About ten days ago I took Degu Baby, Myandi, and Paprika to the vet bacause they were sneezy and their right eyes were bald. I wish I had not gone...all of my darlings suffered. I began this horrible day by trying to gather all 3 of me sweeties into a carrying cage. As you all know degus cannot be grabbed unless you want bitten, but rather, you must lift them. Degu Baby is extremely good about hopping onto my arm and being placed in the carrier. Myandi cautiously approaches my arm but would perfer that I not do this, still I transferred her to the carrier as well. Paprika approaches with a bit of fear and eventually hops onto my arm but only after her cagemates have been removed.
I have read that degus can become sick from people...I now believe it. My daughter had a bad cold/flu for three days when my degus began to sneeze! All 3 degus also had what I assumed to be mites around their eyes (only their right eyes!) as the hair surrounding them was becoming scarce by the day and all 3 of them had bald feet! So....I set an appointment with the vet that has proven very knowledgable and trust-worthy.
Upon watching my third little degu hop into the carrier, she went into panic mode and jumped straight up and out of the carrier that I was holding chest high! She landed on the carpet and darted for the kitchen. I placed the carrier on the cage hoping to attract my little runaway with her cagemates in it. I tried a dozen times to scoop her up but every time I got about one foot high with her...she jumped.............on my last attempt I got over two feet with her. I tried to stop her from hitting the floor so hard by reaching quickly for her and I caught her in mid-air. She shrieked as though I was killing her and in the blink of an eye she squirmed out
to where I was only holding her tail. I went to let go and already was left holding the last inch of her de-gloved tail!!!! I was crying so hard and still I had to capture her. She was leaving blood spots everywhere. She looked as though she was going into shock... I know I was. How could this be happening to me.. to my babies!?
I threw a white towel over her and scooped her up and placed Paprika in a different carrier and sped to the vet.
Upon arriving in our room, I put both carriers on the vet's exam table to look at my babies...all 3 were in shock! I could pet , push, and hold any of them any way I wanted! The vet and his tech had to anesthetize Paprika to shorten her tail an inch and cauterize the end of her tail. They took Myandi out of her carrier by using the white towel so as not to get bitten....Myandi began shrieking like she was being killed and suddenly her nose began bleeding profusely!! The vet's tech quickly placed her in a enclosed see through basket to leave her alone....he said that just bringing them in to be seen has put them into shock. He didn't touch Degu Baby.
I was given Ivermectin (once, ten days apart) and Septra "SMZ-TMP" (twice daily for ten days). I also had to keep Paprika seperated from the others......it took me 4 months to get them to live together!
Well, it is ten days later. I could not administer the med's directly so I mixed it in oatmeal...seems to work, mostly. Sneezing is gone, eyes are still bald, and getting worse on Degu Baby. They seemed to miss Paprika so I tried to place her back with her cagemates...one of them rejoiced to see her home again...the other kept sniffing her and after half an hour she went into an absolute attack mode! Fur was flying, shrieking as though they were both trying to kill each other, and tumbling everywhere!! I hit the cage to break them up. Degu Baby ran to the center of her cage and did I weird squeal that sounded like," Ooooooooooooooww", 3 times. and was bleeding.....Dear God, why me and my babies! Now it is Degu Baby that is living alone in the seperate cage, she lived in there for 4 months and became very depressed but would not accept the two younger ones...now she is alone again, and is already depressed. I and my degus would have been better off to have NOT gone to the vet. How am I going to get them together again? They seem to hate each other now.
Chilla, our female
Casper.
I'd let them all recover and then try reintroducing baby degu to the other two again. As for the eyes i'd ring your vet and see what they say. If it is mites it is rather odd it has only attacked certain areas, i.e the eyes and feet which makes me think there might be another cause!?
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