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Post by Thelodar on Mar 25, 2015 12:55:11 GMT -8
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 25, 2015 13:21:15 GMT -8
Earliest appointment I can get with my regular vet is Monday (the clinic only has one small animal person and she doesn't work until Monday). Do you think it's safe to wait that long or should I try to find a vet at a different clinic?
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Post by Shooting Star on Mar 25, 2015 14:46:34 GMT -8
Check the other gerbils. Those look like fight scabs.
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 25, 2015 15:20:17 GMT -8
Yeah? But would they be up around the ears like that? I always thought they were supposed to be on the rump.
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Post by Shooting Star on Mar 25, 2015 16:09:32 GMT -8
If the gerbil is being bullied (chased), the wounds will be on the rump. If the gerbil is fighting back, the wounds will be around the face and neck.
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 25, 2015 19:22:11 GMT -8
So I checked over the other two (and now have some very wet and angry gerbils). Logan has a wound on his nose (I noticed that earlier today when I went to get Darwin for his skin check but couldn't get a good look). I had a difficult time finding any more wounds but finally found some very small ones on the left side of his face and possibly one on his arm. If there was a fight he was the "winner" for sure, his wounds are nothing like Darwin's. Theo had no wounds that I could find. However I did discover that he's become very thin. You don't notice it when you look at him but handling him it's very obvious. So I gave him some food and it's clear he is having trouble eating, he can't do seeds at all (though he tries for a while). I got him to eat a bit of grape and there are a few things in his seed mix that he can eat, but very slowly. I assume he needs his teeth trimmed. Tomorrow morning I'll be calling around the different vets to see who trims teeth and if I can get an appointment tomorrow or Friday.
I feel pretty awful for not noticing any of this earlier. I've never had problems like this before with my previous gerbils, never a fight, never overgrown teeth, it's all new to me. I don't handle them nearly as often as I used to when I was still in college, even when I take them out to play I mostly just move them from tank to playpen. How long ago do you think the fight happened? I cleaned the tank on Sunday, could they be from right after that or do you think it's an older fight? They've been in the new 40 gallon tank for about a month.
Should I separate Darwin and Logan? If so who should "get" Theo? I've never seen or heard a fight but they spend so much time underground and I don't spend a whole lot of time in my room so I could easily miss it. I'd hate to split them and leave one gerbil alone if it was a one time thing but I'd hate coming home to a dead gerbil way more.
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Post by vexorg on Mar 25, 2015 21:35:38 GMT -8
We find gerbil fight wounds tend to be round the neck, if they go into a ball (we call tennis ball fight) then they teeth are at each others neck or shoulder.
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Post by betty on Mar 26, 2015 1:12:39 GMT -8
I would take all 3 to the vets together so that they all smell the same. I would postulate that the fighting started because of Theos weight loss. Maybe his new weakness has upset the balance you previously had in your tank and there is now squabbling to try to make sense of it all. Gerbil clans need to have order, and so maybe the fighting will stop once Theo is back on top form.
Usually when blood is drawn there is no going back, but your 3 are all still together, with no apparent'loser'. They may be all equally pegged.
However I am no expert on this, but it would seem to have been triggered by something recently. As for his eating, it could be his teeth if they looked overgrown, but it could be an injury to the jaw our something similar. Anyway, once the very has had a look you can make up your mind how you want to progress with your boys. But the longer you leave it, the worse both could get. Make sure you feed Theo some liquid nutrition, he needs to eat a lot of something easy and nutritious until you see the vet. Have you weighed him so you can check he doesn't get any worse, and then monitor when he gets better.
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 26, 2015 3:54:51 GMT -8
I actually don't have a scale unfortunately. It's just shocking that Darwin was so damaged but I didn't see anything, I didn't see blood anywhere, including on him. I don't handle them a lot but they usually all come out at meals. It must have happened while I was asleep or at work and he had time to clean up. I slept with my fan off last night (I usually use it to drown out noise) in hopes that if they were squeaking a lot it would wake me, but who knows, I'm a fairly heavy sleeper.
I'm going to see if I soak his pellet food if Theo can eat it, otherwise I'll see what I have in the fridge that he can eat. I'm a little worried about giving him diarrhea though, is there anything dry I can give him that he'd be able to eat?
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 26, 2015 8:08:37 GMT -8
I've got an appointment for 6pm tonight at a different vet. I'm a bit nervous as it's primarily a dog/cat vet but the receptionist said the vet can trim gerbil teeth. I'll bring all three along but I'll just have her look at Darwin and Theo because there's not much to see on Logan and I'd rather not pay three exam fees.
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Post by betty on Mar 26, 2015 12:12:56 GMT -8
Good Luck - hopefully it is something simple.
(Not sure when your 6 o clock is) but unless you are worried about the scabs being infected - I'm not sure there is much a vet could offer Theo, unless the vet thinks he is in considerable pain from them as there are so many or finds other injuries that you hadn't seen.
If you want to keep an eye on the budget - make this clear with the vet as soon as you go in. Check how much an exam is first for Theo before agreeing to a full priced check - and then ask about any treatments your vet suggests before agreeing to them - sometimes the vets just assume you will take whatever they give you - so don't let them dispense anything until you have agreed.
I'm not saying that you should dispute what your vet says, but ask them to tell you about possible treatments and their costs before they give them to you. Most non-infected gerbil scabs heal just fine on their own without creams or lotions, but if you feel they are necessary - then at least it is your choice and you are happy to do so.
Let us know what they say...
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Post by leafwhisp on Mar 26, 2015 12:48:20 GMT -8
When my gerbils got in a fight we cleaned their wounds and that's it. They were fine. As for teeth, my elderly gerbils teeth fell out and she ate softened pellets and oats, baby food, and applesauce.
Please tell what your vet says.
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 26, 2015 13:26:22 GMT -8
I mostly just want to be sure that they're actually fight wounds and not something else. I asked the receptionist what the price will be when I made the appointment. The exam fee is $68 per gerbil, the only other cost I expect is tooth trimming if that's what the problem is for Theo. I suspect if his jaw is broken or something like that there's nothing they can do about it. Unless Darwin's wounds look infected or they're not actually fight wounds I don't expect any more costs.
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Post by Thelodar on Mar 26, 2015 15:37:33 GMT -8
Alrighty, the vet agreed that Darwin just has scabs, likely from a fight. So I guess I'll have to make a decision there.
Theo has bigger problems. He has no top teeth at all and his bottom teeth were overgrown and cutting into the top of his mouth. She trimmed them (with a diamond wheel on a dremel which was terrifying). She would have liked to get them a bit shorter but was afraid of cutting him, I think they look pretty good, they're certainly not touching the roof of his mouth anymore.
She gave me some critical care that I need to feed him three times a day with a syringe (I just gave him some and he loves it). She said to try baby food and try soaking his pellets (which I did this morning and he wasn't interested). If his top teeth don't grow back in he'll need to be on wet/soft food forever so I'll have to figure out how to try and balance that. Even if they do grow in eventually I feel like he might need his bottoms trimmed again because until his top teeth are back he won't be able to chew anything to file them down.
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Post by leafwhisp on Mar 26, 2015 17:17:51 GMT -8
I had a gerbil who didn't like the soaked pellets. What worked for me was to add applesauce, peanut butter, or the baby food to it to make it taste better. Eventually, when they could eat a little bit more hard food, i added small seeds and oats to it.
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