Mystery illness - weight and hair loss

[geebtown]

Hi all,

A bit of a long one…

I am totally stumped by an illness my girl Merry has… any information or advice would be wonderful 🙏

Merry is approximately 6 months old, has lost a lot of weight and also some fur. I’ll try to be as concise and explain as well as I can, though, I am not very good at doing so… please bear with me!

I first noticed Merry looking thinner and not seeming quite herself on the 29th of March, and so, I weighed her - my downfall is that this was the first time I had weighed her since bringing her and her sister Jingle home at the end of January, so I have no figures prior to this for comparison. (Usually I am very much on top of these things but unfortunately not this time…)

She was refusing all foods and favourite treats, but was taking water when I took the bottle to her and offered it. (This continued for a few days but I managed to get her appetite back and she eats most things that I offer her now - I am trying every food I can!)

So… on the 29th of March, Merry weighed 57g and Jingle was 67g… so, a very worrying 10g difference between them.

I got Merry in with the vets quickly - who found a small lump on her right side, just below the ribs. The vet said he felt it was unlikely to a be a tumour due to her age, but not impossible… so I came away with anti-inflammatory meds Rheumocam to give once a day for a week.

Gradually she started eating again, but very small amounts and very selective about it too.

We returned to the vets a couple days later just to check up and review the medication, where we saw a different vet who also did not think she had a tumour. I should also note here that the small lump had not grown, and at times, I have been unable to locate it. We were advised to continue with the Rheumocam for a week since she had started eating again and if it doesn’t work fix things, then we could try Baytril antibiotics.

So we continued with the Rheumocam as advised since she had initially improved, but this progress fell, as did her weight. So we visited a different, closer vets and were given Baytril for the week - which seems to have helped and improved things for her but not actually cured her. By this visit, she had dropped to 51g.

Her weight continued to drop to 47g in the 2 following days we struggled with getting her to have the antibiotics. She absolutely hated them… until I tried mixing it with pureed peas (a food she refused at the start of her illness) and she happily lapped the entire lot up. It was only then, when mixing it with peas and getting her full dose did her general health and weight improve!

So, on her full antibiotic dosage, plus more food intake, her weight readings went as follows:

April 10th - 48g
April 11th - 49g
April 12th - 49g
April 13th - 50g (but only just as the scales flickered between this and 49g)
April 14th - 48g
April 15th - 49g
April 16th - 48g

As you can see there has been some very small improvement with her weight, although it is still far from ideal and fluctuates a lot. She is eating a lot more now and still drinking fine. Throughout the past few weeks I have also been giving her Critical Care Formula several times throughout the days and keeping a hot water bottle on the outside of the tank where her bed is.

After the Rheumocam, we also noticed minor hair loss on her chin and a slither on her tail - initially I thought that this was because some medication or the CCF had dripped and gotten in her fur and she’d groomed it a little too much… but this hair loss has continued symmetrically under her chin and her arms where she now has bald patches. She has recently also lost a small amount around her nose and one eye.

As far as her attitude and physical ability goes, she is still getting around her tank with enthusiasm and liveliness. She is bright eyed, wants to play, her coat is not greasy and is in good condition (aside from the hair loss) and her teeth all look perfect. I have not seen any red discharge from her eyes or nose and the faeces I have seen all look to be just fine. I have wondered if it is a parasite but I haven’t seen anything on her, her sister, in faeces or anywhere in the tank.

The very first vet we saw at the very beginning did mention that we could do an ultrasound to see what’s going on… but I know this means putting her under anaesthesia. As strong and determined as she’s being, I feel that doing this means that we will surely lose her.

I have researched and researched… trying to figure out what we can do next for her that doesn’t involve putting her under for the ultrasound but I fear I’m running out of options. I imagine it depends on how ill the animal is, but does anyone know the likelihood of her recovering from being under anaesthetic?

As I said, she is still so bright in herself, if she wasn’t so thin, you’d never really know a thing was wrong.

