Gold has passed..

[vendlaparsa]

Last night i had an awful feeling in my stomach, i felt like it had to do with my gerbils. I decided, that I'm overreacting and tried to sleep anyway.

This morning  i checked on gold (my youngest) and he was alive, but very tired looking. I thought he just woke up too, and wasn't ready yet.
Later today i went to check again, since i hadn't seen him come out of their nest. He was dead. 
I cleaned and made sure the tank has none of his scent anymore, but im terribly upset. I dont know if i did something wrong  but Molld (the older one) seems highly confused as to where Gold is.

Im very very sad, and even angry at myself. I got covid last week, i was in fact very sick so i think i mightve caused him to die...

I dont know what to do going forward. Get a new one? Sure! Just.. what if its too late??
I dont know, im very confused and upset. I desperately need any advice!!

[Markpd]

So sorry to hear about Gold's passing

Gerbils can get ill from any number of illnesses, and sometimes go downhill and pass very quickly.
Last I heard, we don't know if Gerbils can get Covid, although Hamsters can (but I don't know how much it affects them).
I would have thought that even if Gold had got Covid, and had symptoms, you would of heard a respiratory clicking noise at least, on top of that I think it would be very unlikely that it would have taken him out in less than a day at that age, my money's on something else being the cause, and not your illness. Especially as you said a few weeks back that they were only 'a few months old'. How old was Gold and is Mold?
So no need to be angry at yourself.

Re getting a new gerbil, I'm not sure I follow with 'what if it's too late??'.
If Mold is only a few months old or so, then he's plenty young enough to be introduced to a new gerbil (the rough age limit for this is 3 yrs old, depending how old they act). But you can't just put 2 strange gerbils together, you'll need to introduce them via the split cage method (check out threads around here for help on that, search for 'split intros', or start a new thread about it).
Anyway, there's no rush to get a new gerbil, you need to let him (and yourself) grieve first.
From what I recall from other owners the remaining gerbil should be more or less back to normal and ready to meet a new gerbil (in a split intro cage) from a few days to a week or so.

[catnut]

Soo sorry to hear about Gold, gerbils can get ill and pass from many things and most of time, we don't know, so don't blame yourself. Give yourself time and when you are ready and feeling better, get a new gerbil, quarantine and split cage if you think your other gerbil is lonely. Spend time with Molld, if you are worried, wear a mask and gloves around your gerbil until you are over covid. Take care and know it takes time to grieve.

[vendlaparsa]

Jan 22, 2022 10:10:55 GMT -8 Markpd said:

Thank you so much ♡ I'm getting Mold a new friend today (Monday evening) and I'm going to try to introduce them to each other the best I can.

[catnut]

it's best to quarantine for 2 weeks and make a solid split screen- there are instructions online on how to do this, good luck!