Sick Gerbil

[PeteUK]

A week ago or more one of my two gerbils, affectionately known as the mingers, looked to be in a bad way. She looked like she had had a stroke and was not very coordinated. Good news is that in about 48 hours she perked back up and now looks fine.

However since this time I have noticed that the cage develops a smell something like amonia since she was ill. This may be just coincidence but can anyone tell me if the smell is a sign of an undelying condition.

Regards
Peter

[Jiffykat]

Maybe you need to clean the cage. Besides unclean cage, I don't know of a condition that this would be pointing to. Granted none of my gerbies have ever had strokes, so I don't have a lot of experience with that.

[andreaS15]

How old is your gerbil?
I've had younger gerbils who have been seizure prone, so when they come out of that they look terrible, and they don't get around as easiy.

For the amonia smell... have you changed anything in there food? added new vitamins?
What do you feed them?
I don't think there should be anything that makes them smell different other then those. If you have an old gerbil and with the smell shows signs of illness, i would take her to a Vet for a check-up to see if she has maybe diabeties or liver/kindney problems... Though I havn't heard of a gerbil with any of those.

Keep an eye on her, clean out the tank and tell us how she's doing.

[PeteUK]

I clean the Gerbils cage completely once a week and parts of the cage that get dirty I clean in the middle of the week. Not sure if the smell is amonia but before they had virtually no smell at all. As for little Ottway she seems to be fine now and is running around without any problems. The other Gerbil is called Chissit.

Ottway and Chissit the two Mingers :D

[fluffyfluff1]

My first Gerbil, Carla,would have seizures several times a day. When she had the stroke that killed her there was a very, very strong ammonia smell in her habitat.
I miss my little sweety pie.

[PeteUK]

I have been doing some research and this is all I could find could find as I noticed one of the Gerbs was drinking more water than usual. I have been putting in supplements in the water and cleaning then sleeping area every 48 hours.

Link to article (http://www.pdsa.org.uk/pages/page04_5_showa.cfm?q_id=6041)

She seems very happy and runs around and enjoys destroying anything put in the cage, so no change there :D