Post by tangerine on Dec 14, 2014 9:38:53 GMT -8
I posted yesterday about one of my gerbils having a respiratory infection - unfortunately he was too far gone to be helped by antibiotics, and passed away last night. The morning before this I had put him back with his brother. Initially when I noticed that he was ill I separated them, but I put them back together because the ill gerbil was colder to the touch than normal as he couldn't keep himself warm, and I didn't want to stress either of them out if I could help it.
However I was just with the remaining brother now, and noticed that his fur is more ruffed up than usual and he has a red nose. He may or may not have a bit of a red inner ear, perhaps that's just whatever way I looked at him but he was scratching at his ear a bit too. Again, perhaps that's just me being paranoid. I plan to wash out the tank and replace the bedding with a different brand of bedding - however I have been using it for 2 weeks, and only recently have had a problem, so it may be unrelated to the bedding and hay. However to be on the safe side I've decided to change it as soon as possible, and as soon as possible is Tuesday. My gerbil, Joel, is bright-eyed and perfectly functional, if a little more skittish than usual, though that may have something to do with him missing his brother's company and confused about where he is. When talking to the vet she said that if I noticed the other gerbil has gotten sick that I can give him the antibiotics initially prescribed to the gerbil that just passed away, as they are just general antibiotics (Baytril, I think.).
Should I start my gerbil on the seven-day course of antibiotics just in case, or should I not? I'm afraid of losing another gerbil, and don't want that to lead me to making a bad decision. Would giving the antibiotics for a week unnecessarily lead to any problems, if it so happened that he hadn't caught the respiratory infection that his brother had? (The brothers were snuggled up together, very close, and Joel had groomed Sid during the time he was very ill, so could he have caught the RI?)
Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you
However I was just with the remaining brother now, and noticed that his fur is more ruffed up than usual and he has a red nose. He may or may not have a bit of a red inner ear, perhaps that's just whatever way I looked at him but he was scratching at his ear a bit too. Again, perhaps that's just me being paranoid. I plan to wash out the tank and replace the bedding with a different brand of bedding - however I have been using it for 2 weeks, and only recently have had a problem, so it may be unrelated to the bedding and hay. However to be on the safe side I've decided to change it as soon as possible, and as soon as possible is Tuesday. My gerbil, Joel, is bright-eyed and perfectly functional, if a little more skittish than usual, though that may have something to do with him missing his brother's company and confused about where he is. When talking to the vet she said that if I noticed the other gerbil has gotten sick that I can give him the antibiotics initially prescribed to the gerbil that just passed away, as they are just general antibiotics (Baytril, I think.).
Should I start my gerbil on the seven-day course of antibiotics just in case, or should I not? I'm afraid of losing another gerbil, and don't want that to lead me to making a bad decision. Would giving the antibiotics for a week unnecessarily lead to any problems, if it so happened that he hadn't caught the respiratory infection that his brother had? (The brothers were snuggled up together, very close, and Joel had groomed Sid during the time he was very ill, so could he have caught the RI?)
Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you
