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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jan 27, 2004 4:59:12 GMT -8
What do you think about neurering gerbils. Sometimes when you don't have the room to for more gerbils and you have a female and a male together, I can imagine that someone will neuter the male!
I have no experience with this, but I know it can be done, and that some people have done this. Queenofthenile, you mentioned that your gerbil Aris is getting neutered soon, isn't it? Do you have any experience with that already or not? If so tell me how it was! And if not tell me (us) when you have done it!
I get sometimes questions about this but don't know realy how to advise. I know surgery can be dangerous for small animals (I've worked in an animal clinic specialized in birds, but their came also reptiles, rodents, and rabbits). What do you think?
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Post by queenofthenile on Jan 27, 2004 6:53:52 GMT -8
My situation is a bit different. I know the vet who will do it personally, and I trust her a lot. She is an excellent surgeon. (I have watched her do surgery as I volunteer where she works) In the summer I am moving to a city where I will not be able to find owners for the gerbils. In that city, many of the gerbils are being sold for snake food  . I know that my breeding pair are very happy together and so I do not want to seperate them, but I also don't want to have a whole bunch of babies without homes. The procedure is very simple. They use isoflorane (sp?) gas and cut the skin on both sides of the scrotum and remove the testicles. The owner of Gerbils Anonymous has a section on her experience with neutering her gerbil. www.gerbilsanonymous.com/SpudsBigAdventure1.htmI will tell you all about it when I take him in, but that won't be for a while. |
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jan 28, 2004 5:53:30 GMT -8
Good to hear that you know a good vet! Not everyone can say that, many don't know a thing about small rodents!
Isoflorane gas is indeed the best! They also used this gas in the two veterinary clinics (one for dogs and cats, and one for birds, etc.) where I have worked as an intern.
The page of Gerbil Anonymous is was great to see and read, the pictures their were great! Thanx for that. I knew his medical pages, but not that one.
So they only remove their testicles, just as they do with young pigs? Because with cats for example you have to knot the blood vessel and semen canal (don't really know how you call that in English), to prevent internal bleeding after neutering. But I can imagine that as that is not necessay with piglets, that it might also not necessay with small animals such as gerbils.
But it would be great when you will post here your experiences too (when you take him in)! ;D
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Post by queenofthenile on Jan 28, 2004 6:12:55 GMT -8
I'll try and ask the vet in the next couple of weeks exactly how they do it. I would assume that they tie off the spermatic cord but I am not sure. I guess I should ask! I hope to get it done during the summer so that I might be able to observe the surgery (I have school every morning right now so that wouldn't be possible).
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jan 30, 2004 12:09:27 GMT -8
Here a post from Deb of Rebel's Rodent Ranch on the Gerbil Mailing List:
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Post by queenofthenile on Jan 30, 2004 19:00:54 GMT -8
That incident with Brutus sounds really unfortunate. I really hope nothing like that happens to Aris!
Peter, how do you get on the Gerbil Mailing List, is it through NGS? Also, do you get a lot of mail with it? (I wouldn't want my email overflowing if I didn't check often enough)
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jan 31, 2004 3:36:16 GMT -8
Yes, but if you have a good vet, I think there will be not many problems. The Gerbil Mailing list is hosted by Topica.com and you can easily subscribe by sending an (empty) mail to gerbils-subscribe@topica.com. To join the Gerbil Mailing List. You can also follow the instructions in the FAQ. There are guidelines on acceptable behaviour on the GML. Have a look at the Charter before joining. You can view old posts to the list whilst it was at Rice at the Mail-Archive. All messages to the new list are archived at Topica.com. EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: topica.com/u/?a2iXok.a3AjUiOr send an email to: gerbils-unsubscribe@topica.com. You can decide on the website of Topica.com if you want daily mail, or not! |
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. I know that my breeding pair are very happy together and so I do not want to seperate them, but I also don't want to have a whole bunch of babies without homes.