Gerbil had a bad fall; Please, help!

[cloudyclue]

Hi, 

I have a female gerbil, Luna,  that's about two months old, unfortunately, there was an accident and she had fallen from a height. She's not baring any weight on one of her back legs, and I just need advice on how to keep her comfortable until tomorrow morning when we are able to take her to the small animal emergency vet at 9am. We decided to put her in a carrier where she's restricted and cannot move as much rather than her larger cage, unfortunately, that means keeping her away from her two sisters. Is this the wrong move to make, should she be more comfortable in her bigger tank set up with her siblings, and is there anything else we can do for her until then? Should I be concerned about internal bleeding, and her not making it through the night? I have ivermectin for my gerbil who broke his teeth a few months ago, and my hamster who has arthritis, is there anyway to safely give this to her until tomorrow to help with her pain?

We plan to check on her every hour or two throughout the night, but I would love opinions and suggestions on how to keep her comfortable or on her cage situation.

Thank you!

[LilyandDaisy]

Hello,

I'm sorry, I didn't see this thread yesterday. How is Luna now?

Are you sure it's ivermectin you have? Ivermectin is for parasites and won't help with pain. Perhaps you mean metacam. You can give metacam to help her until she sees the vet (though I wouldn't recommend giving it long term without a prescription - only as an emergency measure), but you'll have to work out the dosage based on her weight.

[betty]

Yes, cloudyclue - how is she - and did you end up keeping her apart from her sisters since the accident (just so we know about reintroduction times if needed).

Bless her.

[cloudyclue]

Thank you everyone for the replies!

It was completely my bad, I was so distraught yesterday and exhausted that I completely typed up the wrong medication, It's actually inflacam that I was given! As for how Luna is doing, she made it safely through the night and is so much brighter today, we took her to the vet and after risking xrays and her examination, she was lucky enough to only have soft tissue damage, so she should heal up with plenty of rest! She has pain relief from the small animal exotic vet, but I would certainly like some opinions on when best to reintroduce her to her siblings, she has been separated likely since 10GMT+1 last night, vet asked to keep her in the carrier for a small bit longer after having light anesthetic. Excited for her to make a full recovery soon and be back to her mischievous self! Her name is short for lunatic.

[LilyandDaisy]

I've not had to reintroduce adult gerbils myself, but I think in your situation I would consider the following options:

1. Put the other gerbils into the carrier with Luna, with some bedding from their nest. Let them stew in there for a couple of hours, ideally until they've piled up and slept together. Once they've slept together you can start to relax, and consider putting them back in their enclosure. Depending on how big or complex their enclosure (whether it has lots of different levels etc), I would consider scaling it back to begin with.

2. Put them in a split tank. Swap sides after a couple of hours. Depending on how they react you could then consider removing the divider.

It's probably best to do as your vet suggested and keep Luna alone in the carrier until the anathaestic has worn off, as the other gerbils might not like it if she's not quite acting or smelling herself due to being drugged.

[Markpd]

cloudyclue How did it go?

[cloudyclue]

Sorry for taking so long to update this,

Luna is completely back to normal and is healthier than ever, she's very mischievous, and outgoing. We are even more bonded than previously! Super glad she's back to her silly self.

[Markpd]

Great to hear

Did you manage to re-intro her to her 2 sisters ok?