Wheep wheep...not sure if he will make it.....:(

[paws]

I have spent the majority of the night crying my eyes out.... Phoenix has a reputation of getting sick. Especially respatory infections. (click, click) but he has never gotten this sick...

I have a new gerbil/fish room. It has no heating but it is about 20 °C and quite comfortable although it has no carpet. WEll, I feed them daily and I change their water whenever it is running low, and play with them every 2 days, checking on them daily. so today, I had misplaced a bag of catfood, and went into the gerbilroom to see if I had put it in there (if your wondering where I found it, it was on a bar chair... ) I checked on Phoenix on the way, and I saw a little limp dead looking body. I really thought he was dead, and picked him up, he didn't move. I hugged him, and he didn't move. I tried to feed him water off a Qtip and he didn't move. I put him in a face cloth, ready to bury him, when his leg twitched. My mum took him from me whiole I cdried because I, first, was about to drop him, and second, am not a nurse. She started blow drying him and about 1 minute later Phoenix's whiskers started twitching. I tried the cutip again. It didn't work until about 5 minutes later, all the while we were warming him up with the blow dryer. I literally cried for half a hour straight, thinking he would die, because he was barely breathing and only took the Qtip once, but finally, about 1 hour later he made a recover and opened his eyes and moved a little bit. I managed to get him drinking from a water bottle that I squeezed, but otherwise he didn't really move for about 45 minutes. He began moving around after, and trying to jump out of my hands, so I warmed his cage up, moved all the gerbils from the gerbil-room just in case it is too cold for them and moved him into not only the most humid place in the house, but also the warmest place ;the bathroom. I have been checking on him every 10 minutes, and he is barely moving, alrthough I got him chewing a bit of tissue that I ripped up and warmed fo rhim to make a bed in. He has been standing there in a daze, and twitching his hands. I am really worried. HELP! I don't think he will make it. Why do you think this happened? WHat would you call his condition? Any info would be appreciated, even if it seems obvious.

I love you Phoenix! Get BETTER!

Phoenix is only 5 months old, and he is a male.

[pixytwinkle]

i really hope pheonix gets better paws im sorry he isnt feeling well

[paws]

thanx.... He seems alot better today, I gave him tissue to chew and he is going right through it, although he seems a bit lethargic still..... I'm still wondering what caused it.....

[pixytwinkle]

you must have been really worried i am so happy he is feeling better! ;D

[paws]

aw! THankyou for making me feel better about it! I'm going to give him a toilet paper roll in a minute, results soon!

[lydia]

Glad he is recovering Paws,just read your post on another site-didn't realise it was you.

Could he have been chewing his water bottle ?Was he damp at all or just limp and cold ?

Honestly don't know what happened to him,but,am sending lots of hugs and kisses to you both.
I'm sure you are doing this already,but,keep him warm and offer him foods that are easy for him to eat.

Lyd

[paws]

thanx for the advice. his water bottle was-come to think of it-empty and it was full in the morning. It's like he has forgotten all his taming. He won't come out to be held or petted, and will only respond to my mum, because yesterday while I was at school she fed him a hundred zillion sunflower seeds. (he needs fattening up, I feed him every day and when he was sick I felt his ribs and spine and just wiht a light touch I could feel them.

[lydia]

Hmmm, I'm wondering if he had hypothermia.

My first pair of gerbils,used to scratch their tank, underneath the spout of their water bottle.
I walked into my bedroom one day,and Bubble was lying under the bottle,completely limp and looked dead.I picked her up,and she was damp plus the bottle was completely empty.The way she'd been scratching,had caused her back to be depressing the metal ball in the spout,and it had slowly emptied the water,all over her.I called my mum,can't remeber if I was crying or not but I was 8 yrs old-so probably.
My mum rubbed her with a towel,then put her in my bed,on an electric blanket, (the underneath sort,so it did have a sheet covering it).Slowly,she did start to recover,once she was dry and able to stand up,we took her to our local vet,he diagnosed hypothermia,and did inject her with something.I can't remember what,but it was probably for shock.
Within 24 hrs,she made a complete recovery,and lived until I was 14 yrs,so she was iether 6 yrs old,or close to it,when she died.

If your lad has had a stroke,which was mentioned on Gerbils show uk forum,I would expect him to have more strokes.
If he doesn't,maybe he's done what my first gerbil did,28 yrs ago,soaked himself and suffered hypothermia.
I honestly don't know,and not sure if you can find out now.If he's recovering,I personally would not stress him out with a vet visit.But,if he isn't recovering well,or you are concerned.Do take him to visit a vet.Gerbils have a much faster metabolic rate than us,and pets like cats and dogs.This means that they can go down hill very quickly,but also recover very quickly.
From my one experience of a gerbil with hypothermia,who recovered completely,I would hope this is true for any gerbil who suffers hypothermia.
The vet did say at the time,that if she hadn't been warmed up when she was,she would have died.His exact words were something like,'you were very lucky-any longer and she'd have been dead'.He isn't a vet who minces words,and,because of him repeatedly telling me 'not to waste money on small rodents (he included rabbits in this) to have them put down-it's cheaper',I changed vet's.

Lyd