gerbils loss of weight

Question
Hello,  I hope you can help,  We own 2 male gerbils (brothers ) and one of them has loss a great deal of weight.  I did use a pine and cedar mix bedding, but I was informed by the person we got the pair from that their mother was allergic to cedar bedding so I am now only using pine bedding. Snoozer (the sick gerbil) is barely 3 years old and will drink and still does eat but he is not himself. He did have one eye which would stick together alot but that is minimal now and he looked like he had been scratching at his nose (I believe this was because of his allergy to the beddding)  We would really hate to loose him,  can you offer us any help or remedy that will get him back to his usual crazy ways.  When we put a piece of cardboard in the cage he use to run for it but all he wants to do is sleep alot.

Please help,

Gwen Adams

Answer
One more thing, if he's been scratching his nose and sounds a little wheezy then he already has an upper resp. infection. You can go to the pet shop and buy Ornacycline. Its a bird upper resp. medication and follow the directions for budgies or small birds. You must change the water daily when you treat it for this. Good luck!

Ashley