We’re trying Daniel on a different anti-biotic and

Pro: Daniel is feeling better, more alert and active

Con: he Does Not Like the banan flavour

Someone doesn’t want his eye drop

My vet gave me a tip for if your pet isn’t eating before you resort to force feeding (which is distressing for your pet and you). If you have some wet food you can put a little on their paws and hopefully they’ll groom themselves and accidentally eat in the process.

My little squeakheart 🐀💕

I’m not very good at talking about the degus’ health problems while they’re ongoing, I’m generally too busy being stressed and doing everything I can for them to deal with anything else.

On Wednesday I thought Daniel was going to die this week (spoiler: he didn’t). He was in for a dental on Monday, came round well, ate a bit on Tuesday and then refused all food on Wednesday morning. I went through every type of treat we have. We saw a vet (who is not our usual vet) and just got “force feed him. what else can you do?”. He didn’t even address the fact that there must be a cause for Daniel refusing all food (I spoke to my usual vet the next day and got actual veterinary care for Daniel).

The whole thing was strongly resembling Thomas’s last week and I really thought I was going to loose Daniel. He’s eating independently (nothing that’s his usual diet but right now I’m happy that he’s eating anything) and there’s been some improvement.

Unfortunately the rate at which the tumour on his leg is growing means it’s pretty certain that it is cancer. It’s on too much of his leg for removing only the tumour to be an option, there wouldn’t be enough skin to close up the operation site afterwards, so the only option would be to remove the leg. With it being a back leg this would severely affect him, much more so than losing a front leg would.

All I can do for now is wait and see what happens, spend time with him while I can and regularly remind all of you how amazing Daniel is and how much I love him!

Tobias update: further urine tests still show no sign of glucose so Tobias doesn’t have diabetes and the cataracts are presumed to be congenital. While Tobias will be affected by his reduced vision I’m glad that he hasn’t got an illness on top of that.

Tobias update:

It’s been five weeks since Thomas died and Tobias seems to have been doing quite well with the loss, he doesn’t seem to have been mourning. Tobias is still active and has his appetite.

Tobias hasn’t been drinking much so we went to the vet who couldn’t find anything wrong, not even dehydration! Six days later Tobias developed cataracts, there was no sign of them the week before and there aren’t any of the other usual indicators of diabetes (drinking and urinating more). It’s most likely that the cataracts are because of diabetes but because there is no treatment for degus it was decided that as Tobias isn’t currently struggling it isn’t worth the risk of anaesthetic to do a blood test.

The usual cause of diabetes is diet, however it is also possible to have a sudden onset of diabetes and my vet is confident in saying that Tobias’ presumed diabetes wasn’t brought on by his diet.

I’ve tried to introduce Tobias and Daniel but unfortunately Daniel is too aggressive. Daniel’s cage was moved in to Tobias’ room for a few weeks during which time they only had contact through the cage bars when one of them was out of his cage for a run. Tobias was mostly curious about Daniel, Daniel was aggressive, there was a lot of teeth chattering and trying to bite Tobias through the bars. I had hoped that the aggression would reduce given enough time but after Daniel managed to bite Tobias’ finger and break it Daniel’s cage has been moved back to the room with the other three degus. Tobias’ finger initially looked to be healing well but became necrotic and needed amputating. Given Thomas’ difficulty with anaesthetic I was worried about Tobias but he’s doing well and is anxious to get out of his temporary one level enclosure and back in to his usual cage.

Tobias is on his own for the moment but I’m looking to get some pups to introduce him to. I’m hoping to find a breeder within a two hour drive but haven’t found anyone so far. I’m also looking out for anyone re-homing pups at the right age, I haven’t come across any yet. Ideally I would get the pups from a reputable breeder as they’re likely to be better socialised and healthier. I love my four rescue degus but there was a lot of inbreeding and I’m constantly at the vet with them and I would like to avoid that level of stress with the next degus I get.

Prolapsed penis

Some of this will apply to other animals but this post has been written about degus

What is a prolapsed penis: This is when the penis gets gets stuck outside of the cone, how much of the penis gets stuck can vary. If you don’t know what is meant by cone check out this post on how to sex degus.

Why is it a problem: A degu’s penis is designed to be stored internally, if stuck outside it increases the risk of it getting injured or infected. The end of the cone will also cut off the blood supply to the part of the penis stuck outside. An infection can lead to trouble urinating which could cause a kidney infection.

What could cause this:
– straining to urinate, possibly due to a UTI or kidney stones
– a foreign object getting stuck within the cone
– an ulcer in the cone/on the penis
– a fur ring – this is when fur gets wrapped around the penis and prevents it from being retracted (this is more likely in chinchillas than degus due to the difference in fur)

What needs to be done: The degu should be taken to a vet to investigate and treat the cause of the prolapsed penis. Hopefully it will be a case of removing the foreign object or fur from the penis, some antibiotics to help the swelling go down and the degu should recover well, however if the cause is more serious, for example kidney stones, then surgery will be required.

Photo of a healthy cone and a prolapsed penis under the cut for those who don’t want to see it on their dash.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Thomas has a prolapsed penis (his penis was sticking out of his cone), usually when degus, um, “groom” their penis it goes back in the cone and isn’t visible. Thomas went for a trip to the vet that morning to get the penis back in and I learned how to do it in case there was a next time. Everything was fine for a few hours. Then his penis kept coming back out and I kept helping him to put it away again.

The next day Thomas went back to the vet for some further investigations as to what might be causing the problem – it was suspected that there could be kidney stones which would have required an operation. There was no obvious cause for the prolapsed penis, although they did find signs of the early stages of arthritis on his spine, Thomas had a UTI and was given some medicine to take for a week. His penis kept coming out again and the vet decided that the medicine should be stopped due to the amount of stress it was causing Thomas (he wouldn’t take the medication on oat flakes the way the little guys do and he doesn’t like to be held) and any help from the medicine was likely being cancelled out by the stress. When Thomas wasn’t getting better the medicine was tried again, this time on popcorn, he ate this well and I haven’t seen his penis in days. Hopefully that’s the end of it for now.

Popcorn is safe for degus if it has been air popped and is plain. It makes a good occasional treat and it turns out it is very absorbent and useful for liquid medication.