Really weird gerbil mystery

[jarviscockatiel]

I'm hoping someone else has had this happen to them and it's not that we have a mutant gerbil!

We have a pair of gerbils, one black, one brown. Both are definitely female and they're about 18 months old. Around 7 months ago the black one started looking fatter so we changed their diet and thought nothing more. About a month later she was enormous, with a massive distorted abdomen but normal head and shoulder size. She weighed 120g to her sister's 70g. The vet thought it was probably a tumour, not a fatty lump and not much point in operating. She continued to gain weight, reaching nearly 170g but was still active, glossy coated and seemed totally normal.

We went away this weekend and came back to find a totally normal gerbil again!!! Normal size and normal weight - 85g. She's lost half her body weight in a couple of days! She's got no signs of bleeding or injury, is racing round her home and behaving totally normally. What's happened- we haven't got a clue?? Any suggestions welcome.

She wasn’t pregnant was she?

No idea but I’m intrigued!

Why not post in the Small Pets section - you’re more likely to get specialist help there.

What about a phantom pregnancy?

She was pregnant, she gave birth and then ate them.

Wierd

She can't have been pregnant for months!?

She can't have been pregnant as she's had no contact with male gerbils and she was like it for 7 months whereas their gestation period is only a few weeks.we considered a phantom pregnancy but her shape was wrong for that. The upper half of her was normal and the lower half ballooned right out.

I thought I'd put it in Chat as there's more traffic here but I'll copy it into Small Pets when I'm on my laptop.

Some sort of fluid retention?

Was someone looking after it for you while you were away? If so maybe it died and they replaced it. My sons goldfish lasted years due to this very thing

Nice thought but no. We were only away 2 days and they were fine by themselves.

No idea but that's weird!

It was a really, really big gerbil fart, bet it flew round the cage when it let rip

Who looked after the gerbils while you were away? Any chance big gerbil died and was replaced with a (not so) lookalike?

Gerbils can get ovarian cysts I think that can get huge. Maybe it was that then burst internally and fluid absorbed back into the body?

Did you also find an 85g poo in the cage?

Hi,
The swelling in a female gerbil sounds suspiciously like an ovarian cyst. Was she pear-shaped, and kind of pregnant looking, like the gerbil in the image? The gerbil in this picture died when the cyst ruptured. When it ruptured, the swelling went down and she appeared skinny again. This might be what happened here, except that the fluid may have been reabsorbed.

Another possibility might be severe constipation, but I've never really heard of this in gerbils. Ovarian cysts are very common though.

Thank you for all your suggestions. An ovarian cyst seems the most likely although her shape was more extreme. Hopefully I've attached a photo which shows her old shape.

Wow, she really was big! Actually that kind of "apple" shape can be associated with heart disease in gerbils (as opposed to a "pear" shape which is more likely to be an abdominal swelling). Still, how she could remain completely healthy and then go back to normal in a couple of days is quite baffling. Perhaps you could ask on a forum like gerbilforum.proboards.com/, because this looks like a very unusual and extreme situation.

The gerbil also appears to have an exceptionally thin tail, it doesn't look normal at all. I think that may be indicative of poor general health.

@GiantGerbil did you create an account just to reply to op or do you just have a scarily appropriate username?

Her tail is the same size as her sister's, it probably looks thin as the rest of her is so large. She's also more active than her sister and has a beautiful glossy coat and bright eyes.

@bobstersmum No, I've had the username a little while, just a scary coincidence!

Her shape looks very similar to a gerbil I saw with a suspect ovarian cyst. We drained a LOT of fluid out!