Hi list-
The gerbil I posted about recently who was experiencing the ongoing
sneezing, Athena, just died. She was out running on the bed with her
sister, and all of a sudden I heard a noise that sounded like a really wet
sneeze. I looked over and there was blood streaming from her nose. She
tried to wipe it for a second and then jerked over onto her side and
started bleeding from her mouth and one ear as well. It was all over in a
matter of 30 seconds or so. I'm not sure what the volume of blood inside a
gerbil is, but judging from what was on the sheets, on my hands and on her,
there couldn't have been much left inside.
Over the last 3 days or so her sneezing had pretty much stopped, but her
breathing was noisy. Not "clicking" or sick noisy, but whistly- like
something was stuck in or blocking her nose. We brought the body to the vet
already, and luckily the vet on night duty was a small animal vet I seen
before and she gave 3 possibilities for the cause- 1) an infection that
developed in the area between the nose and the brain that grew and caused
something to rupture, 2) a tumor in that same area that would have caused
the irritation that brought on the sneezing and whistling and grew to a
size that make something rupture or the tumor itself rupture, or 3) a blood
clot in the nasal/brain area.
If anyone has ever seen or experienced this please let me know, as I would
really like to know what happened to her. I'm thankful she didn't suffer
long, but it was awful for me to see. Today we also got the ashes for
Sappho back (she was put to sleep last week and we had her cremated) so it
feels like a double-whammy right now. Please let me know if anyone has any
thoughts on what could've happened. Thanks for reading.
Jill
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