diareea! what to do ???

[pooky]

help! my gerbil has diareea (did i spell that right?) and i dont know what to do! . i need any advice possible.

note: how bad is diareea for gerbils?

[doomgerbiluk]

It can be a sign of soemthign pretty nasty.
First have you changed your gerbils feed? has he/she ahd a lot of 'wet' foods?

if the answer is no or the diorrhea has lasted a few hours then it's vet time.

[pooky]

i havent changed the food recentlly but here is taco's (my sick gerbil) diet.

-hamster and gerbil seed mix.
-lettuce
-small amounts of cheese for a treat

could that have anything to do with it?

note: i just found out about the diareea, but i dont know how long since it might of started.

thanks doomgerbiluk.

[paws]

Lettuce is the culprit! It has too much water. Don't worry about it though! Once you move the lettuce they will get better. Move their water even for one day. That's what I did when mine had diahreah (I can't spell either!) If you still want to feed lettuce, remove the water altogether!

[pooky]

ok thanks.
so if i remove the lettuce, they will get better (eventually)? can i still feed them a little bit of lettuce?
thanks

[paws]

Yeah, they will get better soon. Lettuce can I believe give them intestinal disorder or something icky yeech... gag... blehch.. blah(gagging sounds ) ;D

[doomgerbiluk]

cut out the lettuce and the cheese
cheese should be a very rare treat in very small amounts
letuce is bad BUT mine love it too so get tiny amounts occasionally

but no mor eof either till the diarreah clears up please

[pooky]

ok thanks every body i appreciate it, and i will keep you posted on how it clears up.

[pooky]

it semes like he got better, because i put him a cardboard box for a while, and all the poop it pooped out wasnt diareea.

[doomgerbiluk]

sounds liek it was the wrong food then
thank god for that

[pooky]

thank you every body for all the help and advice youve given me. it made Pooky better, and hes scamppering around like normal.

[sweetie]

Pookie,

Glad to hear things are okay for you and the gerbils!!

No problem about the advice. We all started out with out info and got it from others, books, online, etc. Soon, you will have enough experience and info to help others!!

[pooky]

well thanks any way. it really helped.

at the moment im in the middle of watching a couple threads, and i have a bit of troble watching to many at one time . but after i finished with those, im gonna try looking around to see if there are any questions i can help with . then i can be a bit more usfull ;D .