Sick Gerbil..

Spliffany692000

Hey

I have a two year old gerbil (Joan).
I rescued her from a gerbil sanctuary a few months ago so it is impossible to know her medical history. I noticed tonight that her belly is very swollen and soft to the touch. She got quite stressed and agitated when I gently pressed it.
She is also dropping urine which she hasn done before. I would be grateful if anybody would write back to this post and give some sort of insight as to what is going on. I know shes not preggers as she is in a cage on her own! Thank you for your time

Tiffany

Our man in Havana

Its not something I have seen before hun - I would take the gerbil to the vet asap - 2 years is a very good age especially if you did not know how old the gerbil was when you got it.

If the lump is painful it could be an abcess or worse a tumor. Lots of the small rodents can get tumors of their reproductive system etc.

Please keep us informed hun.

Spliffany692000

Shes going to the vets on thursday to get treated for mites...Ill be sure to let you know what the story is. Thanks for replying Im going mad incase shes really sick...Im only to happy to accept I gave her a good last while...but she aint dead yet so maybe I can give her a few more months of happiness!

Sigma Force

Hi, have pmd you. Some of the info on critters on my computer was wiped when doing a clean up, can you remind me how old was Joan again when she was homed to you? Her age was given to me by her previous owner who had her since she was a baby so it should be spot on, it might not be an age thing though.
It could be anything if you can possible get her to a vet sooner, for the mites the vets will give her ivomectin, I found the pet shop mite spray for gerbils worked a lot better though. Even the best looked after critters can get them and they are such a pain to try and get rid of, in the mean time mabey use something like newspaper as bedding and change it daily to keep them at bay.
Baytril is the most commen antibiotic used and Metacam (sp?) would be the most commen anti inflamitory.
Let me know how she gets on :-)

hadook

If your gerbil shows signs of illness then it's time to go to the vet asap - not leaving it til Thursday. Gerbils are prey animals and hide any minor signs of pain/illness.

I had a gerbil with some similar symptoms (sudden listlessness, hard feeling abdomen etc) a couple of years ago that ended up dying while undergoing an emergency hysterectomy due to a growth. The surgery didn't kill her - a related infection had led to peritonitis (sp?) and the vet just wasn't able to save her.

In that case there were a lot of complications that led to her death but I brought her to my own vet within hours of seeing signs that she was unwell (we had a trip to the emergency vet at 1am to get her painkillers and antibiotics before getting to my own vet at 9am the next day) & that's how far things had advanced before she showed signs of illness.

Spliffany692000

Thank you so much for all your replys...
She is running around today being her usualy mad self (rite now shes rippin a cardboard box apart with great amusement!) Ill be taking her to the vet asap and will be getting her mites treated!! Ill keep ye all posted on whats going on with little madam!!

genegenie

How's little Joan doing?

Spliffany692000

Hey All,

Im very sad to say Joan passed away on Thursday night. She was brought to the vets and given a shot a few minutes later she took a really bad turn and coundn walk. I decided to put her to sleep. As sad as it was I felt it was the best thing for her. Thanks for all your help and conern guys.
Tiffany xxxx