I am doing the best I can with vets nearest to me. The closest specialist exotic vets to me is about an hour away from me - and when I have visited them with previous gerbils, it has very sadly resulted in me losing them due to the journey being too much, not to mention that their advice was very poor… I just can’t put her through the travel knowing that her body is so delicate and I’m unlikely to get real answers.

I desperately hope it doesn’t comes across as me being selfish for not taking her to the specialist - I truly have no positive things to say about the service I received and swore I would never put my girls in their hands again… all other specialists are even further away. 😞

Her mind and will are strong, and she still has a good quality of life, she seems happy enough… not hunched in the corner or anything like that. She’s just getting on with being a gerbil - exploring, interested in the playthings, gnawing, digging about. She’s an absolutely lovely little thing with a lot of life to live.

I guess in a nutshell, I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on with her… 😞

I hope what I’ve written makes sense. Thank you so much for reading.

Any similar stories, advice, medication options, ideas or just something to give peace of mind somehow would really be amazing.

Thank you all 🙏💗

Edit: I have also seen Merry, a few times now, licking at spots where urine has been or is! I don’t know what nice way to explain it but - I have just witnessed her have a decent drink from the water bottle then proceed to her lick up urine that her sister Jingle has just left behind? I’ve also seen her licking the base of their coconut hide - another spot they like to use as their toilet too… (I clean it of course but one of them must have been in it since I did it)… Is there any reason as to why she’s doing this…?

[betty]

Hello there and this all sounds rather difficult and stressful for you both. Unsolved health issues - especially with weight loss - are always so frustrating.

I am not a vet, however when you said about the licking and urine ingestion I automatically thought of kidney issues and/or diabetes (as excess sugars/minerals are excreted in the urine). So perhaps speak to a vet about this as a possibility and get their thoughts. Gerbils are quite prone to kidney issues I believe due to their physiological adaptations for their arid natural environments.

Additionally, I am not sure a scan would need anaesthesia as we scan all my gerbils awake with me just holding them still for the vet. It is fiddly for sure, but they are always fully awake. They are sometimes held close to gas for x-rays and as soon as they are still we take the x-ray and remove the gas and they wake up almost immediately. Like nothing happened. If you aren't opening up the main body cavity (in any animal) anaesthetic risk drops massively to almost zero.

As for the weight loss - there are many ways to increase calories into the body and increase weight where this is possible. However, if there is a digestive organ involved then there needs to be a bit more thought going into the foods you feed than the simple suggestions I may have because both the liver, kidney and digestive tract itself all do better (or worse) with certain nutrients if they are struggling or failing.

You can however maintain a steady temperature in the enclosure (at one end only) and reduce physical effort for her (by scatter feeding highly nutritious shucked foods all over the enclosure and in the nests; increasing water sources; removing ledges and layers; putting the enclosure somewhere with as little human disturbance as possible (even visual)). All of these can reduce calories used by her - so therefore increasing the amount of calories staying inside her. The concentrated foods you offer have more calories per bite so are worth much more than 'empty' foods - also do your best to reduce the feeding of watery, hard, shelled or really chewy foods (all of which waste calories to eat).

It is also great to increase the amount of nuts you give as these are very calorie dense - and tasty - however your other gerbil will gain weight if she steals and eats them all - so make sure whenever you put in anything super nutritious for your poorly girl that you distract your healthy gerbil with something more interesting. Not only will this stop her gaining excess weight, it will also reduce the stress for your poorly one from having to defend her food (= wasted calories) or having it stolen (= no calories).

LilyandDaisy - are there any nuts (or other foods) which would be best to avoid if it were a kidney issue?

[LilyandDaisy]

Apr 17, 2024 10:41:41 GMT -8 betty said:

LilyandDaisy - are there any nuts (or other foods) which would be best to avoid if it were a kidney issue?

Probably only brazil nuts as they're so high in selenium, which the kidneys will need to excrete. Gerbils are so tiny that even a small chunk of nut is a huge portion to them.

