Wet Tail is a very misused term in the small animal world and is often used to describe any type of diarrhoea in hamsters and other rodents.
I don’t mind this actually – as it means that due to the high mortality and amazingly contagious nature of the true illness called wet tail – it means that animals showing signs of diarrhoea all get taken to the vets for urgent treatment – which has got to be a good thing?
Symptoms of Wet Tail in hamsters include:
- Having a Wet Tail – obvious right?
- Giving off a really bad smell – (gut not working)
- Noticing really runny stools in the cage or tank
- Losing their appetite – (they are in pain after all)
- Lack of energy – (they aren’t getting any energy from their food)
- Hunched up back – (their gut is super swollen)
- Raised tail – (it makes their bum sore)
- Folded ears, runny nose or eyes – (signs of stress)
- Sunken eyes – (due to dehydration)
- Crying out in pain – (well, due to being in pain)
- Biting you when you go near them – (a classic sign of pain in most rodents)
True Wet Tail in the small animal world is a disease of hamsters thankfully – so is not commonly found in pet gerbils – but that doesn’t mean that your gerbils can’t get other illnesses that have similar symptoms.
Gerbils can technically ingest the bacteria that causes Wet Tail through cross-contamination and have it in their bodies in low amounts, however, it isn’t known to trigger the same effects as easily as it does when found in hamsters.
Watch out though: Gerbils, however, are prone to a similar-acting infection of Clostridium piliforme – know as Tyzzer’s disease which results in almost the exact same symptoms as above but potentially even more devastating.
It is incredibly contagious and hard to wipe out (whole kennels can be lost) so should be diagnosed fast by a vet if you want any chance of stopping it. It 100% requires a fecal sample for a PCR test (so don’t accept anything less from your vet if you have more than a few gerbils at home) and a good vet will also use specific testing for this disease including post mortem cell testing from those gerbils already lost.
Known throughout the gerbil fancy – this isn’t something you want in your kennel.
How do these bacteria make animals ill?
Animals have a certain amount of bacteria living in them all the time – just like us humans – and when we are healthy and all our body parts are relaxed and acting normally – these don’t affect us. Our bodies keep them in check pretty well.
However, when the animals are under biological stress (having to contend with other things like different foods, or another illness) their bodies are not working normally and they are technically ‘not healthy’ anymore. As a result, these normally suppressed bacteria multiply rapidly (as they aren’t being kept in check by the body) causing intestinal inflammation.
This inflammation affects the body’s ability to digest food and re-absorb water – basically closing down the gut and turning it into a chute. And with nowhere else for the food and water to go – it all becomes a very watery diarrhoea and exits pretty fast…
Both Wet Tail and Tyzzer’s are fatal to that individual animal if not treated immediately with a course of specific antibiotics and hydration.
As these bacteria are expelled from the body too – these infections are also highly contagious (passed on through contact with the faeces). Anywhere this waste has touched – or that you have touched after contact with your gerbil – will leave these bacteria sitting around – and they can lay dormant for up to a YEAR if not killed off).
As a result, any animal who then comes into contact with these bacteria (for example gets them on their coat and grooms them off) could ingest enough of these to start the process all over in a new host – and it doesn’t need to be another hamster or gerbil?
Both Tyzzer’s disease and Wet Tail can transfer to other animals – even crossing the species barrier. These bacteria can both affect other mammals – including humans – in different ways.
Basically if you don’t clean and sterilise your own skin after touching infected animals – you could well be ingesting their infected faeces yourself later that day…
Erggh, right? And you wonder why vets wear gloves!
Wet tail (or the bacteria that cause it) is also very common in ferrets, horses and pigs; and the bacteria that cause Tyzzer’s in gerbils can also affect mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs as well as hamsters.
They are called contagious zoonoses for a reason!
So – what is Wet Tail?
Wet-Tail is the term used by veterinarians to describe a serious bacterial infection of the ileum – the small intestine in hamsters – usually found in young hamsters which have recently been moved about or homed.
It is very painful for a hamster, as the intestines become quite inflamed – many hamsters will hunch right up and may even squeal in pain from this.
The bacteria that cause this (usually Lawsonia intracellularis) are common in hamster guts and are found in their intestines all the time. They are however, in very low levels, not doing much in a healthy animal.
But, after a period of biological stress which can weaken the animal’s natural defences – like moving to a very different environment, being given too much different food, surrounded by too much noise or heat, or being separated from their mum too young – these bacteria can suddenly multiply into a life threatening number and start to make the animal very unwell.
Wet Tail is always fatal without treatment (specific antibiotics) as these bacteria don’t just disappear – they only increase in numbers. If you hear of a hamster surviving ‘wet tail’ without antibiotics – it didn’t have wet tail – it just had a mild form of diarrhoea.
Although diarrhoea for a small mammal is still bad in itself, these two things are not the same biologically.
As with all cases of diarrhoea, Wet Tail treatment needs for the animal to be re-hydrated and kept hydrated using electrolytic fluids (these are chemically designed to stay in the body for longer by being bonded to essential molecules) not just ordinary water – although water should never be withheld from any animal with diarrhoea.
If treatment is started early enough, and followed up with the correct aftercare AND everything in contact with the animal completely sterilised or replaced – the animal could well recover and no more of your pets should become infected.
Obviously, any case of diarrhoea should follow this pattern – but only a test result showing the Lawsonia bacteria present will identify it as true Wet Tail (or tell you for sure whatever other infection it might be).
Always assume it IS rather than assuming it isn’t – your hamster’s life depends on it!
Tyzzer’s disease in gerbils:
Briefly, this disease is always associated more with gerbils than with hamsters – even though they are so similar.
Tyzzer’s is an acute epizootic bacterial disease is widespread among small animals and gives very similar symptoms to Wet Tail – with the same fatality results unfortunately.
If your gerbil has mildly soft stools, seems a bit ‘off’ or is sleeping a lot more than usual – don’t assume it is Tyzzer’s disease and panic, but do keep an eye on them for the next 48 hours. (However, if you have a large kennel – then certainly isolate this gerbil/gerbil clan immediately and clean thouroughly as you would anyway as a precaution.)
However, if you start to notice really smelly liquid stools in your tank or on your gerbil; he is walking funny or not at all – maybe with a hunched back or holding his tail up – take them to the vets as soon as you can accompanied by a stool sample in a pot.
A quick check at the vets can be life or death – small animals showing they are ill is a real bad sign – and a dehydrated small animal showing signs of illness is really in trouble.
And remember, there are many different bacterial, fungal and viral conditions in animals that can also make humans ill, so checking out your pet first is the best move for everyone.
Then wash your hands thoroughly…