Mucus on eyes, eyes closed, moving slowly

[nauticalamity]

update 2/2/16: blitz is doing much better! i've set her tank next to crowley and the twins' so she can observe them and it seems to helping as she'd still had no idea how to chew the tp tubes & now she's learning.
her poop has gone from too small, to regular, to huge, sticky, & smelly - which is my concern. i think it's due to so many liquids, from her food paste & from water (she drinks from her bottle in addition to the paste the vet ordered). we go back to the vet on the 24th.
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Hello, on Tuesday evening I picked up a new gerbil from someone who couldn't take care of her anymore, and hadn't been handling her. My sibling and I dubbed her Blitz; she's about 4 months old and extremely skittish. Her previous owner was keeping her in a habitrail hamster cage with minimal bedding, a dry as bones water bottle, a bowl full of chinchilla dust (which was apparently left in there all the time), and there was absolutely no evidence of chewables apart from the plastic tubes (which she had destroyed).

When we got home, I moved her to a proper tank, with some of her old bedding, the aspen bedding I use for my other gerbils, some tissues, a cardboard box, and some tp tubes.

Since then, she's been mostly hiding and not eating as much as I would like to see her eat, and not drinking much.
Today (Sunday) we took the box and tubes out (she hasn't been chewing them) and noticed she was moving slowly and had red mucus on her eyes and couldn't open them. I used a q-tip to wipe some away, and that seemed to help (she can open her worse off eye now). She's also been eating since I took the box and tubes away about an hour and a half ago.

My plan is to keep checking on her, like I've been doing, and hand feeding her extra seeds and stuff to boost her caloric intake.

I just want to make sure I'm going about this the right way. I'm prepared to go to the vet if need be.

Below is a picture of her with her eye that's still closed.

[theia]

I would recommend taking her to the vet for some antibiotics, one of my girls regularly comes down with something that always starts off with one eye becoming mucusy, shortly followed by the other eye, she slowly becomes more lethargic and starts rubbing her nose lots and sometimes sneezing. The only thing that seems to clear it for her (albeit temporarily) is a course of antibiotics (I'm actually going to have to take her to the vets again tommorow as she has recently started getting ill with it yet again, she seems predisposed to it unfortunately, though thankfully it doesn't seem to bother her too much as long as we catch it nice and early).

[nauticalamity]

okay! thank you ;o; i'll take her asap

[theia]

Let us know how she gets on at the vets, she deserves someone like you who will take care of her from the sound of her previous life!

[nauticalamity]

update: i got her in this morning. turns out her top teeth are broken and the gum is bleeding (my guess is from the plastic she'd been chewing?) and her bottoms are overgrown. i'm dropping her off tomorrow morning and the vet's going to put her under and clip the bottoms and take care of the tops. they may have to extract them

also got some meds and a food paste to feed her. hoping tomorrow works out :c

[t1gg3er]

Fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow. So glad she found someone like you to take care of her, poor little thing.

[betty]

At least it was something identifiable and the vets now know what to do for her - and hopefully get her back on track with some special care - sounds like you are all ready to help her through this.

Teeth problems are quite common in gerbils, so make sure you ask you vets about ongoing care for her after the current treatment as sometimes gerbils need their teeth clipped for the rest of their lives.

Let's hope she likes all the fuss she is going to get...

[nauticalamity]

betty - i will def ask! c:

she went to the vet this morning and they're gonna call me later when she's ready.

does anyone have any advice for getting gerbs to eat their critical care food? (i dunno if it's called that elsewhere, it's like, the powder you mix with water and syringe feed them.)
cause she's really not into it, the first two feedings went well, but 3 and 4, she just zipped out of the blanket i had her burritoed in the second the food came near her. :/

[PurpleSheep]

You could try mixing it in with some baby food? It's worked for us with rodents who didn't want to take their meds, though I don't know if it is appropriate for critical care food, so you could check with your vet beforehand.
If you do try it, make sure the baby food doesn't include anything gerbils can't normally eat (eg onion, leek, garlic, citrus fruit).

[rs]

Yes, re checking with your vet about the food. Maybe there's another version of it available that would be more appealing to her. If her gum is bleeding, maybe it's sore.

And, yes, it's great she found you and your sib, or you found her. This poor girl may not yet fully understand that you're trying to help her, and her lack of previous handling may make her frightened when you feed her.

[nauticalamity]

she's back!! everything went wonderfully, they trimmed her lowers and filed her uppers. she's running around her tank happier than she's been in the past week :')

thank you everyone for the advice + support ;w;

[t1gg3er]

Aww, that's great to hear. She must feel so much more comfortable

[catnut]

soo glad to hear you are helping her out and I'm sure she will be happier with you caring for her. Just be patient and let her get used to you. Good luck.

[nauticalamity]

turns out she really likes cuddling? which is very weird, she's my 8th gerbil and i've never experienced that. she gets herself comfy between my shirt and arm and starts falling asleep. she also goes into my shirt and makes herself comfy in there.

she's a total sweetie ;_;

[jgl]

I love it when they like to cuddle (I've only had one cuddler though) if you're still having a hard time with the food you could try mixing it with Applesauce (make sure it doesn't have a bunch of sugar and that she likes it first though).