gerbil matted eyes

Question
 Occasionally we have noticed some reddish discharge from our gerbils eyes, but he seemed to get rid of it himself.  Today our gerbil had a dried coating over his eyes.  It was keeping him from closing his eyes.  I took a wet washcloth and gently wiped downward and closed his eyelids until the worst had come off.  His eyes are now visible, but still have discharge on the surface.  We are going to watch him and probably use water to clean his eyes again later.  We are hoping that by getting the worst of the dried on crust off that the eye will clean itself.  Do you know what this could have been caused from? What should we do? Thanks!!  Christina..

Answer
Hello, it sounds like he has some eye infection going on. He really needs to go to a vet to get some antibiotics for his eyes. A lot of times it can be from bedding. What type of bedding are you using? Since he is having problems with his eyes I suggest switching to carefresh, soft-sorbent or kay kob bedding to help with the clearing up of his eyes, since those produce the least amount of dust. There is really nothing that he can take over the counter to help with eye infections. The vet is the best place to go and take him. :-) Good luck and keep me posted.:-)