Post by nauticalamity on Jan 24, 2016 13:42:44 GMT -8
update 2/2/16: blitz is doing much better! i've set her tank next to crowley and the twins' so she can observe them and it seems to helping as she'd still had no idea how to chew the tp tubes & now she's learning.
her poop has gone from too small, to regular, to huge, sticky, & smelly - which is my concern. i think it's due to so many liquids, from her food paste & from water (she drinks from her bottle in addition to the paste the vet ordered). we go back to the vet on the 24th.
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Hello, on Tuesday evening I picked up a new gerbil from someone who couldn't take care of her anymore, and hadn't been handling her. My sibling and I dubbed her Blitz; she's about 4 months old and extremely skittish. Her previous owner was keeping her in a habitrail hamster cage with minimal bedding, a dry as bones water bottle, a bowl full of chinchilla dust (which was apparently left in there all the time), and there was absolutely no evidence of chewables apart from the plastic tubes (which she had destroyed).
When we got home, I moved her to a proper tank, with some of her old bedding, the aspen bedding I use for my other gerbils, some tissues, a cardboard box, and some tp tubes.
Since then, she's been mostly hiding and not eating as much as I would like to see her eat, and not drinking much.
Today (Sunday) we took the box and tubes out (she hasn't been chewing them) and noticed she was moving slowly and had red mucus on her eyes and couldn't open them. I used a q-tip to wipe some away, and that seemed to help (she can open her worse off eye now). She's also been eating since I took the box and tubes away about an hour and a half ago.
My plan is to keep checking on her, like I've been doing, and hand feeding her extra seeds and stuff to boost her caloric intake.
I just want to make sure I'm going about this the right way. I'm prepared to go to the vet if need be.
Below is a picture of her with her eye that's still closed.
her poop has gone from too small, to regular, to huge, sticky, & smelly - which is my concern. i think it's due to so many liquids, from her food paste & from water (she drinks from her bottle in addition to the paste the vet ordered). we go back to the vet on the 24th.
___________
Hello, on Tuesday evening I picked up a new gerbil from someone who couldn't take care of her anymore, and hadn't been handling her. My sibling and I dubbed her Blitz; she's about 4 months old and extremely skittish. Her previous owner was keeping her in a habitrail hamster cage with minimal bedding, a dry as bones water bottle, a bowl full of chinchilla dust (which was apparently left in there all the time), and there was absolutely no evidence of chewables apart from the plastic tubes (which she had destroyed).
When we got home, I moved her to a proper tank, with some of her old bedding, the aspen bedding I use for my other gerbils, some tissues, a cardboard box, and some tp tubes.
Since then, she's been mostly hiding and not eating as much as I would like to see her eat, and not drinking much.
Today (Sunday) we took the box and tubes out (she hasn't been chewing them) and noticed she was moving slowly and had red mucus on her eyes and couldn't open them. I used a q-tip to wipe some away, and that seemed to help (she can open her worse off eye now). She's also been eating since I took the box and tubes away about an hour and a half ago.
My plan is to keep checking on her, like I've been doing, and hand feeding her extra seeds and stuff to boost her caloric intake.
I just want to make sure I'm going about this the right way. I'm prepared to go to the vet if need be.
Below is a picture of her with her eye that's still closed.