Post by macca on Aug 14, 2009 8:36:50 GMT -8
I noticed four or five days ago that my 2/1/2 year old gerbil, Lunette, was missing a front tooth. She had stopped devouring her beloved toilet paper tubes so I knew something was wrong. I have been feeding her soft food out of hand and she was doing very well, very active, happy, social with her sister, completely normal. Since she was unable to gnaw her bottom teeth were growing too long and I read on this forum that it would be a good idea to take her to a vet to have them trimmed. I took her to a vet that I found in the phone book who treats small animals. On the way there in a little box, she was jumping and scratching, eating the shelled seeds I put in, being her normal self. The vet came in and had a tech hold Lunette while he used a tongue depressor to see her teeth. Luny was her usual squirmy, wriggly self, even putting her little hands on the depressor trying to push it away. The vet said he would trim her bottom teeth and her top would grow back and all would be well. He took her in her box into another room and returned several minutes later with the box and said that before he even tried to trim her teeth or even took her out she just laid down and DIED!
He had no explanation, just that she suddenly stopped breathing and then her heart stopped. I can't believe that in the five minutes she was out of my sight she just died. She was fine, feisty, active, happy one minute and dead the next. It doesn't seem possible. I'm so upset that they did something to her or dropped her or squeezed her or something. I went to the vet with a healthy little gerbil that just needed her teeth trimmed and came her with her dead in a box. Can anyone venture a guess at what might have happened?
He had no explanation, just that she suddenly stopped breathing and then her heart stopped. I can't believe that in the five minutes she was out of my sight she just died. She was fine, feisty, active, happy one minute and dead the next. It doesn't seem possible. I'm so upset that they did something to her or dropped her or squeezed her or something. I went to the vet with a healthy little gerbil that just needed her teeth trimmed and came her with her dead in a box. Can anyone venture a guess at what might have happened?