Young gerbil is ill, help!

[hsinclair90]

young male gerbil ill, I don't know what it is

I adopted two male 7 month old gerbils(they are smaller and seem younger) but one is a fair bit smaller than the other....i've had them for two weeks. The black one always seemed smaller with less of an appetite.

About 6 days ago he seemed quiet and wasn't moving much. I kept an eye on him and he was his normal self that night.

Last night, he went quiet again, not much movement. I came home from work today and he's been sleeping all day. I got them out for a 20 minute run and he wasn't moving around much, eyes just seem tired looking and he's got ruffled fur

I gave him a drink of water but he's not eating and has puffed fur and slightly closed eyes. He's now sleeping again in a corner.

He's been chewing fine before this, there's no respiratory infection and there's plenty poop around. I thought tyzzers but he has no wet bottom, I did see some poop in the tunnel that seemed softer but there was a fair amount of urine over it...it was slightly orange coloured.

Vets are closed for weekend but going to get him in on Monday. Can someone please help? I've owned gerbils years ago and know a fair bit about them but im at a loss here, he looks healthy and I'm wondering if there's been something going on prior to me getting him that caused the size difference etc..

Does anyone have any idea? My vets aren't the greatest, last time I brought a gerbil down the vet held him whilst he was freaking out and stressed him and he ended up fitting all night. He had to be euthanised the next morning. This was a previous rescue who had stomach issues(improper feeding from previous owner)

[LilyandDaisy]

Hello,
Until you can get him to a vet, you can try some gerbil first aid:
- Keep him warm, especially if he is cold to the touch. If you have a heating pad you can put that under part of the tank, or alternatively a wrapped hot water bottle propped against the tank. Make sure he always has a cooler area he can move to.
- Food - At the moment let him eat whatever he will eat that's gerbil safe, even if it's bread or cheese. He might find soft foods such as pureed fruits easier.
- It's good that he's had some water. Keep giving him water every couple of hours. If you think he has diarrhoea or he won't eat you could try a rehydration solution. There's a recipe in this thread: (Edit: the linked page is no longer available but the recipe was as follows:

240ml boiling water
1/4 level teaspoon salt
1 level teaspoon sugar

Dissolve the salt and sugar in the boiling water. Allow to cool before use.)

[tanzanyte]

I'm so sorry to hear this. Any updates?
I hope he's on the mend and that if you were able to make it to the vets that you got a vet who knows more about gerbils. It's stressful enough without worrying about whether the vets are going to improve things or make it all worse.

[gcat]

Did you find out what was wrong with your gerbil? I’m new to gerbils and have one with the same symptoms. He spends lots of time in his “sun room” probably to keep warm though the thermometer by his cage says 74f. He eats. He has been using his sand bath to roll in. We had a vet tech stop by - not familiar with gerbils but exotic vet can’t see him for a few days— and she didn’t identify any physical issues other than posture, fur and lethargy per the original post. His buddy cuddles him and sometimes nudges him to move some. He is maybe 8 months old.

I’m also worried about the stress of taking him to the vet.

[Markpd]

How's your gerbil doing now gcat ? (and hsinclair90 ?) Did you manage to get him to an exotic vet?

[gcat]

I took him to the exotic vet. She didn’t find anything wrong with him and gave us some anti bacterial medication. I couldn’t give it to him directly and so user dried crushed mealworms as a slurry fed on a spoon. He loved it. I found out yesterday mealworms are one of the best sources of magnesium which may help with epilepsy.

He is just now starting to use his wheel again for a few seconds a go a few times a day and is scampering around more tho maybe only half as much as his buddy. He hasn’t started burrowing again . His buddy, who took over the alpha role, is a terraformed now, which he didn’t used to be.

I’m hoping he keeps getting better and if it was epilepsy that he has grown out of it. Even tho the vet didn’t find anything conclusive, he started getting better from there. Almost like us, who start feeling better just by a doctors visit.

Thanks for asking.

[Markpd]

Terraformed?

Good to hear he's improving, I hope he makes a full recovery.
Interested to hear more about the mealworm slurry, was it just the meds, crushed mealworms and water?

[gcat]

He is running more on the wheel now!
For the mealworm slurry, no water. I scooped out about a dime size of the broken bits at the bottom of the bag of mealworms and the dropped the medicine on it. When I held out the spoon to him, he’d eat/lick it all up. He even started crawling up onto the spoon! I had tried those yogurt covered blueberries, but they didn’t soak up enough or didn’t have enough surface area and real blueberries couldn’t contain the juice (Used a real syringe) and I worried about diarrhea with the twice a day treatment.

I don’t know that he always got the full dose but I liked not traumatizing him. Also, when the vet showed me how to administer via the “scruffing” method, it must have hit his teeth because some of it sprayed out. She said that would be ok, enough got in.