Just a little bit off to the right....

[winic1]

Noticed yesterday that Chester, who will be 7 years around the beginning of June, now has a definite tip to the right.  He is definitely holding his head a bit sideways, and his body seems a little bit tipped, too.  His right eye is not quite as open as his left.  Both ears seem to be being held a bit more back than normal (upright).  Yet he's eating and drinking normally, and walking around his cage, if just a little bit awkwardly when it's at narrow or transition places (up/down/corners/etc).

He's still on his own in one side of the upper part of the cage.  He goes nose to nose with the three younger boys through the mesh barrier, but they still get so excited and high strung over his presence, we've never tried to let them meet closer than that.  The obsessed boy of the moment (it changes periodically) keeps trying to pee on Chester's face through the divider, and psychotically chases away his brothers if they try to come up to the divider when Chester's there.  So, considering Chester's old, and they're crazy, we have just left things as is.

But now Chester is tipped to the right.  Suspecting he's had a touch of a stroke or something?  Even tho he's eating and drinking normally, are we getting near the end?  Has anyone had an older goo suddenly show something like this, how much longer did they last?  Just wanting to know if I should be getting prepared for it or not.

[bouncy]

I've not had this with a goo, but a hamster. They'd had a fall whilst I was at work and suffered a head injury.

I think someone else had a degu on here a few weeks ago with a head tilt and instability. Yasmin?

[deguconvert]

I have a feeling that he may be approaching his end, but degus can surprise us as you know. It does sound like a stroke, which often results in passing not long afterward.

[moletteuk]

It does sound like it might be a stroke, sometimes they can get some recovery in a few days. The only thing to bear in mind is if there is a chance it could be an ear infection or something else treatable.

[Maravilla]

It can be a stroke, an ear infection, E. cuniculi or have several other reasons. Hard to know. If it was a stroke, immediate treatment with cortisone could help.

Our eldest lady "surprised" us last August with the same symptoms. We went to the vet, tried a treatment against E. cuniculi as the vet (not our usual one) did not think it was a stroke. Nothing happened. We cancelled the treatment as it meant a lot of stress for all of us. At that time, the degu was alone and we wanted to introduce her to two of our other degus. A couple of times we thought she would be dying as her general condition worsened and she showed typical signs of loneliness. There was little we could lose so a couple of weeks after the appearance of the symptoms we tried the introduction. It went well. Her general behaviour got better with every day. Now she lives a normal degu live. She did not recover from whatever-it-was, still suffers from ataxia, but eats normally, fights for treats and looks a lot better than she did when she was alone. We are more than happy that we tried the introduction (even though it meant a lot of stress at the moment).
She is now 8 years, 6 months and a couple of weeks old. A cute, little, stubborn lady!! She's pretty blind and deaf, sleeps a lot, but she knows perfectly how to beg for treats.

[winic1]

Well, he's definitely tipped to the right, but seems to be doing okay other than the leaning. Saw him trying to scratch his left ear with his left hind foot, only he kept almost falling over every time he reached it up, so he went over to the right side of the cage and leaned against the edge while he scratched, to hold himself up. Then, he continued around the edge of the cage, leaning his right side against it, while he walked over to greet one of the youngsters through the divide, until he got his stability back. So, he's pretty smart about how to handle his new lean on life.

Definitely won't even consider trying to intro him to the youngsters at this point, they are quick to move and quick to jump at each other if upset, and I think poor ol' slow tippy Chester would not do well. But they have plenty of space at the divide to visit with each other. I think I will add a ramp to one of Chester's levels to make it easier for him to go up and down, right now it's more of a series of steps, or a narrow log, I think a plain flat wide ramp would be much easier, like the one between his lower levels.

Not what we planned for the old boy, but not so bad.

[yasmin]

My degu Makoto is like this. He had an ear infection – the only symptom at the time was he was scratching his ear so the vet took a swab and it came up very dirty and full of yeast and bacteria. We treated it with ear drops for a day or so when suddenly he developed a head tilt. This happened after an overnight visit with his half-brother Roku (we were trying to re-introduce them at the time – it is possible he had a fall or stroke but we have no hard evidence of that). After that, he was on antibiotics. The infection cleared up but perhaps there was damage to his inner ear – he now has what seems to be a permanent head tilt and often walks around in circles. One of his eyes is partially closed (the only eye open is the one with a cataract) just as you described with your Chester (except Makoto is 4.5 years old, not 7).

At first he was quite debilitated— falling over, falling off things even ramps (we added railings to his ramps and shelves) — but now he has adapted well. He eats and drinks normally and enjoys time out of the cage and visits with his half-brother Roku. The vet didn't think it would be a good idea to let him and Roku live together right now – not until we know for sure that they are getting along together and that they can run the wheels together without Makoto being thrown off.

I hope Chester continues to improve.