Straw health issues?

[Catastrophic]

Not sure if this is the right place, but
When I got my gerbils a couple of years ago, I used straw bedding with carefresh mixed in- for about two years I never had any problems, but one day last year I woke up to feed the gerbils as normal, and usually both of them ran up immediately after hearing the food bag, but I only saw Ziggy.

Something felt wrong, and after digging around trying to see why he wasn’t coming out I came across Sparky’s body buried in one of their burrows.

At first glance he looked like he was sleeping, but then I noticed an awful wound on his eye, which was missing, and he was stone cold. At the time, I was scared it might be something contagious that killed him or they’d had a fight and so I cleaned out everything but was too distraught and so didn’t think too hard about what else could have caused it.

About a month ago I realised that there doesn’t seem to be any info on using straw as main substrate online? And not wanting to take any risks for Ziggy’s health I changed it to wood shavings, which I’d heard more about.

But a week later, Ziggy developed a scent gland Tumor, and sadly it developed too fast to save him, but I want to know for the future, could these events with bedding be connected to their health issues? And could anything likely have been done to prevent these from happening?

[Markpd]

Sorry to hear you lost your gerbils recently .

I'm not sure what could be the cause of Sparky's death to be honest, I was wondering if a piece of straw could have poked his eye, which then got infected, but even if it had I can't see that an infection would have killed him overnight.
But your right that straw isn't normally used as a bedding, and that's because of the risk of eye injury (it's very stiff and can be quite sharp if broken/chewed off at an angle), so I wouldn't use it in the future. Hay is fine though.

Sadly Scent Gland Tumours are quite common in gerbils in older age, one of my previous boys suffered from that, I had a vet remove it from him, but sadly he died a few weeks later from what was probably cancer that had spread from it.
Anyway, I'm sure straw had nothing to do with Ziggy's SGT.

(Oh, and yes you posted in the right place, Health or Bedding is the appropriate place ).

[Catastrophic]

Thanks, also there was a period of time a couple of days before Sparky died where he was quite lethargic, and his fur was all ruffled, but then he seemed to make a full recovery. At the time I assumed these were connected, but then that thing with the straw makes a lot of sense.

[betty]

I am sure that straw itself (from a reputable source) wouldn't have been connected to the SGT - and apart from a possible infected eye-poke - shouldn't have caused Sparky's passing either.

Well stored, chopped straw is used for some many small animals - and if anything - hay is more likely to poke you or get jabbed into your hand as a human. I haven't ever been stabbed with commercially sold straw myself, but I have certainly got hay jabbed on a regular basis. Guinea pigs regularly get 'hay poke' injuries to their eyes that can get worse very quickly if not treated.

That isn't to say that straw couldn't have been involved in injury or respiratory illness due to how it had been stored (as straw will go mouldy more easily than hay if left in an unventilated or sweaty environment). Straw certainly isn't a regularly used substrate for gerbils historically - so perhaps there is a history to it that has since been lost?



TW: (until I find again how to hide stuff in a link)


Additionally - and this may not have been the case, but gerbils can sometimes chew on the faces of their friends who have passed when confused by a sudden death, and it is possible that this damaged to the eye happened after Sparky had already passed as a result of this. Also, depending on the time since death, the eyes can sink in slightly and they turn blue and look very unnatural. All very sad to experience.

[Catastrophic]

Yes I suspected that might have had something to do with it