Post by gerbilluv96 on Jul 22, 2015 22:08:35 GMT -8
Hi everyone,
On Saturday, I noticed a medium red patch that look quite raw around one of my gerbils' scent gland. She kept picking at it and since then, it became extremely sore looking and rather deep and infected (I had been bathing it with salt water but to no avail - the constant picking meant it just kept getting worse). I should probably mention that she seemed completely well in herself, her behaviour seemed no different (still willingly eating, grooming, burrowing, shredding cardboard etc.) aside from hunching over to pick at her wound quite frequently. On Tuesday, I took her to the vets and they gave her a shot of carprodyl (anti inflammatory for the pain) and baytril (antibiotic). She gave me some baytril oral to administer once a day for a week (0.03mls a day, such a tiny amount to measure!)
After coming home from the vets she seemed very lively (wondering whether the anti inflammatory relieved some arthritis or something as she was going mad on the wheel, which she doesn't tend to do very often anymore - at 2 and a half years old). She also had completely stopped picking at her wound, which was great. The vet didn't actually say whether or not to carry on bathing the wound, but after seeing her leave it completely alone, I decided I didn't want to bathe her and risk her regaining interest in it after she had been doing so well. I decided that today, whilst administering the oral antibiotic, I would also give the wound a rinse and aim to do it every day at the same time as her medication.
So today was day two of the antibiotic course, and the first day of giving her it in the oral form. I drew up the baytril in the syringe, then diluted it with some water which I had been told to do by the vet. When i tried to put it in her mouth, she decided to gnaw on the syringe and she actually managed to break a bit of plastic off and leave a hole in the end of the syringe. I realise this was no good so I decided to try a small bit of a bread, soak it with the solution from the syringe and then feed it to her. Unfortunately she was not interested in this until I added a tiny bit of honey to it (I realise the sugar content is ridiculous but I just didn't know how else to give her this medication).
I'm new to this forum so I'm not entirely sure how to post photos, but once I work it out I'll upload one of the wound before the vets on Tuesday and a picture from today.
So I just have a few questions:
1) is there a better way to give her the medication, which will be less likely to give her diabetes or make her obese?!
2) Is clouding over of the wound (I.e. It's becoming more white and has a smoother surface than it did before) a good sign?
3) if I manage to get the infection under control, what are the chances that there is still an underlying condition which caused the wound (or at least the irritation that caused her to bite) in the first place - for example a scent gland tumour? (She is 2.5 years old so I suppose it's not uncommon at that age?)
4) does anyone have any experience of these sorts of wounds? How long they can take to heal on antibiotics? What they looked like when they were healing and whether my getbil's wound is going in the right direction at least?
5) is it still a good idea to bathe the wound every day or is t just going to cause her to want to bite it even more?
6) I've been changing their bedding (just on the top shelf where they sleep with shredded up toilet paper) every day to hopefully prevent any further infection - but is moving things around and changing their home just going to be more stressful for her or is it worth it for the cleanliness?
I think that's it for now but if I think of any other questions I'll let you guys know
Thanks in advance!
Gerbilluv96
On Saturday, I noticed a medium red patch that look quite raw around one of my gerbils' scent gland. She kept picking at it and since then, it became extremely sore looking and rather deep and infected (I had been bathing it with salt water but to no avail - the constant picking meant it just kept getting worse). I should probably mention that she seemed completely well in herself, her behaviour seemed no different (still willingly eating, grooming, burrowing, shredding cardboard etc.) aside from hunching over to pick at her wound quite frequently. On Tuesday, I took her to the vets and they gave her a shot of carprodyl (anti inflammatory for the pain) and baytril (antibiotic). She gave me some baytril oral to administer once a day for a week (0.03mls a day, such a tiny amount to measure!)
After coming home from the vets she seemed very lively (wondering whether the anti inflammatory relieved some arthritis or something as she was going mad on the wheel, which she doesn't tend to do very often anymore - at 2 and a half years old). She also had completely stopped picking at her wound, which was great. The vet didn't actually say whether or not to carry on bathing the wound, but after seeing her leave it completely alone, I decided I didn't want to bathe her and risk her regaining interest in it after she had been doing so well. I decided that today, whilst administering the oral antibiotic, I would also give the wound a rinse and aim to do it every day at the same time as her medication.
So today was day two of the antibiotic course, and the first day of giving her it in the oral form. I drew up the baytril in the syringe, then diluted it with some water which I had been told to do by the vet. When i tried to put it in her mouth, she decided to gnaw on the syringe and she actually managed to break a bit of plastic off and leave a hole in the end of the syringe. I realise this was no good so I decided to try a small bit of a bread, soak it with the solution from the syringe and then feed it to her. Unfortunately she was not interested in this until I added a tiny bit of honey to it (I realise the sugar content is ridiculous but I just didn't know how else to give her this medication).
I'm new to this forum so I'm not entirely sure how to post photos, but once I work it out I'll upload one of the wound before the vets on Tuesday and a picture from today.
So I just have a few questions:
1) is there a better way to give her the medication, which will be less likely to give her diabetes or make her obese?!
2) Is clouding over of the wound (I.e. It's becoming more white and has a smoother surface than it did before) a good sign?
3) if I manage to get the infection under control, what are the chances that there is still an underlying condition which caused the wound (or at least the irritation that caused her to bite) in the first place - for example a scent gland tumour? (She is 2.5 years old so I suppose it's not uncommon at that age?)
4) does anyone have any experience of these sorts of wounds? How long they can take to heal on antibiotics? What they looked like when they were healing and whether my getbil's wound is going in the right direction at least?
5) is it still a good idea to bathe the wound every day or is t just going to cause her to want to bite it even more?
6) I've been changing their bedding (just on the top shelf where they sleep with shredded up toilet paper) every day to hopefully prevent any further infection - but is moving things around and changing their home just going to be more stressful for her or is it worth it for the cleanliness?
I think that's it for now but if I think of any other questions I'll let you guys know
Thanks in advance!
Gerbilluv96
I just want to see an improvement already so I know she's going in the right direction! Can't decide which of the pictures looks worst tbh!