wobbly degu

[emmalouise43]

Hi I was wondering if anyone has had this problem.
When I got up yesterday my youngest degu honey was fine then she went to bed in the afternoon but when she got up she was very wobbly and fell off the shelf. I took her straight to the vet as she was showing similar signs to the degu I lost last year and was given some medicine. Got up this morning and she's still wobbly but she's taking water from a syringe but no food I'm hoping the medicine helps with that.

I'm finding it very odd that 2 degus who aren't related seem to be having similar problems. I got honey to keep scrabble my other degu company after losing her sister so they never met. Is this some type of illness that they can get the vet last year thought it was pneumonia but yesterday they didn't think it was as it wouldn't come on that fast but couldn't find anything wrong. Scrabble has never had any of these symptoms.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ilikedegus]

Not very positive help, and I am short of time so will be brief and to the point.

Manny suddenly started behaving like this one evening earlier in the year (he was maybe 5-7 years old but a rescue so we don't know).

3 things it could be (our thoughts, confirmed by the vet:

An Infection - you are treating for this.

A stroke

A brain tumour. The vet suspected this as he went downhill very fast - overnight he deteriorated from staggering to being fairly immobile.

If Honey isn't eating, there's a real risk of "gastric stasis" - common in bunnies particularly but I think many herbivores are susceptible. This itself can be a real problem; check for a bloated tummy and ask the vet about it, it can be treated but not always.

I really hope she recovers, good luck and do report back.

[emmalouise43]

Unfortunately like Manny she went downhill very fast today so I rushed her back to the vet and when we got there she was barely breathing and thought the kindest thing to do was put her to sleep. When I got up this morning to give her some medicine she was still wobbly but didn't seem too bad then about an hour later she fell onto her side then her back so I got her out to put in a small area with wood shavings and a warm heat pack as she was very cold. She started pulling herself along on her side, her breathing went quite rattley and I found she was filling her mouth with the shavings.

When the vet checked her last night she looked down her throat but couldn't see anything wrong but said her chest was a bit noisy when she listened to it.

Thanks for the reply

[deguconvert]

I, too, hope that she recovers! I am sorry that she is also expressing similar symptoms. That is very distressing! Hopefully the antibiotics will help. Perhaps you could pick up some critical care to try and feed to her?

[animalmadchloe]

Sorry for your loss xxx

[deguconvert]

I guess I must have been posting near the same time as you did, and as a result I didn't see your most recent post. That would have made my post seem heartless and strange. I am so sorry for that, and so very sorry for your loss. How very devastating for you. My thoughts are with you, hon.

[ilikedegus]

emmalouise43 I'm so sorry - I know it was a real shock to lose our handsome Manny, always in excellent health, so suddenly.

The only consolation for us was that he had not suffered from a long, drawn-out illness, any suffering was short. So take some consolation from that for Honey?

Most people on this board feel the loss of a degu quite deeply, we are all loving "parents" of some amazing personalities and feel the hole that's left behind.

With regard to losing Scrabble's previous companion in a similar way, it's most likely a horrible coincidence.

I hope Scrabble is doing alright. It may be that someone on the boards has some baby girls they need homes for, so keep an eye out if that's an option.

[moletteuk]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I also think that it's unlikely that Honey's illness is connected to Scrabbles's sister's, I think it's just a coincidence as quite a few different things can cause a degu to collapse. It must be horrible for you and Scrabble to lose two degus in this way

[emmalouise43]

Thank you all for the kind messages.

Scrabble seems ok but she looks so lonely to me so I'm currently looking for some recently born degu's to introduce to her.