Maybe urgent, skinny female, whats going on here?

[tirilliel]

I noticed this morning that my female Sam looks very thin right in her mid section just before her hind legs. She looks very stiff and walks stiffly as well while wondering around her cage. But when I place her in the play pen she starts to move allot more normally but she still has that sunken in "pinched" look in her side near the back.

Sam is pregnant and looking fat, yesterday she looked normal to me and I preformed that belly test. Shes about 24-25 days in her gestations as she gave birth on may 1st and matedthe nest two days after. Is it possible that she could have her nest litter soon and perhaps the pups have dropped and are getting ready to be born and thats why she looks/walks funny? Or could something else have happened, like a fall or injury?


here are some pictures..
Please note the dimples in her sides near the back


Beside the funny dimples shes eating normally dinking as far as I can tell, eyes are clear and what not, she seems alert and her normal self besides the funny walk. Shes refusing to nurse her currents 27 days old pups as well.

[meganb52]

hrm...

I'm supposed to be a vet student, but I have no idea what's going on there. I suppose she could be dropping the pups and getting ready to have her babies, but I don't know for sure. Keep me posted and I can post your info on an international veterinary forum if she seems to be getting worse. Make sure she's eating, drinking, peeing and pooping normally, and supplement her with food as needed. Hope she does OK

-Megan

[tirilliel]

meganb52 said:

hrm...

I'm supposed to be a vet student, but I have no idea what's going on there. I suppose she could be dropping the pups and getting ready to have her babies, but I don't know for sure. Keep me posted and I can post your info on an international veterinary forum if she seems to be getting worse. Make sure she's eating, drinking, peeing and pooping normally, and supplement her with food as needed. Hope she does OK

-Megan

Thanks for the post Megan, Im quite not sure what to think myself. She doesnt act like shes in pain and when I place her on the floor she runs around fine, She probably just looked like she walked stiff in the cage because she had just woken up. She seems fine besides the weird indent in her sides. I was just handling her literally last night while I tried to figure out how I wanted to house the gerbils and she looked normal, she looked more fat then she does today, to me its almost as if the pups have dropped.

I expected her to get more fat since her last litter was large but it doesnt mean this one will be also.. If she has her pups on may 1st and mated around the second and third day then that means shes about 24 days along and the gestation period for a gerbil is 24-28 days. So it "could" be any day now really.

I took her out and had another look at her today, I noticed that her vaginal area seemed kind of swelled, but not in a bad looking way, I wonder if this is because shes about to have them?

Here are some pictures of her bum area (poor sam probably humiliated) I have two, not the best quality but you can pretty much see. The area is a fleshy normal looking pink color to me,

Perhaps she only having a couple extra large pups this litter and that’s why she looks the way she does because they are getting ready for the birth? and since she has eight pups last litter there wasn’t much room for them to drop down to since there were so many and so I didn’t see this last time?



well tell me what you think..

[meganb52]

vulvar swelling can be a sign that birth is coming soon, and don't gerbils go through a sort of lethargic state before they give birth? My guess is just that she's getting close. things tend to get a little "looser" in the reproductive tract after the first birth of any type of mammal, and so that may be part of it too. In horses and cattle it's usually pretty evident when the fetus has dropped and they're close to giving birth. Hopefully that's all it is. Keep me posted!

-Megan

[sandy]

Check the nest, she might have had them. Some moms the day they have the pups look like that until they tone up.

[tirilliel]

meganb52 said:

vulvar swelling can be a sign that birth is coming soon, and don't gerbils go through a sort of lethargic state before they give birth? My guess is just that she's getting close. things tend to get a little "looser" in the reproductive tract after the first birth of any type of mammal, and so that may be part of it too. In horses and cattle it's usually pretty evident when the fetus has dropped and they're close to giving birth. Hopefully that's all it is. Keep me posted!

-Megan

I actually cleaned out the cage that she was in and looked for pups and didnt see anything in there, so unless she had them and ate them or something Im not sure whats going on? Its about 10:17pm right now and I checked on her again, She still looks the same and seemed stiff at first to move around, but when I took her out she started to move around a bit more normally. One of her eyes looked a bit stuck together, but not really goopy or anything.. She is lethargic but I could understand the discomfort and what not when your about to give birth..

I hope nothing serious is wrong and she gets those pups out.. Why must this kind of thing always happen on a Friday just before all the vet offices close for the weekend If something is very wrong i hope she can hold on until Monday..

[tirilliel]

Next day.. The 28th and shes now about 25-26 days pregnant. Sam is still alive! Her eyes were nice and bright and clear when I woke her up. She still looks the same with the dimples in her sides and moved around funny when she got up. I took her out and had her walk around a bit and again her pace and gate seemed a bit better. She almost walks around like she constipated and uncomfortable or something, so maybe it is the babies causing her to act and waddle around a bit that way. I wish someone would post and tell me they had experience with this

I just want those pups out so I know she will be ok. Im glad I separated her from the male this time around to avoid a third litter, she needs a break, poor girl

[tirilliel]

Another Update,

Last night I came home to find Sam was in her wheel which was a good sign. This morning she seems much better! She still has the strange dimples in her sides but she seems to be less stiff and was walking much more normally then before. She seems happy and alert and I watched her munch some food today and run in her wheel a few times already this morning. I also had her out in the pen for a few minutes to watch her gate and it does seem better. She spent the other day sleeping allot and still is, but if shes pregnant and getting close to the end of it that may be why. But her spirits seem good and besides the dimples seems fairly healthy, So Im hoping that soon these dimples are corrected or she has her second litter.

[whitmoregirl]

Fingers crossed for you Tirilliel

[tirilliel]

Sam looks and is doing much better! She doesnt appear to have the dimples anymore and seems less lethargic. In fact shes started to use her tube system to get into the other enclosure, she hadn’t bothered with that for a while. Just before I noticed the funny walk and dimples I was commenting on how she was looking fat again from her pregnancy. But now that she seems better she also looks a bit thinner then before too, not thin as if emaciated... Now I wonder if she even is pregnant anymore?

Is it possible for the embryos/pups inside to die and for the body to recycle that back into her self without giving birth? Another possibility is the night before she started to look and walk funny she could have given birth to stillborns and eaten them? Would a stillborn birth cause dimples like that and a funny gate for a few days? And why would she have stillborn pups when shes young and healthy and had a first litter of eight?

Well at this point for all I know she had mild constipation and is still pregnant. Her last litter didn’t come until a bit over 30 days, I think it was about two weeks longer then I has estimated, so maybe she’s not due for a bit longer yet?

Well I’m glad either way that she looks better and is acting normal again. If anyone has any comments as to what might have happened here please let me know

[meganb52]

Glad to hear she's feeling better. I have a ton of exams this week, or I'd make a long post about my opinions. I'll wait to hear what the other breeders say, and give you my opinions when I have more time (heh. Like that's ever going to happen!)

-Megan

[tirilliel]

meganb52 said:

Glad to hear she's feeling better. I have a ton of exams this week, or I'd make a long post about my opinions. I'll wait to hear what the other breeders say, and give you my opinions when I have more time (heh. Like that's ever going to happen!)

-Megan

I sure hope you find the time to post your opinions, id really like to hear your thoughts on what might have happened. Not many other people have really offered any explination.