Sunday, August 2, 2009

Gerbil has bald spots?

My gerbil had one bald spot about a month ago and i figured he might have gotten into a fight with his brother.Just yesterday i noticed that he has a second bald spot.The two spots are below his ears on opposite sides.If you could help me figure out what is wrong with him i would really appreciate it.
Answers:
Well a tiny bit of bare skin right below the ear is normal, but if the bald spots are much bigger than the ones on his brother, then there is definitely something wrong.

If gerbils are fighting, the normal places to see bites are near the base of the tail and on the face, and you would have seen a scab or blood before you saw a bald spot.

He is probably scratching his ears a lot, but there is probably something wrong to make him scratch them that much. Do the gerbils scratch themselves a lot? They may have mites or ringworm. When one of my gerbils had mites, she scratched her ear so much that she made it bleed a bit. If you can see little tiny scabs below their fur, then they've probably been itching a lot. Mites can sometimes get into bedding or food at a pet store and a lot of gerbil owners freeze their gerbil supplies to prevent this. Whatever it is, you should see a vet if you find bald spots on your gerbils. They can give your gerbils a medicine to kill the mites, and the poor guy will be a lot happier if he isn't itchy all over. Even if it isn't mites, something must be making him scratch his ears a lot, and a vet can help you figure out what that is (because it's not normal for a gerbil to have bald spots).

There is a yahoo group for gerbil owners called AGSgerbils, and there are a lot of people who know a lot about gerbils there who are happy to answer your gerbil questions. They might also be able to help you find a good vet for your gerbils.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/agsge...
Have you asked your vet? If there's anything wrong, the vet could probably figure out the problem and the cure.

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