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The most common form is an infectious disease called Tyzzer's Syndrome that prevents the intestines from properly absorbing water and nutrients, but the name "Wet Tail" generally covers all forms of diahrrea that are life threatening. For more information about Tyzzer's disease specifically, read this article. All forms are extremely serious, young gerbils will often die from it before any symptoms are noticeable. Although it can be treated, gerbils that are in the diarrhea stage will usually die anyway. You can save the cage mates. It is normally caused by extremely dirty cage conditions or excessive stress and spreads quickly.
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*Can be from Tyzzers, which is happening more and more in the US. It can also strike other rodents. Tyzzers can lie dormant for months until the animal is stressed by factors in the environment around it, then go down. To test for Tyzzers they need blood, and because a gerbil is so small they usually have to sacrifice the animal. If you have a lot of animals and start having them go down for no reason for rampant diahrrea you may have to take an ill but still alive animal in and have them sacrificed (the vet will determine) to test. If you do have confirmed Tyzzers you have to treat EVERYTHING you own for it, and any animal ever exposed to yours has to be considered to be carrying it. So if you got Fred the Burmese six months ago, used him in your breeding, then had Fred go from Tyzzers, you have to tell those you adopted those two lovely litters out to they may be harboring. An animal can carry it without showing, and expose and infect all the ones around it without them showing signs too.
Something they ate or secondary symptom of an intestinal infection. Vet trip usually needed for an antibiotic to deal with it. You may also try feeding a drop or two of active acidophilius culture yogurt or the capsuled stuff (open the capsule and mix with a few drops of water and give them some) to help reseed 'good bacteria' in the animal's system every 4-6 hours. Give at least an hour before or after you do antibiotics, or they will cancel each other out, usually an hour after the antibiotics. Yogurt drops are TREATS NOT ACTIVE CULTURE.
Make sure to keep ahead of dehydration. Dehydration, the secondary symptom that lurks, will kill rapidly with diahrrea active
Gerbils do NOT get the hamster 'wet tail'. Gerbils CAN have diahrrea, with wet bottom and stained fur around the rear. Short term cause may be too much fresh food or the like, and the other likely cause is Tyzzers, which comes out when the animal is stressed.
Tyzzers Is a rodent disease that can strike most any small animal (hamster, gerbil, mouse, rat) and is showing up more and more in the US. The UK and European Continent have had it around for a lot longer. There is no way to quarrantine for it as it can lie dormant for many months in a carrier. The major symptom tipoff is diahrrea in the gerbil, serious and unrelenting. Not like the occasional upset from too much fresh food
