Weird ear lumps?

[bm]

I noticed it first a few months after we bought him. His ears have these wierd hard parts at the tip of them and it grows to look like some kind of dead skin. I really don't know how to describe it. I tried searching all over the internet for some kind of ear disease or infection but information on degu’s is limited and I don’t know where to search. Today he woke me up at 6 in the morning on a weekend with constant squeaking. He hasn’t squeaked that much before and all the methods I had used before didn’t work. After a little while of desperate attempts, he finally stopped. I am worried because I think he might be in pain. The weird skin on his ears hurts him when I touch it, what do I do? I really want to know if it’s serious. This is my first time owning a pet on my own and I’m really worried!

[deguconvert]

Hey Bm, welcome to the forum!

Can you tell us a little bit more about your degu?

What is his approximate age? Is he your only degu?

Are you certain he is actually male? Both male and female degus have a urethral cone, which looks very much like a penis. That cone does not indicate the sex of the degu. Rather it is the distance from cone to anus that will indicate either male or female. The link below will help you to know what you are seeing.
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/13070/degus

Now . . . if he was barking, which is what we call one of the sharp, loud noises they make, there could be many reasons for it. He might have been frightened by something. He could have had a bad dream and called out because of it . . . yes, degus dream. He could have been in pain as you wondered about, though most degus will not advertise that they are ill or in pain because as a prey animal, that makes them a target. OR, if he is male, he may have performed a rather self involved act of intimate cleaning . . . and barking afterward is often the result. In this case the barking can last many minutes, and it is very difficult to bring to an end. (I am assuming that since you were wakened by his barking, he lives in your bedroom?)

Can you share some photos of the lumps you are seeing on his ears. This does sound very unusual, and if he is experiencing pain with them, I would recommend that you have him seen by a vet. You must use a third party photo hosting/sharing website in order to do this, as we do not have the storage capacity to host them here ourselves. If we can see the unusual condition, we may be able to offer more ideas to help you.

[bm]

Hi! Thank you for responding so fast!
ibb.co/m4Ww48g
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Here are the image links, although I hope they work. They look less concerning on camera and he wouldn't sit very still for the pictures but basically the entire tip of his ear has these things.

At the store where I got him from they did say he was male but I don’t know how reliable they really were, so I will have to try and check! And yes, he is my only degu. His cage already feels small and I would wish I could get a better one but they cost a lot so I dont think I could house another degu.

These weird lumps have started to grow in numbers as when he first arrived it was only like 1. Thank you for offering your help with this and I am definitely considering taking him to the vet!

[moletteuk]

I've never seen anything like that before, I would get it checked out by a vet.


Welcome to the forum, you may be interested in our beginner's guide deguworld.proboards.com/thread/19754/beginners-guide-degu-keeping

[deguconvert]

I'm thinking it could be a fungal infection. I strongly urge you to take your sweetheart to the vet!

[teemu]

Yeah, that's really different from anything I've seen before. It could be a fungal infection, like Deguconvert says, or possibly a reaction to some sort of a parasite? Definitely something going on there, and it's obviously not just topical since both ears look like that. Have you been able to carefully check him to see if there's anything like that elsewhere on his body?

It's definitely something that should be shown to a vet. I know this is very stressful and scary, but the quicker it gets looked at, the better the chance that it can be sorted out. If it's limited to just his ears, that's very good. It may look scary and it no doubt causes him some distress, but ears are just flaps of skin, in the end, pretty far away from the actually crucial parts. So I would say that there's a very good chance that if it is seen to by a vet, things will be alright in the end

How long has this been going on, approximately? You say he came in with one lump already. Was it in one ear or both? Would it be possible for you to carefully inspect him under a good light, like a flashlight or similar? I'm thinking you should try to take a look in the fur around his neck area (and otherwise as well) carefully. Like I said, the other possibility that comes to mind is that it's some sort of a parasite or other insect that's irritating his skin, and it's only mostly noticeable in the exposed ears.

I think it is probably an infection or irritation reaction, in any case. It is possible for ears to suffer from tumorous growths, but that would show up in only one ear. Something is obviously irritating the skin around his head...

[teemu]

It's a bit hard to make out in the pictures (absolutely understandably, it's not easy to take pictures of a degu like that!), but are the bumps scabby or rough in any way? One thing that comes to mind, now that I've racked my brain just a bit, is mange mites. I've seen at least one case in rats, and they often first show up in the ears since it's exposed skin that they can attack easily. Is there just dry skin and bumps, or are there any lesions or sores or scabs?

Here are some common skin conditions in rats. Does any of this look in any way familiar? It's a lot easier to find similar conditions for other animals. www.ratfanclub.org/skin.html

Also, is there any kind of crust or discharge in his ears, if you look carefully? A degu's ears are normally rather clean (though they are often black and look a bit spongy on the inside, but that's normal), so a notable amount of discharge would definitely be abnormal and a sign of a parasite or an infection.

[yasmin]

I have never seen white lumps like that before but the overall look of the ears reminds me of vasculitis. The small peripheral blood vessels at extremities like ears, fingers, or toes become inflamed so they don't get adequate blood supply causing the tissue to die and then slough off.

Are the lumps hard or squishy? Do they start small and then grow quickly?

[bouncy]

You may want to try rubbing a little olive oil into the ears for a few days to see if it helps. We've had something similar with another lone goo, and it may be as a result of no grooming help and build up of skin.

[deguconvert]

It's been a while . . . I wonder if there is an update on this little one?