# Gerbil with eye half closed



## nina0630 (Feb 17, 2020)

I have four gerbils in two separate cages, two in each. Yesterday, one of my gerbils had one of his eyes mostly closed. I was really worried, I picked him up to get a closer look, and after a couple minutes his eyes went back to normal. The same thing happened with his brother, who is in the other tank, tonight. It only lasted for a couple minutes, so I'm not sure what it could be. Are they just winking? I checked for other signs of an eye infection and I don't see any. They are brothers, so maybe it's something genetic? I'm pretty worried, and I can't find much information on it. I know gerbils wink sometimes, but does it last this long? Please, somebody ease my anxiety!!!!


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## Engel98 (Oct 7, 2018)

Had they been sleeping? Could've been gunk in the eye like sleep.

@ForestWomble any ideas?


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## ForestWomble (May 2, 2013)

nina0630 said:


> I have four gerbils in two separate cages, two in each. Yesterday, one of my gerbils had one of his eyes mostly closed. I was really worried, I picked him up to get a closer look, and after a couple minutes his eyes went back to normal. The same thing happened with his brother, who is in the other tank, tonight. It only lasted for a couple minutes, so I'm not sure what it could be. Are they just winking? I checked for other signs of an eye infection and I don't see any. They are brothers, so maybe it's something genetic? I'm pretty worried, and I can't find much information on it. I know gerbils wink sometimes, but does it last this long? Please, somebody ease my anxiety!!!!


Sorry only just seen this, thanks @Engel98 for tagging me.

For as long as the eyes are bright and normal looking I would guess they just had sleep in their eye. Storm, one of my current boys, had this only the other day, he's fine


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## Susanna11 (May 29, 2019)

I had a female gerbil who used to get gunky eyes a lot throughout her life. Usually they go away on their own, but sometimes I had to gently rub a bit of damp tissue over the eye to open it.

Gerbils wink very quickly, so it wouldn't have been that. By the way, if you haven't before, try winking at them. Sometimes they wink back!


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