Chewed up ears

[yasmin]

Three of my degu Peridot's kids (they are 4 months old now) have tattered ears. It looks like they are being chewed on; I see twinges of blood on the edges. Peridot's and the largest kid Meiyo's ears are perfectly intact however. And all of the others in the other cages ears are fine.

What could be causing this? What should I do? The only aggressive behaviour that I see is when I feed them. Peridot is very food aggressive so I now have multiple bowls in the cage but I have never seen her bite any of her kids or any of the kids bite each other. Other than that they get along fine, or so it seems.

[listracian]

Watch when they are grooming just to see if they are being a little rough when doing so. When mine were babies Spice had the end of her tail chewed off by the other older ones and I have no idea why. I moved her out for a small amount of time with some of the others then put them back a couple of days later and nothing else happened. It was really random but I don't know if you have the time to try it?

[deguconvert]

I also wonder if it is a case of extreme grooming?

[yasmin]

The cage I have can be divided in two (top half/bottom half). I could separate the three with the tattered ears from Peridot and Meiyo, assuming it is one of them that is doing this. Or maybe just two of them with tattered ears – that way I can see if the one still with Mom and Meiyo continues to have chewed ears.

How long can I keep them separated before they won't be allowed all back together without the introduction process? A couple of days?

[deguconvert]

I actually don't think there is a need to separate them at all. I'm sure it must be distressing to see the tattered edges of their ears. However if these are not sore, or bleeding, and are not causing distress of any kind to the degus, I wouldn't change things if all else is happy and good.

[yasmin]

I don't want to split them up either, and all does seem happy and good otherwise. It's just that the edges of their ears look so raw. No infection though as far as I can tell, and no swelling. .

Wish I could figure out who is doing it. If I do split them up for a day or so, will it be a problem reintroducing them? I am worried that the ears will never have a chance to heal properly if this continues.

[listracian]

When I took spice out so she could recover a bit I had no issue reintroducing her. She wasn't pushed out by them so they just accepted her no problem so I don't think you will have an issue if you do take them out. Just keep an eye though because if you keep an eye on them you will eventually find out who it is.

[yasmin]

Well, I've had to separate them.

I spent the last hour and a half watching/cleaning them and sometime during that both Rei's and Jin's ears have once again been, what looks like, chewed on. I didn't see it happen and saw/heard no fights or squeals of protest – but both of them now have bleeding ears. So, now Rei and Jin are in the top half of the cage and Peridot, Meiyo and Gi are in the bottom half. I'll keep an eye on them and see if they become stressed out or not. If not, I will leave them like that until tomorrow evening. I will also see if Gi's ears get chewed on or not. Crazy degus!!!

[deguconvert]

This is a real puzzle!! I've never heard of this kind of behavior before. I'm genuinely perplexed!!

[yasmin]

Yeah, a nasty puzzle indeed.

So, yesterday I put them all back together and there was Meiyo asserting her dominance on poor ragged eared Rei and Jin. She mounts them then starts, what looks like either grooming or biting, them on their neck. Maybe sometimes she gets their ears as well, I don't know yet. They don't fight back; they don't seem to mind. I would rather leave them together because they seem to all get along but when is it so detrimental to their health that it's better they be separated? The ears look awful and I feel like a negligent mommy that let's her babies be bullied by their siblings.

[deguconvert]

Well . . . if they are happy and not fighting back . . . I think it is better to leave them all together. It does sound like a strange course to take in some ways, but they really will be much happier as a large community than as a broken one.

[moletteuk]

Perhaps you could try putting some cream on the ears, preferably something that tastes bad. Johnson's do a small animal tea tree pet cream, don't know if that's available in Canada or something similar, or maybe just some E45 cream. I wonder if aloe gel would be safe?

[deguconvert]

You shouldn't use the teatree on the degus. I could be totally off, but I think it can have toxic properties in degus. Vit E cream is good . . . as are the zinc creams you can use on baby bottoms.

[yasmin]

So, I get home last night and check on my goos and now one of my boys, in a different cage, has a chewed up, raw-looking ear. This is becoming an epidemic! Am I raising an army of flesh-eaters?!!

I'd rather they stay together too so I will take your advice and find some sort of cream to put on the ears. I need to stop the carnage! Thank you for your support and suggestions; I truly appreciate all of your help.

[yasmin]

I have made an appointment with the vet just to rule out mites or fungus or any other reason why this might be happening. I will take Rei who has damage to both of her ears.

Also found blood in the lower level of the boys' cage. No one looks injured in there but the one whose ear looks chewed on is squeeking alot. He sits under the wheel and squeeks – not an alarm squeek – more of a subdued squeek, squeek, squeek. When he's not under the wheel, he acts normally interacting with the others in the cage.

[deguconvert]

Do let use know what the vet says? I am interested to learn if there is something more to the ear chewing than can be seen with the naked eye . . . or speculated on in terms of dominance etc. Perhaps you should take the boy that is squeeking from beneath the wheel as well?

[Karma]

Bitter apple has a spray that can be used by small animals to inhibit biting. We've used it at store when they decide they want to eat our floor pen edges (some hard plastic ledges) and it works on most animals (even the degus) but has to be reapplied every day.

[yasmin]

Took Rei to the vet today. He thinks it might be vasculitis. He didn't see any mites and the way that the ears are tattered are not indicative of fungus, infection, extreme grooming or injury. He says that the edges are dull making it look like vasculitis – an inflammation of the veins in the peripheral regions like edges of ears, toes, tips of tails, etc. The veins inflame and cut off blood supply to the edges of the creature, and that piece of flesh/skin just fall off. He told me not to be freaked out if nails and tips of tails fall off the affected degus.

He said he was going to do further research and call me if he discovers anything else. He also encouraged me to ask members of this forum if any of their degus have been diagnosed with this. (I'll start a new thread for this.)

There isn't anything I can do about it except put polysporin, Vit E cream or Aloe on the area. It is not painful for the degu; it just looks awful. It is also not contagious.

Any comments? Thoughts?

[deguconvert]

WOW!! I've not heard anything about something like this . . . and yet . . . I can't say that definitively. When I read the name I knew what you were refering to, which kind of surprises me, so perhaps I've come across it before but it didn't rise to the surface of my memory. As I'm thinking of this, I believe a friend of mine had a cat that suffered from this years ago. I'm wondering . . . could an anti-inflamatory cream gently rubbed into the ears each day help to reduce inflamation in the veins and therefore reduce loss of tissue?

[yasmin]

My vet said that it's probably an autoimmune disease and that there is no cure for it. I checked online – if a human has it, they are given prednisone (a gluco-corticosteroid) to keep it in check. Maybe an anti-inflammatory (steroid-based) cream will do the trick; I should ask the vet. Interesting about your friend's cat, deguconvert (the vet told me he had seen something similar to this in cats); I will check my feline medical books and see how they treat cats for this. Thanks.