Dazed episode?

[geebtown]

Hi all,

I am not brilliant at describing things but I will try my best!

My girl Mallow seemed to have a strange episode last night. She is coming up to 3 years old and is generally in good health.

My partner and I were watching Mallow in her tank as she sat on her bridge, looking at us and listening. She looked normal and bright eyed - no concerns.

I left for a few minutes and came back to find her sat in the corner of the tank a little puffed up and sort of… dazed? Confused? It was like her actions were delayed? She was trying to put her front paws down but it was like there was an invisible block underneath so she couldn’t. She wasn’t wobbly as such, but I think leaning slightly to the side and looking tired. She tried to nibble at some cardboard but it was like her body wouldn’t let her do it.

The whole thing lasted probably not even 10 seconds. I believe that if we had not witnessed it, we would probably never know it had happened as she quickly returned to her usual self like nothing ever happened. We made sure she was walking ok and I removed items from the tank to give her space and she gradually just got on with things again.

We had her out to play in the living room shortly after, where she enjoyed running up and down bendy tunnels, burrowing in the sofa and some sunflower seeds. She is eating and drinking fine too. So I have taken these as positive signs?

My concern is that we had seen this dazed and ‘invisible block’ behaviour before in our girl Smudge who we lost in January this year to a respiratory infection and unfortunately several severe seizures. The difference is, is that Smudge was poorly prior to these ‘invisible block’ episodes, whereas Mallow was and is still absolutely fine.

She's still been good this morning - energetically chewing up cardboard and hopping in and out her sand bath…doing all the usual things Mallow loves! So overall, nothing seems to be wrong. 

But why did this strange episode happen with Mallow? Given her fast resume to her normal self, do I need to be worried? What exactly was it? I’m not sure what gerbil strokes looks in like in comparison to a seizure so I can’t put a name to the behaviour I saw so I hope I described it well enough to make sense.

Any advice or knowledge would be wonderful - the gerbies are my world and I just want to understand these things better so I can do my very best by them.

Thank you so much,

Ruby 

[LilyandDaisy]

Some kind of neurological episode such as a seizure or a stroke is possible. Seizures can take many different forms and can be quite subtle sometimes. A stroke would usually cause lasting symptoms but in humans there are "mini-strokes" (transient ischaemic attacks) which are more temporary. In terms of a what a stroke looks like, it can look like anything from a convulsive seizure to invisible.

I had a gerbil named Lily who had strange episodes a bit like this. They'd last a minute or two, she'd sleep for about half an hour after each one, and then recover. She seemed fine otherwise, and continued like this for a few months before one day becoming incredibly ill to the point I was sure she was going to die. However after a couple of days of rest and lots of treats she recovered. She was always a bit more fragile and easily fatigued after that and then developed various health issues in quick succession: a more intense type of fit where she'd thrash about, kidney problems, some kind of episode that caused her to lose her balance for 48 hours, and finally congestive heart failure which is what she died from aged 2.5.

Then about 3 months after Lily had died, her sister Daisy started having the same kind of episodes. For her it progressed much faster, the episodes were more frequent and they affected her more severely, so she had to be put to sleep only two weeks after they began. I have since noticed that in photos she has a slightly bloated abdomen as well which I think could have been caused by the same congestive heart failure that Lily died from. Another thing tying the two cases together was that both gerbils had had a couple of choking episodes a few months before the episodes began (and had it been just one gerbil I would never have connected the isolated choking episodes to symptoms that developed months later).

This is a video of Lily having one of these episodes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqutPjpNock
And Daisy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rElk1LOiNo4
(sorry for the poor video quality)

I never found out what disease they had. I wish now that I'd had a post mortem done on at least one of them. My best guess is either a neurological condition that also somehow caused heart failure or a heart condition causing episodes of faintness/dizziness or similar.

As for whether you should be worried about Mallow, my perspective would be that there is a high chance this episode was caused by some kind of underlying condition that isn't otherwise visible but there's usually very little a vet can do for these kinds of mysterious symptoms (of course a check up wouldn't hurt, but may not help). However even if she has something wrong, it's possible that Mallow might still be fine in herself for some time yet. I'd advise to focus on enjoying all the time that she is well and happy as much as you can because at 3 years old, (as someone recently told me), every week is a bonus.

My gerbil Lily's great passion in life was free roaming outside her cage and even after she started to be more fragile she would demand to be let out for a run, wear herself out running around, sleep for a bit and then demand to be let out again! I'm so glad we had those fun times where she was enjoying herself and I was enjoying playing with her, even though it tired her out.

[geebtown]

Thank you so much for your super in-depth reply and sharing your experiences with Lily and Daisy and the video links too. I apologise for taking some time to get back to you. I really do appreciate your response!

I have since been monitoring Mallow and only seen the strange episode once more - so now twice in total. The second was less obvious than the first and happened whilst I was holding her and seemingly over in seconds. Otherwise she is still herself! She sleeps more these days but I guess that’s down to her age as her sister Maple does this too.

For now - until I spot anything seriously wrong, god forbid - I will take your advice of making the most of everything with her and enjoying time together. 

It sounds like Mallow shares Lily’s passion for adventuring outside of their tank/cage! I love to see this behaviour as she has always been eager to come out and play so it reminds me that she’s still young at heart and in her personality.


Oh how I wish they could just talk to us and tell us how they are feeling!

Thanks so much again.