|
Post by sofluffy on Oct 15, 2012 2:45:52 GMT -8
How is he today?
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 15, 2012 5:57:47 GMT -8
same as yesterday, he took his meds ok but he fights like a maniac when its time for the baby food, gonna try his with mushy peas and peanut butter later, his wound is same, after talking to my tutor she said dont re-open the wound unless i feel a lump indicating infection, so hopefully he will pick up a bit soon :/
|
|
|
Post by MoonstoneGerbils on Oct 15, 2012 7:14:12 GMT -8
Your vet recommended picking the scabs open for a reason. Cats have dirty disgusting mouths, and a bite or scratch from a cat can cause a serious infection even in a human (look up cat scratch fever) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_scratch_diseaseYour vet should have prescribed a pain killer such as metacam. I suspect that your gerbil has more internal injuries than external ones, as cats often pounce on their victims and have a habit of tossing them in the air. Be careful when feeding him. If he is not drinking on his own, you may need to take him back to the vet to have them administer subcutaneous fluids. Water is the most important thing right now. Do not bother trying to get him to eat food, he will eat or he won't. But if he doesn't get enough water he will surely die. If you pinch his skin and it holds that shape and does not snap back, or it does so slowly, or if your gerbil does not open their eyes he is extremely dehydrated and without fluids will die.
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 15, 2012 7:37:28 GMT -8
i have picked open his scabs, but they do not appear to be infected and they are not healing very well because of re-opening them, and i am giving him metacam, the vet said he wont want to move because he is in pain and if he had internal bleeding he would already be dead, so hopefully he will pick up a bit in a few days
I am managing to get him to take water from a syringe, which he fights like hell against, so hopefully it will be enough for now, he also seemed to lick his mouth clean a bit after i smeared some food on him, so he should be getting something in at least
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 15, 2012 9:55:22 GMT -8
just gone to clean his wound and a few drops of water and noticed a small amount of red discharge from his eyes and his nose, what does this mean??
|
|
|
Post by sofluffy on Oct 15, 2012 10:24:57 GMT -8
I would get him back to the vet ASAP..
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 15, 2012 11:13:45 GMT -8
finally managed to find some info about it, appears to be called porphyrin and is not blood, can be caused by stress, if its an infection then its treated by antibiotics... Im thinking its the stress to be honest, as Im having to clean him up and syringe feed him which to a creature the size of my hand would be pretty scary :/ Gonna keep a close eye on him and see if it worsens, but good news he did poop on me so he's obviously taken in food
|
|
|
Post by johanne on Oct 15, 2012 22:29:06 GMT -8
You are correct about the porphyrins. It would be surprising if he wasn't stressed, lol.
I have to wonder if he's getting enough metacam if he's still in that much pain. Do you notice much difference in his behaviour before a dose to his behaviour a half hour after you give him a dose? It would be important to be sure his dose is high enough to reduce his pain and stress so he can heal. Do you know how much he's getting?
You can keep trying to offer different kinds of foods. Hopefully he'll find something appealing and take up eating again soon.
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 16, 2012 7:20:17 GMT -8
yeah i was really worried about that but i asked the woman who looks after the animal unit at college and she said the same, i was told by the vets to only give him one drop of metacam a day? so im not sure if i can give him more. His behavior doesn't really change after however, he is becoming more feisty though, just gave him a wash to clear off the old cream and he nibbled my fingers as I tried to clean him which is a good sign with him (he does not like to be held and would nibble to be put down) so far he seems only interested in sunflower seeds but thats better than nothing right now. still having trouble getting him to drink though, so im trying the 'little but often' method. Also after a wash and an attempt of giving him water he now has a habit of walking around on the towel, scratching at it then biting it, any clues? Thanks for all your help
|
|
|
Post by meandmygerbils on Oct 16, 2012 8:16:15 GMT -8
Sorry to hear about your gerbil, and hope he is on the road to recovery.
Metacam, with larger animals, can cause internal bleeding and/or diarrhoea as a side effect, and its use can cause liver damage. (With longterm use, I think, it will definitely affect the liver, so often people have to choose this option carefully, weighing up the animal's age and quality of life against eventual outcome ofuse, if the animal is younger, although, in this case, it sounds like short-term use is likely.) So, I think, with animals as little as a gerbil, vets will be very careful when it comes to prescribing the amount of such a potentially risky medication in order to help ease the gerbil's pain against making the situation worse. I'm not sure whether gerbils can tolerate more than one drop, I haven't had any experience of medicating gerbils, if different weights make a difference to dosage at that size - it may be quite a large dosage for such a small animal?
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 16, 2012 11:52:38 GMT -8
Vet told me to use all his meds for 10 days an thats it, an if no change then to go back, so his meds will be finished next tuesday and i have to admit he is slowly improving, so hopefully he will be back to his old self by next week
|
|
|
Post by qtoffer on Oct 17, 2012 1:36:02 GMT -8
I'm glad that he's improving. I'm still puzzled why the vet instructed you to keep re-opening and cleaning his wounds. Were these deep puncture wounds and was the vet concerned about abcesses? If so, why wouldn't the systemic antibiotics prevent that? If you get the chance, could you please ask your vet to explain ?
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 17, 2012 11:28:08 GMT -8
he said its because of the bacteria in a cats mouth, which gets inside the wound and creates infection and pus, so to make sure there isnt any bacteria i had to re-open his wounds, what they didnt tell me was how long for :/ so i did it for the first two days, ive been applying savlon cream to each wound to sooth it and its seemed to work. And the wounds were apparently shallow, which is probably why he is improving quickly now. He now fights me when i have to clean him, today he accepted his meds quickly, and this evening even took to biting the syringe to ask for more water, next is coaxing him back to his water bottle.
|
|
|
Post by steffholmes on Oct 22, 2012 1:06:26 GMT -8
just thought id give an update to nikolai's health well he's been doing great, doesn't like to be picked up anymore and fights against his meds, this morning got him out of bed an noticed red down his side, looks like he lost a fight to a knife, big gash which as far as i can tell is fairly deep, so im wondering if his brothers have been fighting with him, and now I can feel lumps down that side and around his old wounds, so once I've had my interview its back to the vets for me
|
|
|
Post by sofluffy on Oct 22, 2012 1:29:36 GMT -8
I am sorry I hope the vets are helpful and you can get him on a quick road to recovery again
|
|