Fist off, thanks for the rapid replies! They are on aspen. They have been on this since we got them. They have been doing a lot of burrowing. They only things they get for bedding etc. are aspen, timothy hay, small brown paper lunch bags and toilet paper tubes. All of this is stuff they have always gotten. The vet only looked in their noses. He did not use a stethescope or anything. He didn't even hold them up and listen to them. I have really felt like I overreacted (by taking them to the vet) and this lead to a horrible chain of events. We have tried holding them with a towel but have had no luck. We do not want to re-injure the broken leg. That is why we went with the advice from the gerbil care page (I think it was the US Gerbil Society.) In everyones' experience, how long does it take a gerbil's leg (back) to heal completely? We have heard everything from 2 - 6 weeks? Do you think it would cause many problems if we took the one out and put her in another cage for a while each day to let her have the wheel? They have always been treated as equally as possible and it didn't seem fair, but I don't want to cause additional health problems. I actually just got a comment from a coworker on how gerbils were strange pet to have (unless you are six years old.) We are both 27 and have no children or other pets. Does anyone else encounter this type of comment? Gerbils seem to get very little press at all and what they do get is under- rated! I love them more than I ever thought I would! Maybe that is why I am so worried.
>From: ABCgerbils <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: J Doe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: Newbies Need Help!!! At wits end!!! >Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 11:19:22 -0800 (PST) > >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 _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
