Post by Thelodar on Mar 29, 2015 5:00:57 GMT -8
So I found a post on here about making food for gerbils missing teeth. Theo has been eating Critical Care since he went to the vet on Thursday and we found out he's missing his top front teeth and I wanted to try and give him something else. So I ground up some of his seed mix into a powder, then smashed some pecans into pecan butter and mixed them together. Then I added some water and basically made a dough like substance. I then rolled it into a bunch of small balls.
So I tried feeding him one last night. He ate about half of it, then dropped the rest. I figured he didn't like it very much so went and mixed him up some critical care. When I came back he seemed like he was having some difficulty, it sort of looked like he was choking. His eyes were squinted and he would pull his chin down and then jut it out. He would also shake his hands a lot. However he was clearly breathing. He took one mouthful of the CC and then stopped and refused to eat anymore. I noticed that he was making a crunching sound, almost like he was chewing seeds. I left him in his feeding tank for a little bit and watched him. He continued making the sound and refusing CC. I tried to check inside his mouth with a q-tip (the center bar not the fluffy bits) but he was not having any of that, I could see in his mouth a bit but not very far back because he kept grabbing the q-tip and pushing it out.
So I didn't know what to do and put him back in his tank and hoped he'd make it through the night. Which he did. I tried to feed him CC again this morning. He was still making that noise. He took a mouthful of CC right away but then refused any more. His noise making got worse. I took some video to show you. After the video I picked him up to try and look at his mouth again and he spit up the CC (which is probably a good thing as he seems unable to swallow it). His neck and chest seem moist/dirty. Perhaps from spitting up or drooling over night?
So now I'm really worried and think I should be going back to the vet. How long do I wait to see if he'll take care of the issue on his own? Do you think something is stuck?
Here are the videos, turn up your volume to hear the crunching/clicking noise. The first video is more to see his behavior (though you can hear his noise at the end) and the second video is more to hear him. The green stuff in the syringe/on his chin is the critical care.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oZ8xOrKPFk&feature=youtu.be
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsrmBG2_Ew&feature=youtu.be
So I tried feeding him one last night. He ate about half of it, then dropped the rest. I figured he didn't like it very much so went and mixed him up some critical care. When I came back he seemed like he was having some difficulty, it sort of looked like he was choking. His eyes were squinted and he would pull his chin down and then jut it out. He would also shake his hands a lot. However he was clearly breathing. He took one mouthful of the CC and then stopped and refused to eat anymore. I noticed that he was making a crunching sound, almost like he was chewing seeds. I left him in his feeding tank for a little bit and watched him. He continued making the sound and refusing CC. I tried to check inside his mouth with a q-tip (the center bar not the fluffy bits) but he was not having any of that, I could see in his mouth a bit but not very far back because he kept grabbing the q-tip and pushing it out.
So I didn't know what to do and put him back in his tank and hoped he'd make it through the night. Which he did. I tried to feed him CC again this morning. He was still making that noise. He took a mouthful of CC right away but then refused any more. His noise making got worse. I took some video to show you. After the video I picked him up to try and look at his mouth again and he spit up the CC (which is probably a good thing as he seems unable to swallow it). His neck and chest seem moist/dirty. Perhaps from spitting up or drooling over night?
So now I'm really worried and think I should be going back to the vet. How long do I wait to see if he'll take care of the issue on his own? Do you think something is stuck?
Here are the videos, turn up your volume to hear the crunching/clicking noise. The first video is more to see his behavior (though you can hear his noise at the end) and the second video is more to hear him. The green stuff in the syringe/on his chin is the critical care.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oZ8xOrKPFk&feature=youtu.be
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsrmBG2_Ew&feature=youtu.be