds like Squirt should also go to the vet!

[AndreaS15]

sandy said:

Sounds like Squirt should also go to the vet!

Agreed.
Dosn't sound to pleasant.
I had an older gerbil who had got a bladder infection, some antibiotics and cranberry juice cleared it right up.
Good luck, and keep us posted!

[cinnycinnamon]

Since I was at the vet for my cat, Bubby, I decided to ask her what she thought it might be that Squirt has. Of course, she told me that she wouldn't know unless I brought him in, but suspected that he might have an infection. Now $130.00 dollars later for Bubby, I don't have any more funds until next week. The vet said I could try giving Squirt the Baytral so that's what I did for now.

*EDIT*
Squirt is drinking and eating by himself. He's kinda perked up, but not 100%. At least, he's looking better than he did this afternoon. And now the mucus isn't so thick...it's a bit watery. I gave him a very small piece of an apple two days ago. Could it be that he has diarrhea?

Thanx for your quick replies you guys! Appreciate it.

By the way, how does a gerbil get a urniary tract infection anyways? The same way people do? Sorry for the dumb question....

[cinnycinnamon]

Tonight, I've been checking on Squirt. And each time I put him back into his tank, he goes directly to his water and then to the food bowl. This is something normal for him to be doing. I decided to take Squirt and put him into the bath tub so see what his poop looks like. His urine is a dark yellow color and his poop is brown-ish in color-firm but soft. Had a look at his tail and it was wet so I wiped it with a damp piece of toilet paper. He's been givin the baytril twice this evening. I don't understand what's happening. Can gerbils get wet tail, too like hamsters? Do you think I should isolate him and Kurt from the rest of the group? And the piece of apple I gave Squirt was no bigger than the size of my pinky finger nail.

[ashgerbil]

oh no! poor li'l squirt!
it would probably be a good idea to move squirt and kurt to another room, just to be sure that none of your other gerbs get the bug either (incase it's something contagious)
a gerbil would be fine with apple that size, so i don't think that he's got diaorrhea
i'm not sure, but it does sound as if he's got a urinary tract infection, so try feeding him a little bit of cranberry juice (as andrea gave to her ill gerb) and see if he looks a little better then
sorry i can't help anymore! i really hope that squirt gets better soon!!

[cinnycinnamon]

That's what I decided to do for the time being-moved Squirt and Kurt down here to the computer room away from the rest of the group. I also thought it maight be a good idea to check on his poop again. But when I brought him back to the bathtub, he wouldn't poop. He'd run around in the tub and then stop and i noticed that his left leg would twitch along with his wiskers if that means anything. I've never seen him do that before. He's still helping himself to food, but he's not drinking as much as he was yesterday.

I will go out and pick up some cranberry juice today then cuz the only kind I have here is the cran-raspberry juice. Maybe I should be giving Kurt antibiotics as well for preventive meaures??

I sure hope he does get better, too! *crosses fingers*

[AndreaS15]

Cran-raspberry juice is a cocktail and will have alot of sugar in it, not good when your sick. You need to find a cranberry that is not cocktail. It can sometimes be harder to find as the cocktails are cheaper.
Gerbils cannot get wet tail. Sounds to me he has 'some' sort of a bladder/urinary infection for sure. The wet bottom would be from him leaking urine. When my gerbil had the same thing, i thought OMG wet tail, and bought her the meds, then read up and went oh oh Vet time. That's where i got the antibiotics and we decided it was either Bladder infection or a tumor, thank goodness it was the infection.
Keep up with the med's, keep him clean and comfortable. Bladder infections are not contagious, and really know one knows 'exactally' how they come, but it's usually some sort of imbalance of bactiria in the bladder.

Good luck with him. With a little time and care he should be back to his old self.
OH and make sure he's on the med's for a least 10 days (maybe ask the Vet) you don't want to cut it short and the infection come back stronger.

[cinnycinnamon]

Yes, I noticed that cocktails do have more sugar in it. I did however, buy a lite cranberry juice that contains only 10g of sugar. That's all the store had. The nearest health food store is about 10 miles away.

Squirt's urine is still a dark colour. But he's not drinkin as much as he was was yesterday and he's moving around some. We decided to put Squirt on the stronger antibiotics (trimethoprim) rather than the baytril. I hope we made the right choice.

Oh *whew* that gerbies can't get wet tail! Thanx Andrea for clearing that up for me. And many thanx for replying to my post. You're always so helpful to me. ;D

Hopefully, lil Squirty will be back to himself in no time. *crosses fingers*

[cinnycinnamon]

Just an update................

This morning when we gave Squirt his meds, he was looking rather poorly. And instead of goin to eat or get something to drink, he went back into his "box house" which is where he's been now for the past hour. I went through the entire 18 pages of this thread to look up info about green poop. I have not changed his diet but I do know that when I give my gerbils hay, their poop does turn green. I have not given Squirt and hay. Friday, his poop was brown and mushy. This morning, it's green and mushy. Could his poop be green because he's sick?

Edit.....it seems my husband put some treats in the food bowl last night which would explain Squirt's green poop. And he's eating and drinkin. I hate being such a worry wart.

Gee, I dunno if he's gonna make it or not. Kurt seems fine-playing jumping, eating, drinking.

Is there anything else I can do to help Squirt pull through this?

[AndreaS15]

Hopefully this is just a bad hump for him, and he will be on his way to recovery quickly.
You may want to make him drink water/cranberry juice with an eye dropper. The more water he drinks the more it will flush out the infection. I used to get bladder infections as a kid OMG, no fun. But if I felt them comming on, i could usually slow them down by drinking a ton of water.
Keep him warm to, gerbils seem to do alot better when they are warm.

Good luck, I have my fingers crossed for you and sending <good vibes> your way!

PS: Did you end up taking him to the Vet?

[cinnycinnamon]

Thanx Andrea. No I haven't taken him to the vet yet. My husband says if Squirt doesn't get any better, I can take him and use the money we were gonna use to pay a bill.

I've been using a syringe to give him the cranberry juice. I will up the amount then and make sure he is extra toasty.