Twilight losing fur on her tail

[Miss Z]

Yesterday when I went to give the gerbils a treat, I noticed something wrong with Twilight's tail. She's got a fairly big bald patch about a quarter of the way down it about the size of little fingernail. It seems to have cropped up very suddenly, her tail was perfectly fine the day before.

The skin underneath is fine I think, it doesn't seem to be irritating her in any way and she's acting normal. I've done the mite test and I'm pretty sure it's not that. It's just really strange that all of a sudden she had a big bald patch.

To make matters a little worse, it now looks like it's happening to Nightshade. As yet, there's no big bald patch, but I can just see a thin line where the skin of the tail is beginning to show. Ebony's tail is fine.

I did a little research on the internet, and the best conclusion I could find is that another gerbil has pulled the fur out of the tail. This confuses me, I've never seen my gerbils be aggressive towards one another, of course they have their little squabbles and play-fights, but never use teeth to harm one another as far as I know. I wondered if any PTers would know anything more about this, is Ebony being a bully? Another thing that might help is that I've started to add vitamin supplements to their food, perhaps that could cause it? I am quite puzzled by this.

[Sevaede]

I might watch out for aggressive behaviour. Females are, supposedly, less stable than males in groups of more than one pair. Worst case scenario, with aggression, I would think you might end up having to seperate one of them from the others. But, then, you'd have a lonely gerbil. You could split cage the aggressor but I would think they might be able to fight between it. If you ended up having to seperate one, then you'd have to consider getting another cagemate (as you know, gerbils are very lonely without gerbilly interaction), splitting cages anyways, etc etc.

Most people will not recommend bringing in a new gerbil to an already established colony. However, I think I have seen folks bring in another gerbil when the lone cagemate (in a pair) for another has passed away. I brought in our third gerbil when Rota was recovering from her stroke (she still walks funny but is the sweetest one out of the three!) and did not have a problem. I did have to do introductions but it only took a couple of days and then they were all living together in the same habitat harmoniously.

If you see them rolling in a ball and/or drawing blood, get gloves, immediately pick them up, and seperate them because they are trying to kill each other. *Very* rarely can they be reconciled.

http://www.v-e-t-s.co.uk/gerbils.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/P...9792/care.html (for reference!)

BLAH! NOW! If they are not aggressive towards each other, it could just be an accident. Maybe allergies? I called my vet on the subject (one of the only four out of fifty six in town that work on gerbils!) and they didn't have much to say beyond if it's not SUPER messed up then don't worry about it.

All three of my girls only have half a tail. I don't know why, I have never picked them up by their tails (which is usually the culprit of deglovings). I just scoop them up when I want to pick them up (or when they want it! ). I would just come in and see that they had degloved their tail. However, I just put neosporin on it (per vet advice) every day and they eventually dried up and fell off (the exposed parts). The tail looked dark, almost black while it was healing. Then, after a little while, the skin grew over, lightened up, and hair grew back on it. Their long tails are beautiful but I think their nubs are pretty cute too.

Overall, I think the worst possible thing that could happen would be you ending up having to have a tail amputated and seperating someone. However, I think that is pretty unlikely. I would just watch them and, for now, chock it up to an accident.

Now, MORE PICTURES. I think PTs gerbil population is very small so we need more pics from each gerbilly parent. (I'll have some of my three, playing in the bath tub, soon!)

[Miss Z]

[QUOTE=Wenisrubber]All three of my girls only have half a tail. I don't know why, I have never picked them up by their tails (which is usually the culprit of deglovings). [/QOUTE]

I was thinking of that yesterday aswell. It's possible that my brother could have attempted to pick the gerbils up a little roughly and perhaps it caused some fur loss, of course he would not intentionally hurt them, but being 9 years old he isn't the most patient of people

Thanks for all the info Angelique. It's a strange predicament, she's not in any sort of discomfort and the skin beneath is healthy, it just looks odd to see this bald patch randomly placed in her beautiful glossy coat. If it was Ebony who pulled it out, I find that a little amusing as she is much smaller than her two sisters! I'll be keeping a close eye on her and if she shows signs of any pain then she'll be off to the vet.

Now, MORE PICTURES. I think PTs gerbil population is very small so we need more pics from each gerbilly parent. (I'll have some of my three, playing in the bath tub, soon!)

I'll get some pics soon! It's not particularly easy to take pics of three black gerbils (especially when Miss Ebony Energy is practising for some sort of gerbil sprint marathon ) but I'll do my best!

[Sevaede]

Haha, I understand what you mean. My three are so bigggggg but they're so hard to photograph. I find my constantly tickled with them.