Dead gerbil with blood????

[Karen]

I'm sad and dissapointed that now my second of 2 gerbils that I purchased in December is dead!!! I discovered him beneath the bedding today stuck to the glass bottom by his own blood. I am baffled as to what happened to him, as he is alone. It was hard to tell, but the blood seemed to be stuck around his neck/shoulder area--definitely not around the tail or nose/mouth. Any ideas as to what happened? The only thing in the cage besides the water bottle holder and water bottle was a little house made of popsicle sticks that my son made.

The first gerbil of the pair that I bought from the pet store died at the end of January. I think I may have purchased defective gerbs. Wow, how will I tell the kids?

[ashgerbil]

oh no! how awful for you!
that really is a mystery though! i've never heard of anything like that before! sounds as if something has fallen on him or crushed him somehow
mebbe someone else will know what it is

[pepandmax]

Karen, wow, I'm sorry, that sounds terrible. I hope your children are dealing with it ok.

I agree with Andrea that there must have been some kind of trauma... few questions: Did you see from where the blood was coming? Can you describe the wound? How much did the poor thing bleed? Was there blood anywhere else in the tank? Do you have any other pets? Did you notice anything amiss in the tank (the lid wasn't on correctly, the waterbottle was stuck somewhere, etc)? How did the other gerbil pass away?

If it's any consolation, if he was bleeding badly, he probably didn't suffer much at all. Gerbils don't have much blood to lose.

Sorry again for your loss

[Mud Pony]

The only other thing i could think of was maybe some kind of hemorrhaging. maybe an internal tumor or cyst just popped. I agree with pepand max though, it must have been very quick...

Again so sorry for your loss... it never gets easy...