Gerbil emergency! Please help!

[Neocridders]

As you may know,i've had some gerbil problems in the past couple months.
At first they were clicking when held, then I gave them some medicine and it seems to have helped.
Well, over this time they've lost the hair around their eyes and nose. They have icky eyes, some scabby things under their eyes. I was worried about the scabs most of all, but I didn't know what to do about it, since I've yet to find a site that helps and my mom insists that rodents don't go tl vets. They didn't cost much so it would be a waste to pay so muh to have them looked at (yet the same mom tells me that I'm terribleat looking after animals since they die. But all animals die eventually, you know.) anyway, i love these guys, and I have been hoping I'd make them better.

But just now I went to my room to see remus with red fur along his face. He'd scratched his face raw till it bled.

Help. What do I do?
Do i wash him? Do i sit and make him stop scraching?
I just changed his cage before I left to go out of town, so his cage is clean. I gave him food this morning, so he's been fed.

Please help if anyone knows anythin about gerbils! I don't want anything to happen to him ;(


Eta: Just in case you don't know, he's a white gerbil, so red fur is very strange.
I'm on my phone now, so i cannot go check that gerbil site I bookmarked. Agh. Sorry, I'm just wondering if I should stay up to help him, or go to sleep since I have to be up extra early tomorrow.

[Goddesss]

Oh that doesnt sound very good.  I dont know anything about gerbils but I was looking online for something.  I didnt find anything but I will look again in a bit.  I really hope that he starts getting better.

[indigowulf]

problem with an animal that starts scratching something on thier face, they often keep picking at the scab until it becomes a real problem. I have a cat who used to do that, shed tear open the entire side of her face and neck. we had to make her wear tube socks with the toes cut out around her neck to force her to stop.

after checking with your vet, the best thing i can think of is to make thier environment as stress free as possible. that may mean seperating them if they are having trouble. stress leads to agrivation of self-mutulating scratching problems.

if im reading it right and that is the issue.

[Neocridders]

I might separate them. Thanks

[Silvanon]

No, don't seperate them.  Gerbils are social animals, being seperated would cause more stress.  The blood isn't from fighting, fighting results in tail/rump wounds.  It sounds to me like they're allergic to the bedding you've been using.  You need to switch them to something else.  I'd recommend toilet paper for the time being.  You'll have to change it more often, probably every day, but it's by far the least allergenic bedding I've found.  Keep them on that until they clear up, and then start trying other beddings - be sure to switch them to a different one right away at the first sign of allergies or respitory infection.

Speaking of respirtory infection, it almost always follows a bad allergy attack, so go ahead and put them through another round of Ornacylcine to clear up any infection already there and prevent anything else from developing.

[Keilin Alyr]

Speaking of bedding, you're not using cedar or pine bedding by chance? Both varieties can cause respiratory problems and allergic reactions in rodents, especially cedar. Otherwise, it's been a few years since I've had any sort of rodent as a pet, I can't think of anything else that hasn't already been mentioned. Hope everything works out for your little guys.

[Silvanon]

Going to post a few links that you might find helpful for this or any further gerbil health issues:

http://www.gerbils.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gerbils/ailments.htm
http://members.nanc.com/~mhaines/gerbil.html#Medical
http://agsgerbils.org/Learn/Gerbil_Care_Handbook/health.php


Cedar and Pine are the most common beddings for gerbils to be allergic to, but I've had ones be alergic to Aspen (which is normally my bedding of choice for gerbils), Carefresh, and even Corncob.  Sometimes too, if a gerbil has been ok on a bedding but suddenly develops symptoms, you got a dusty batch.  Dust is definitely a gerbil enemy.  Usually once they've developed an allergy to something you can't go back, even if it was just from the bedding being dusty. 

[Neocridders]

Dusty bedding is bad? Oh dear, I did realize this rtime putting the bedding in there was tons of wood dust.

I had some nice wood chips at first, it seemed to do them fine, then we ran out and got some paper looking bedding. Then they got sick, and then we changed to wood stuff. Hmm i'll try toilet paper. Thanks!

[Nako]

Also, what is this medicine you gave your gerbils? I'd be wary of giving any medication to an animal without a vet's say so. Some human medicines can translate over to animals, but not every medicine.

[Neocridders]

Ornacycline, the medicine Silvanon mentioned.
It seemed to help them, so I'm going to give them another packet tomorrow when I wake up, along with new tp bedding.
Thanks a ton everyone. I feel so stupid for being so ignorant about my pets, but I'm happy you guys know about animals. I'm going to go reading those sites so i can figure out my gerbils more.
Thanks Silv.

[Silvanon]

Nako - Ornacycline is an antibiotic that was developed for birds and is sold in the bird isle at pet stores, but it's also effective in treating gerbils (using the "small bird" dosage) and is the over-the-counter medicine recommended for gerbils with respitory infections by the American Gerbil Society in their online gerbil care handbook.  That's where I found out about it originally.  Now I recommend it because my own experiences showed me that it is an effective treatment that doesn't harm the gerbils.

*pats Neo*  You're fine, this is how everyone learns - you try your best to learn beforehand, and then some problem comes up that you aren't sure about and you have to research and ask around.  At least you're here asking about the problems rather than just sitting around ignorantly hoping they resolve themselves.