Water bottle ball got stuck I accidentally dehydrated them

[southy]

I have 2 pairs of gerbils which I had bred from 2 petstore gerbs. I just realized today that their water bottle was stuck and they were not drinking for possibly a month or longer. This pair is a white agouti and burmese. The white one had an ear infection a week ago and got over it. Today i noticed he was a little wobbly. Then i decided to check the water and the ball was stuck. Possibly like this since i moved them from when my dad was taking care of them like 2 months ago. 😱 I was feeding them some salads, and cakes and pie. But I dont know why i didnt think to check water. The water level hadnt gone down possibly since i moved them or since i cleaned tank a month ago 😱. Theyre looking a little better now that they drank but the white one is quite dizzy looking. Im sorry!!! I neglected them.
Also my other pair, the black amd white one has a huge scent gland tumor. I scheduled a surgery on thursday which cost $600 but im not sure i should do it. Its not really the money, rather the stress it will put on him. The vet told me i have to drop him off and leave him there from 730 to 2pm. He might be scared if im not with him or his brothers not with him.
And i just nearly dehydrated my other pair to death. I think theyll recover but should i just let nature run its course on the one with the sgt? He is fat, eats alot, and is pretty healthy other wise. Now i am even more concerned about the white one... They did not have water for possibly a month 😱 tbh I think Im a bad gerbilmom

[catnut]

I'm sure they had some water but it may not have been working right.How often do you change their water? i change mine daily and clean it weekly and check almost daily if they ball bearing it working, the odd day i've forgotten to do that but now make sure i do it daily. i wouldn't give any baked goods and check to make sure the veggies you give them is okay online.$600 is alot of money and if he is older, he could pass if they don't know what they are doing, unless they are very experienced with gerbils, it may be alot to put out, but it's up to you. It is stressful with surgery on a gerbil and the after care is alot due to the stitches, he could pick at it and it may not heal.

[southy]

i refill them when they get empty. that bottle is usually always leaking. i should have realized something was wrong when the water remained full and noticed they werent drinking out of it a few days ago. and the white one was looking sick, they were running less, sitting and staring at me with a sad look 😱 but possibly they didnt drink out of it for weeks. i had given them some snacks and lettuce/carrots from salad which i think they got a little water from. hope fully theyll recover from this 😭

[LilyandDaisy]

Water bottles should really be changed at least every other day, ideally every day. The water inside grows bacteria otherwise.

[Markpd]

And it wouldn't taste very nice.
I change my boys water every other day.
Btw, I once looked after a friend's daughter's pet rats (and a gerbil) whilst they were on holiday, IIRC they were away 2 weeks. The daughter said not to worry about changing water and just come once to feed and water them. Too little I thought, so I volunteered to come twice. Anyway I noticed the rats had 2 water bottles (side by side), so as an experiment I did change the water in just one of the bottles, when I came back a few days later they had drank quite a lot out of the one I had changed and virtually nothing from the other one. Clearly they preferred the fresher water, so I changed them both on that 2nd visit.

Btw, you mentioned your gerbil was fat, if you meant that literally then you ought to reduce his food a little.
Seeing as your gerbils were getting some water from the veggies, and they were still moving about, there's a decent chance they'll recover from that.
Hopefully they already have, how are they doing?