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Post by gerbillady on Oct 8, 2005 20:42:10 GMT -8
omg... OMG!?!?! HOW THE HECK?!?!
those were my first words when i entered my room at 11:24 pm tonight
how did 5 gerbils get in a ten gal tank.... ? 3 males and 2 females....
most people that know gerbils know where that leads to...
ok so all the boys were fine.... and butters ( the meanie) was ok . no injurie....
but angel is hurt.... very bad.... shes old and slow thats why she lost.... shes the grandma of the clan....
ne ways ... she has a biiig gash on her tail and form wat i could see little bite marks on her "thigh" and her lower back...
theres blood all over her tail and little bloody marks on the "skin" where the bite marks are .. but not on her fur....
wat do i do?!!?! im freaking out here!
by the way i put every one in there normal tanks and every ones fine except for angel which is sorta limping...
so i jsut need to know wat to do... ive never had gebrils fight until bloodshed....
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Post by squeaksister on Oct 8, 2005 21:13:25 GMT -8
I dont know for sure but I would try and clean the wounds with alittle peroxide on a qtip and try and put neosporin on the wounds and just try and keep her warm and quiet in her tank.
good luck-Mary
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Oct 9, 2005 4:47:58 GMT -8
You cannot do much, but gerbil wounds do heal very good and fast normally without attention. Cleaning the wounds is good, but they will lick most likely everything with you put in the wound for treatment. Does it still bleed? And are the wound very deep? If not, you could give the female rest, warm area, food, water, etc. She will be fine. If the wounds stay bleeding and/or are very deep and severe, you need to go to a vet to suture them. But most of the times, they heal on their own!  Keep an close eye on her! Does she improve, and does she only limb with one leg? If so she will turn to normal when the wound there is healed! |
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Post by meganb52 on Oct 9, 2005 7:26:32 GMT -8
I would agree with Mary on the peroxide. Peroxide is a good choice because once its done its job it turns into water, so it's a pretty harmless cleansing agent for open wounds. I would keep her in a very clean tank that you can easily clean daily to reduce the chance of infection. I would use something like paper towels or maybe cheap napkins for bedding because you can easily remove them and replace them daily. Not sure if they sell Neosporin in Canada, but that or any other topical triple antibiotic ointment will help, just be VERY sparing with it (you don't want glops all over her) and my recommendation is to get them out and play with them for 15 min after applying ointment. That way, it has a chance to soak in and do its job rather than get groomed off right away. Any other questions, feel free to post away or PM me... Good luck!
-Megan.
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Post by sandy on Oct 10, 2005 11:26:21 GMT -8
It would be good to figure out how that happened. It sounds like someone there moved them in. It's the kind of thing kids might do if they weren't experienced with gerbils, or someone did it for a prank? Can they have got there on their own? If so, how?
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Post by gerbillady on Oct 10, 2005 13:28:33 GMT -8
i have no idea how .... but wat happened is
i have a ten gal tank with two young brothers and beside them i have a 15 gal tank with the "grandparents" angel and ricky and beside them i have a 25 gal tank ( which is relativly high) with butters and darkness....
now i had a "grill" (sorta cookie sheet i guess) over the angel and ricky's tank... but some how they sliped thru and got into the two little brothers tank... thank god there was no fighting then... they seemed all fine together...
but then i found butters in there with all fo them.... so 5 gerbils ina 10 gal tnak and 2 females fighting over the three males in there....
n e ways i put them back in their tank and i put peroxide on angle's tail... but then...
the next night butters again some how got into angel and ricky's tnak again... i have no idea how cuz butters tank is like 1 foot and a hlaf high and i dont have ne thing in her tank except a food bowl and cardboard... and her water bottle stuck on the inside...
n e ways i got in my room hearing screams and i freaked out cuz i could jsut see blood on them...
the injuries are : butter has a big gash on her inner thigh and a few bites on her back....
angel's nose is bleeding
but ricky had bites on his nose and his cheek (whiskers) and on his upper back and his neck....i guess he was protecting his wife....
I FREAKED OUT!!! i ran to get the peroxide and washed all their wounds ... thats the most i can do...
i moved ricky and angels tank onto my night table beside my bed... and im still wondering how butters managed to get out of her tank twice! ... ive seen gerbils jump but 1 foot and half high?
n e ways thanks so much for the help guys!!!
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Post by meganb52 on Oct 10, 2005 16:53:16 GMT -8
Make sure all your gerbils tanks have secure, weighted lids on them (like with a book or something similar). THat way, there's no way a gerbil could escape or enter anotehr gerbil's cage without somepone physically putting them there. Keep up with the peroxide and neosporin. Gerbils are amazing little healers.
-Megan
EDIT: Don't forget gerbils can climb up water bottles too!
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Post by AndreaS15 on Oct 10, 2005 19:50:46 GMT -8
ACK! You need REAL lids!
gerbils are amazing escape artists (as you have found) and you MUST have a proper lid... I know when i started out with my first pair I ended up with a cat in their tank b/c i used "books" as a lid... not good!
Also, you need 'mesh', gerbils are amazingly squishable, and can squeeze through anything they can fit their heads through, even it it's a big jump up. The bars on my play pen (the rabbit tank one) cannot hold some of my smaller gerbils, they can jump up and hang off the lid them pull themselves up and out with no problem, I watched them it was amazing.
keep her wounds clean, keep her warm and i'm sure she will heal up just fine.
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Post by sandy on Oct 11, 2005 11:48:18 GMT -8
Yes, I agree, I've seen gerbils get through a 1 cm. space, basically the height of their skull (not counting ears and lower jaw).
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Post by rnltred on Jan 16, 2006 11:08:58 GMT -8
We use the wire screen type lids which are meant for reptile tanks. They are fairly heavy by themselves but there are clips available to hold them on securely. We have yet to see a Gerbil that can lift one off the tank, but these little escape artists never stop surprising us.
Keith & Luana
Green Mt. Gerbils
AGS members
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