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Post by Thelodar on Dec 19, 2015 4:05:49 GMT -8
Last night when I went to check on the gerbil I noticed that in one corner of Logan's tank there was a lot of blood. So I picked him up to see where he was hurt and discovered he had injured his foot. I couldn't get a great look because the foot was caked in blood and I wasn't going to try and mess with it, but he may be missing a toe or two. When I put him down and watched him walk he was holding up his back leg and not putting any pressure on it. So I'm not sure if it's just the foot or if there is a leg injury (break) as well. I don't know what happened. He's in a 20 gallon long tank by himself with a water bottle, wheel, and a wooden bird toy that's hanging up so my best guess is that it got caught in the wheel.
Is there anything I should be doing for him or is it a wait and see situation?
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Post by asher on Dec 19, 2015 11:22:58 GMT -8
Unfortunately I dont really think you can do much for the little guy, unless someone else has advice.
A similar situation happened to me. My oldest gerbil lost her toe when it got caught in a very temporary cage. At first it was only twisted and very much broken, but soon after I believe she chewed it off.
Gerbils are tough. If it was just a lost toe he most likely will be okay. Just keep a close eye on it and make sure his cage is safe and usable in his current condition.
Do you have a vet you could call and ask for their opinion or get help if needed? If its broken but not an open fracture they may be able to give him something to soothe the pain.
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Post by t1gg3er on Dec 19, 2015 15:52:39 GMT -8
Your vet may be able to help with pain relief for him. Other than that the best thing to do is keep an eye on it for swelling/redness as a sign of infection (once he's cleaned the blood away) & keep his environment nice & easy for him with food/water easy to get to & nothing he could further injure his foot on whilst he's healing.
They do heal very quickly. We had a nursing mum with what we believe was a broken leg/hip. There was nothing the vet could give her as she was already pregnant with her second litter. We really worried about whether it'd heal in time & how she'd cope with giving birth again but she did really well & had no problems with having her 2nd lot of pups.
Hope Logan feels better soon.
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Post by Thelodar on Dec 20, 2015 4:36:18 GMT -8
Got a better look at it today, he's missing one toe and all of the toe nails and there is a cut on the bottom of his foot. Still not sure if anything is broken, the foot is a little swollen and he's still not bearing any weight. He does appear to be in pain, he's very sleepy and inactive, but hopefully after a few days of healing he'll start to feel better. I guess I'm going to start duct taping my wheels again.
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Post by catnut on Dec 22, 2015 15:52:18 GMT -8
Sorry to hear what happened to Logan-how is he doing today? If he seems to be in pain, a vet could give him a tiny drop of metacam per day. Is he eating/drinking okay?
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Post by Thelodar on Dec 22, 2015 19:53:53 GMT -8
He is able to put some weight on it today, he limps. If he wants to move quickly he'll hold it up and just walk on 3 legs. He is eating normally and drinking a bit more than usual. Now I'm worried because there is blood under his ear-not the same side as the injured foot (so not just blood from his foot when he scratched at himself). So now it looks like something else might be going on too.
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Post by Thelodar on Feb 8, 2016 13:53:40 GMT -8
Just wanted to update. Logan's foot healed up well. No toe nails appear to be growing back but he's walking just fine. I duct taped the wheel and put it back in today. I figured it's been long enough for anything that might have been broken to have healed by now. He's very happy to have his wheel back, I could tell he was getting very bored all by himself with nothing to do.
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Post by catnut on Feb 8, 2016 15:38:53 GMT -8
glad Logan is doing better.:)wheels can be dangerous, I only let my gerbils have when I'm home.
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Post by asher on Feb 8, 2016 19:40:31 GMT -8
Glad to hear he made a recovery!
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