# What kind if organ failure could this be?



## jetandscampxxx (Sep 9, 2013)

_Sorry about the weird tenses, I wrote this as a past post and kept updating it._

I said hello to my almost 3-yr old gerbil yesterday and he had what looked like wet chinchilla sand all around his mouth and a tiny bit on his nose, and I tried to dislodge it but it wouldn't move, around his mouth is also wet, so is this actually chinchilla dust?
His eyes and nose are a little red which could be him digging in the corner of the cage which he gets quite often,
He's doing this little sneezing thing once a minute or so, which is quite loud, and sometimes does a little silent one and just does the movement.
He seems rather lethargic and I thought he was falling asleep but then I realised he had a red sort of stringy thing is his eye, which I managed to take out most of.
And when he was in his cage I listened closely and sounded like he was wheezing but then I took him out a little later to have a closer look and I couldn't here any wheezing!

I love my gerbils so much so please answer as I will find it hard to go to sleep if I am worrying and I should be asleep now but hi well.

Today I looked at him again and he was on the top platform of his cage in the chinchilla sand with his eyes closed, when I picked him up he was making some kind of clicking sound whenever he breathes 
My other gerbil jet, is fine.
I've moved the chinchilla sand, his food and some water onto the floor with his bedding in, but know he's just standing in the corner of his cage with his head facing the wall, eyes closed.

WHAT COULD IT BE!!! Plz help

The next day I looked again and was about to phone the vet but then realized he wasn't doing the clicky thing anymore and deemed better! Not sure if I should still go to the vets...

So I waited in the end but he got weaker and weaker and the day after that my parents where out the whole night and couldn't take me the next day either. So we booked an appointment for the day after that, on Saturday.

Unfortunetely, but that time he wouldn't move and would shake whenever put down on a surface. He wouldn't walk, or react to any of his surroundings. The vet said he'd had an organ failure of some kind and was preparing to die. There was nothing we could do. So they put him down.

*Scamp Milligan Sloboda-Bolton, you have been an amazing pet for 3 years and it seems like only yesterday I was working so hard doing an hour a day of violin practise to get you when I was 10. You've always been there for me and I salute you.

May you R.I.P*


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## blade100 (Aug 24, 2009)

Sorry you lost scamp.

I think I replied to your original thread you made about him and I said to me the clicking sounded like a respiratory infection. Dusty bedding like shavings can cause irritation to there breathing. Antibiotics such as baytril to name one as there are others would've been needed. 

Dud the vet do any tests to confirm he actually had organ failure?


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## jetandscampxxx (Sep 9, 2013)

No but he said he definitely thought it was an organ failure.
Remember that not all of the symptomps may not have been genuine


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

From your description and progression of symptoms, it sounds like it is quote possibly a respiratory tract infection that progressed to the lungs and maybe affected his heart too.

Im am so sorry for your loss and that there is nothing that could be done.


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## Fluffydd (Jul 28, 2013)

I'm so sorry that you lost Scamp. 3 is a good age for a gerbil.

He may not have had an infection at all. I've had 2 gerbils which developed heart failure as they got and the main symptom was that their breathing was affected. When the heart isn't working properly fluid can build up in the lungs, making it hard for them to breath and causing the clicking sound that you heard. I also noticed that the symptoms would be better on some days than others too. There isn't too much you can do for a gerbil with heart failure. We tried to treat our first gerbil Squeaky as she was only 2 but even with medication for her heart we only had her with us for a few more weeks.


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## jetandscampxxx (Sep 9, 2013)

Fluffydd said:


> I'm so sorry that you lost Scamp. 3 is a good age for a gerbil.
> 
> He may not have had an infection at all. I've had 2 gerbils which developed heart failure as they got and the main symptom was that their breathing was affected. When the heart isn't working properly fluid can build up in the lungs, making it hard for them to breath and causing the clicking sound that you heard. I also noticed that the symptoms would be better on some days than others too. There isn't too much you can do for a gerbil with heart failure. We tried to treat our first gerbil Squeaky as she was only 2 but even with medication for her heart we only had her with us for a few more weeks.


That sounds right... The thing was about scamp was that his decline was so steep we didn't have any time to react to it... One day he was running around, despite slightly lethargic, the next he was eyes closed the whole time, not interested in his surroundings, and the next he was shaking whenever put down somewhere not in a hand or in his cage, unable to move.


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## Fluffydd (Jul 28, 2013)

When gerbils do start to decline it can happen really quickly, especially if they stop eating. We lost our Sparky gerbil over the course of a weekend. She seemed a bit off colour Friday evening. She was much worse the next morning and was having trouble breathing and she was so cold. We took her straight to the vets and got her some antibiotics but it didn't help and by Monday morning she was struggling so much with her breathing that we took her back to the vets and there wasn't anything more we could do for her. He suggested them keeping her in and giving her IV fluids etc but she'd lost her top teeth a few months before and was being increasingly stressed by the teeth trimming that we decided she wouldn't want us to do that and that it was her time to leave us. I suspect that we may have been seeing another case of heart failure there too rather than a respiratory infection.

How is Jet doing on his own? I hope he's not missing scamp too much.


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## StormyThai (Sep 11, 2013)

The only way to find out is to have a necropsy done, anything else will just be guesswork.


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## jetandscampxxx (Sep 9, 2013)

Fluffydd said:


> When gerbils do start to decline it can happen really quickly, especially if they stop eating. We lost our Sparky gerbil over the course of a weekend. She seemed a bit off colour Friday evening. She was much worse the next morning and was having trouble breathing and she was so cold. We took her straight to the vets and got her some antibiotics but it didn't help and by Monday morning she was struggling so much with her breathing that we took her back to the vets and there wasn't anything more we could do for her. He suggested them keeping her in and giving her IV fluids etc but she'd lost her top teeth a few months before and was being increasingly stressed by the teeth trimming that we decided she wouldn't want us to do that and that it was her time to leave us. I suspect that we may have been seeing another case of heart failure there too rather than a respiratory infection.
> 
> How is Jet doing on his own? I hope he's not missing scamp too much.


Jets ok... But I was thinking about doing a separate post on him...
He was always the calmer one while Scamp was the more energetic one. Jet loved to be stroked and would purr vigorously. When scamp was ill he was constantly gathering bedding and running around. When I put scamp into the box too to the vets and said goodbye to jet, he went mad and fled around the cage the fastest I've ever seen him.

When scamp died I showed him the body as apparently this can help find closure, but he didn't seem to notice it, probably because it didn't smell like scamp so he didn't recognise him.

Now however, he clearly doesn't like being held as much and seems very jittery, like scamp used to be.

Although I've always read you should give a grieving gerbil plenty of attention, what should I do to calm jet down? Handle him more, leave him alone?


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