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Post by natasja on Oct 26, 2005 23:26:07 GMT -8
My Gerbil has diarrhea and i went to a vet for some antibioticts. But do I have to give her some extra vitamins?
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Post by doomgerbiluk on Oct 27, 2005 0:13:19 GMT -8
not necessarily you do need to take extra precautions between cages (handwashing before and after handling animals, no moving things from the sick gerbils home to any tohers etc. ) to avoid cross-contomination. If any more gerbils get sick see a vet immediately. If a few get sick it is worth having a culture doen to find the cause AND treating all your stock with abs (under a vets advice) to wipe out the infection. After treatment, if yoru animals seems weak, vitamins or pro-vitamins can certainly help boost recovery.
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Post by meganb52 on Oct 28, 2005 10:11:18 GMT -8
Part of the problem when animals have diarrhea is that they're not able to absorb things (including vitamins) very well through the intestine. It would be more beneficial to supplement with vitamins after recovery, but then only if needed. If your gerbil isn't too debilitated and is on a balanced diet, they shouldn't be necessary.
Megan
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Post by sweetie on Oct 31, 2005 7:38:56 GMT -8
I would say that they probably do not need additional vitamins. Please keep us posted! Doom has some great info so I would follow it. Do you know what caused the diarrea? Too much fruits or veggies? Sick?
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Post by sandy on Oct 31, 2005 10:17:42 GMT -8
In the absence of contamination from other stock or from kids or people with unwashed hands handling them, I'd say the greatest source of diarrhoea is indeed from unwashed fruit/veg or simply too much water in them. If you think about it, gerbils in the wild don't dine on grapes and lettuce. Juicy grass stems are probably the most veggie sort of food they might get, and instead they subsist on seeds, grass and insects. We need to guard against trying to feed gerbils a human diet.
One of my gerbils was a classroom rescue (the teacher didn't want her any more) and she had been given a single grape every day. She had chronic diarrhoea! Granted, she loved that grape, but she was so much healthier on a straight diet of mixed seeds, alfalfa pellets and a bit of dry cat food (a protein source instead of bugs). The runs stopped and she started gaining some weight and getting lovely and glossy.
The only gerbils that I will occasionally give very clean stick of celery to (other than travelling gerbils) is weanlings that haven't figured out the water bottle, and once they learn (it only takes about a week) no more veg.
I have NEVER seen diarroea in my gerbils other than that one that came in from outside, and she was soon cured simply with the diet change.
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