Dehydrated gerbil

[Lynn]

My gerbil is dehydrated. I left for a day and half and came back to a leaked water bottle. All the signs are there. Cold, inactive, weak, etc. He IS eating, he took a couple seeds from me and ate them. He seems to weak to drink out of the bottle and when I held it near him, he licked it but I don't know if he actually got it..it seemed like it hurt to lift his head to drink it even though it was right up to his face. I tried to put a thing with some water in it so he could lick it but that didn't work.

Should I still do rehydration therapy or keep trying to let him get himself hydrated? I probably will anyway if nobody responds but thought maybe someone would be on and reply. He's eating wet sunflower seeds at least..

Thanks.
Lynn

[ashgerbil]

see if he'll eat some grape, celery, apple sauce or fruit juice this should get some water and sugars inside him
sorry i can't help anymore, but i don't know what rehydration therapy is >_<
anyways, yes, try and get some of the stuff i mentioned above into him before you do the therapy
anyone else gots any other ideas??

[RW]

I've never had to rehydrate a gerbil, but if the situation arose, I'm sure I'd go ahead and try rather than hope the gerbil would manage on its own. I'd also set up a warm corner.

RW

[whitmoregirl]

Yip, warm corner (hot water bottle nearby, but not too hot) and keep offering water and grapes, celery etc (all the water-rich fruits)
Plenty of bedding too

[Lynn]

I was wrong, he can't eat. It's really weird. I assumed it was his teeth because he'd grab a seed from me like he's starving and take one bite and then just freeze. Hardly leaving a dent in the pumpkin seed and compared to the other gerbils, his teeth seem longer to me. I brought him to some rodent specialist guy and he looked at his teeth and said they were fine. He's just to weak to eat. He IS weak and he IS dehydrated and he's making little tears in his tissue trying to make a nest. So I don't know.

I'm feeding him stuff with a dropper though and getting fluids into him. He's not getting worse so

[AndreaS15]

Try Apple sauce and/or baby food.
Keep him warm and keep getting fluids in him.
A Rodent specialist? It may be best to see a vet if he is not getting any better.

[Lynn]

It's day 3 now and he's about the same. I've been bringing him to the vet for fluids and electrolytes. He has his perkier moments and was doing better this morning..but now he's miserable again.

He's peeing, no turds..but he's not eating either so he wouldn't.

Any energy he's getting he's using to fight off me feeding him now. Half of what I feed him I think it just sits in his mouth and he's drooling it out. He must be getting some though since he's still alive.

He's neck is all sticky and gross and that's making him more miserable and uncomfortable. It's hard to wash off and obviously I don't want him cold either.

Hi stomach is bloated..but that could be from the fluids they gave him... probably.

His body temp is better and he's breathing more normal..before there was like a 2 second delay in between breaths. Seriously.

He's not even 2yrs old yet. This makes no sense. Every other one of my gerbils is fine and any other problem I've ever had..they've snapped out of it within 24hrs.

[RW]

Could your gerbil have an intestinal impaction? Has your vet mentioned it or checked for it? I'm asking because a while back one of my boys suffered from an impaction and some of your gerbil's symptoms sound similar--peeing, but no poop; bloated abdomen; and just generally very ill.

Since you're already taking your gerbil to the vet for fluids, you might ask about it.

RW

[Lynn]

They didn't mention that. He's not eating solids so he shouldn't have any bms though.

I did some google searching and I think it's his heart:

Clinical Signs
May see any of the following:

Tires more quickly.
Inactive or sleeping more than usual.
Weakness of the hind limbs not associated with arthritic conditions or neuropathies
Dry cough, bronchial wheeze , or moist lung sounds, making breathing labored. May prop up head to breathe easier.
Enlarged abdomen (not a common sign in rats) , or swelling in limb(s) and feet, or weight gain may be seen due to fluid retention.
Little to no appetite.
Cool, pale extremities (e.g.,ears,feet,tail) due to poor circulation.
A noticeable sign with CHF is cyanosis (a blue tinge due to poor oxygenation) of scrotum, toes and tip of tail. This is often a late sign.
May show anxious behavior when breathing becomes harder (e.g., not willing to be held or stay in one place).
Scant dark (concentrated) urine

He has most of those signs.

It makes no sense. After the first fluids he was doing so much better that night. Now.. hel ooks like hell and is kind of dragging his back legs. It's not a stroke or a seizure, I'm sure of that.

[Lynn]

He's been fighting this so hard for 3 days now. I'd hate to lose him after all of this. Not that I want him to die, but if a gerbil is going to die, I rather it be quick.. instead of all that fighting for nothing. If it's fixable, I hope he makes it 12more hours so I can take him back to the vet. If not.. I wish he'd just die already.

[Mud Pony]

Aww I'm so sorry to hear this.

Unfortunatly it happened to one of my gerbils like this too. Although the water bottle never was broken but all of the sudden one day it seemed she just started getting boney, listless and all the same things you describe. I did all the grape, applesauce things and took her to a vet & the vet said kindey failure. With in 3 days she was gone. We did the rehydrating at the vets too but it was not effective.

since there is no dialysis for gerbils there is just not much we can do, just the best we can at comfort measures.

keep us updated... we are thinking of you & your gerbil...

[Lynn]

That gerbil actually died right around when I posted that. I checked on him a few minutes after posting and he was gone. Freaky.


Anyway, I now have another gerbil with the same darn symptoms.

- Low body temp, cold to the touch
- Lifeless, No Energy
- Eyes half shut, won't open them all the way
- Not dehydrated..yet
- Takes food to eat, but doesn't eat.. Stops in the middle of it. - The rodent guy and vet both told me it happens when they're too weak to chew/eat/swallow.
- Teeth are fine
- Want to be alone, sleeping alone, and squeak, run away and throw a fit when another gerbil goes near them..


What the hell is going on? These guys aren't even 2yrs old and this gerbil is in a different clan than the first one was in.

[lizzy]

Respiratory infection?

One of mine had most of those symptoms and that was his problem.

[lynn]

Nah. Thanks but that's not it.

[doomgerbiluk]

Sounds like organ failure.
Where they related? If so it's possibly a genetic thing.
Gerbils [wild] rarely live to 1 year old, in fact a few months is a good age, so living to nearly 2 is not bad. In my experience gerbil lifespans can be from 18 months up without any obvious problem so I suspect genetics plays a big part in their lifespans.
The other option would be an infection , possibly a virus. Not something you can test for I'm afraid but I would isolate the colonies affected and do a thorough clean out of all tanks etc asap.
I assuem your gerbils get a good balanced diet with clean water which has been stood long enough for any treatments to have evaporated.
Please make sure their is no plastic in the cage they can chew, this can cause an impaction followed by a slow and painful death.