[geebtown]

Hi Betty, thanks so much for your reply 🙂

I also wondered if it may be diabetes related so I tested her urine for ketones. It only indicated ‘traces’, basically the bottom of the scale… so perhaps it is kidney related instead.

It has also been mentioned to me that she may be deficient in something… Is it safe to offer her a mineral stone?

Really really glad to hear your gerbils have had successful ultrasounds whilst totally awake! This gives me a lot of reassurance. I’m waiting for a call back from a clinical advisor where I am going to ask lots of questions - so I will ask then if they will allow me to hold her. I really hope they will. I have also had other responses on a German gerbil forum where everybody else also held their gerbils for the procedure, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to as well. Fingers crossed it’s a yes…

Otherwise, it’s fantastic to hear that the risk is so low with gas! I can’t tell you how relieved I am to learn that.

I am keeping their nest area cosy with a hot water bottle that I reheat when needed and for bed time I have a Snugglesafe Heat Pad that maintains a steady temp through the night. The rest of the tank is just usual room temperature. 🙂

I will add another water source as well, no problem. 🙂

Good point on the usage of calories just to eat things that are harder or chewy, I didn’t think of that!

I keep offering her walnut and peanut but she isn’t too keen - she adores millet and sunflower seeds with the shells still on though. Won’t touch the ones that are without shells however. Wonder why that is…? She will also sometimes accept some dried meal worms.

I’ll see what other nuts I can find (minus brazil nuts - thank you LilyandDaisy!) to try her with and see how she gets on. Hopefully I’ll find one she really loves. But yes, her sister Jingle has indeed gained weight… (was 67g, now 73g) and sometimes does try to steal Merry’s snack but rarely succeeds. But like you said, Merry defending her snack wastes calories that she could be storing.

A mixture of ‘Gerri Gerbil’ by Tiny Friends Farm and ‘Twitch’ by Wagg is always available to them in a bowl and then I occasionally scatter a little of Nature’s Touch ‘Gerbil food with Timothy Hay’ - occasional as it’s a new food and I didn’t want to upset their tummies.

Are these suitably nutritious? Can you advise anything to add or change to make it better? 🙂

And, as soon as I noticed Merry was unwell I reduced their bedding, so that is all done. 🙂 The tank is also situated in a quiet spare bedroom where the only disturbances really are just me checking their hot water bottle and such - and if she’s around when I pop in that’s when I offer her something extra yummy to eat, or some CCF. I also try to do it whilst Jingle is still in their bed so that Merry can eat in peace bless her.

I have also weighed Merry this morning and she is back to 50g.

[betty]

Great to hear she is topping up on grams again - always staying the same or moving in the desired direction is where we want to be.

If she prefers high calorie foods in a shell over not in a shell - then stick with that of course - anything is better than nothing (although the is certainly strange as almost all of my rodents will climb over each other to scoff sunflower hearts than those in a shell).

If you can bear it - live waxworms are much more fatty (and usually more tasty) than mealworms - but they aren't easily found dried if at all (in the UK at least).

Those foods are all pretty standard fare - so shouldn't be an issue either way as a background food.

[tanzanyte]

It sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can.
If you do go back to your vets see if they can a) get a urine sample to test for protein and b) if this does come back positive for kidney issues get them to inject a saline solution into the back of the neck. They can then do this either when you start seeing signs of decline or every month.

One of my previous girls had kidney issues and between the injection and a Himalayan salt block she picked up and went completely back to normal in terms of eating and doing gerbilly things. I wasn’t so good at noticing the decline as it happened very fast, but she was 3 so an old gerbil. I wished I’d booked her in every month but the vet thought I was observant enough to pick up the signs. Unfortunately with it being Christmas I left it too late to get her booked in by the time I did notice.

I did have another female who pulled out her fur on her tail and lower abdomen. We never got to the bottom of why but believe there must have been some tumour or something causing discomfort. If it gets worse and she starts getting more of an open wound, we found Flamazine antibiotic cream helped immensely.

I hope you can get her weight back up so it’s not such a worry, but it sounds more like she’s going in the right direction.