Hi! Welcome to the list. Sounds like an allergy. Are they on pine? Try changing the bedding to corcob with some unscented tissue.
Might be able to wrap them in a towel to give the med(?) Donna ABC Gerbils www.abcgerbils.com --- J Doe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello all, I am a newbie to the list. We have 2 > female gerbils (just over 1 > yr. old, sisters). About 3 weeks ago, we noticed > that they had red > discharge from their noses. We have had colds > recently and were worried > that they may have one also. They were not clicking > or anything though. We > took them to a vet who works with small animals. He > prescribed tetracycline > by drops twice a day for 2 weeks. Well, here is > where things started going > from bad to worse. We have never tried to > "restrain" our babies. We > quickly realized that we were not going to have an > easy time of giving them > their medicine. While we were dosing one of the > sisters, she tried to kick > out of my husbands grasp. We heard a sickening pop. > She had broken her > shin bone. This lead to a return trip to the vet. > He set it and wrapped > it. Of course she chewed it off, but the leg seems > to be healing fine. > This is not the real problem now. After this > episode, there was no way we > were comfortable holding them to force the > tetracycline in them this way. > Our vet did not offer any alternatives, although we > asked. We did some > reading on this site and the American Gerbil Society > page (we are from North > Carolina). We decided to discontinue the vets meds > (they had gotten ~ 5 > days dosing) and put them on Ornacycline. They have > been on this for ~ 5 > days. The baby with the injured leg is doing fine. > No more discharge from > the nose. Our other baby is still having some very > light discharge, nothing > wet, just a little caking on the creases of her > nose. Last night when we > picked her up, she made a new noise. Normally, she > protests being put back > in the cage by squeeking and holding on to my > husbands shirt. However, last > night, she made almost a grunting sound. When she > made the sound, her > nose/mouth moved. We listened and didn't hear any > clicking. We believe > that they had just woken up when we went to tell > them goodnight. She > stopped the noise when we put her down. Whe we > picked her back up and tried > to hold her to listen to her breathing she seemed > irritated with us and > started grunting again. I am terrified, we do not > have children (human) but > these are our babies! Does anyone have any > experience with grunting > gerbils? Could she just be stressed or have an > allergy (causing the red > nose)? Also, she has not had her exercise wheel > since her sister broke her > leg, could the noises be from a hurting tummy or > weight gain, or is she just > so bored she found something new to do? We are at > our wits end especially > since she is still eating and drinking normally, her > coat looks ok (nothing > a dust bath wouldn't help, we held off on this in > case they had an allergy). > I apologize that this message is so long, but I > need more knowledge than I > have currently (I don't know anyone else with > gerbils.) Basically, > HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anything would be wonderful! > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com
