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Post by Markpd on Jan 27, 2023 15:05:39 GMT -8
LilyandDaisy Eek, yes there's sand there, and it's too late for me to do anything about it tonight now , I'm working tomorrow morning, got to wash and go to bed! Hopefully the fact that's his wound is stitched and glued (rather than open as such) means it'll be ok until tomorrow afternoon at least.... Re intro'ing, oh yea good point about him might want to scent mark more! How long should I wait though? PS In his carry cage, (part of the old Rotastak), the vets had put some kind of nappy in there as soft bedding! Don't they know about the fibres!?
And yea Blake chewed some of it!
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Post by betty on Jan 29, 2023 10:32:57 GMT -8
How's it all looking today Markpd - gerbil wounds usually heal really well so hopefully you can see a real improvement at the site already.
As for the reintro - I would wait until it was completely healed and looked like it hadn't been a wound at all. As it isn't always just the outside that needs healing - I would want to make sure that not only was it completely sealed naturally outside, dry, and a pale/skin colour in appearance; but also that it wasn't raised or warm at all either (possibly indicating any infection underneath) - or from fresh irritation/rubbing/chewing either.
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Post by Markpd on Jan 29, 2023 15:39:12 GMT -8
Well I had a close look at the wound today, I tried picking him up the way the vet did by flipping him in my hand and trying to hold his head still with 2 fingers, that just didn't work for me (did the vet!), Blake just flipped back over. And when I tried that the other day, he nipped me! Then I remembered the old fashioned way of picking gerbils up! So I grabbed him by the base of the tail (which does not cause de-gloving, despite what some websites say!) and he remained perfectly calm and still for the few seconds I needed to look at the wound . The wound looked fine as far as I could tell, I should have taken a photo and posted it here, but I will be tomorrow for the vet, so I'll post that here too (too late for tonight). Didn't think to touch it at that point to see how warm it is, but it didn't seem unusually warm when I held him in my hand, and I felt the wound rub over my finger as he climbed out. So hopefully it's ok? He's full of beans anyway! Roughly how long do you think it'll take to heal up? (assuming no infection?). Btw Clare is aware that Blake has had an op, so presumably she wouldn't let me have them too early anyway? She just said "See how he goes, no exact time frame". I guess I could send her pics of the wound too, maybe she would have a better idea of the time frame then.
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Post by icecontroller2529 on Feb 1, 2023 9:07:40 GMT -8
How is Blake doing, Mark? Hope he's recovering well!
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Post by Markpd on Feb 1, 2023 12:51:41 GMT -8
He's seems to have fully recovered thanks Zipping around like his normal self , which has made it extremely difficult to photo his belly for the vet! Nonetheless, out of approaching 20 attempts, I got (I think) a few good enough photos! Lol These are the ones I have sent to the vet (just before their closing time yesterday, not heard back yet).
So what do people think? Photos ok? Wound ok? That took rather a lot of mealworms fed to Blake to keep getting him to stretch up! I'm sure he wasn't complaining! An extremely annoying flaw of my phone's camera app is that when the flash is on it delays taking the photo by a couple of seconds! By which time I'm lucky if he's even still in shot! lol. Hence the last one isn't great because I turned the flash off as he was in the right position.
Oh, and one of the failed belly shots (too distant), that I kept because he looked quite cute looking at me (no doubt wondering what I was up to!).
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Post by icecontroller2529 on Feb 2, 2023 9:14:59 GMT -8
What a relief that Blake is recovering well!
But oh, those pics look nasty! I mean the wound, not the healing process, that looks fine, at least on the outside.
What a cutie Blake is!
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Post by Markpd on Feb 3, 2023 15:57:52 GMT -8
I heard back from the vet yesterday, he's seen those photos (and the one below) and thinks he's healing fine (despite the stitching coming out), so that's good I've stopped the metacam (last dose last night, which was 2 days beyond what the vet said. I just thought that going from twice daily to nothing was a bit of a cliff edge. I stopped the anti-biotic on wednesday, 1 day after the vets recommendation, in an abundance of caution). Blake still seems good
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Post by icecontroller2529 on Feb 7, 2023 5:20:16 GMT -8
Good thing you gave the metacam a little longer just in case. Another very clear photo, but so scary to see that wound. It's been a few days now, is Blake recovering well?
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Post by Markpd on Feb 10, 2023 23:45:46 GMT -8
He's still doing well , will be popping him into the vets later to have that loose stitch snipped off, as well as examining the wound. Will post an update later.
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Post by Markpd on Feb 11, 2023 17:21:08 GMT -8
A different vet, but he's happy with how Blake's wound is healing , and the stray suture is snipped!
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Post by Markpd on Feb 14, 2023 12:18:36 GMT -8
Well this is puzzling, and sad, Blake has taken a sudden turn for the worse . Last night he was perfectly ok, scoffing his face and vigorously destroying a card box I'd put in there with some vegetables! This evening when I came back home I found him apparently snoozing in his sandbath (photo below), which he does occasionally, I thought how cute, then went back to the Kitchen to make my sandwiches for tomorrow. However when I came back and offered him his 1st treat he was very weak a listless . He took the sunflower seed and cracked it (I heard it and later found the shells), he took 3 of the peas I offered him but he barely ate any of them and dropped them, every now and then he would sniff them, as if interested, but wouldn't eat them. I offered him water, but he wasn't interested, I offered him some liquid honey on my finger, but he wasn't interested . Finally I offered him a small piece of bread with metacam on it, he did appear to eat some of it, I hope the bit with the metacam on....
He's also stretching from time to time, and sometimes I can hear clicking when he's breathing It really doesn't look good for him....
About an hour ago he went underground, but he's just resurfaced doing much the same. Although surprisingly he climbed up onto the wooden walk way (you can see it in the photo) to get on a glass ledge! (although he slipped and then fell off). I'm going to try to feed him some Vetcal in a second, but not sure how much. Any idea LilyandDaisy or anyone?
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Feb 14, 2023 12:30:30 GMT -8
Sorry to hear that Blake has deteriorated. He does look uncomfortable in the photo.
With the Vetcal, when they're this sick I tend to give as much as they want to eat.
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Post by Markpd on Feb 14, 2023 12:33:40 GMT -8
I gave him a very small piece of bread with it on, he ate some of it, and then seemed to run out of steam....
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Feb 14, 2023 12:41:05 GMT -8
I'd keep offering him small amounts of food and water often and hope he keeps eating (a positive sign). He might like a heating pad as well.
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Post by Markpd on Feb 14, 2023 12:53:14 GMT -8
Yea I've got a heating pad too, I did think about that earlier, but then forgot (after ringing my vets, then a different out of hours vet, which a consultancy would have been £150 + any meds!). The trouble I have is that the tank is very heavy even when empty, let alone 2/3 full with bedding! But perhaps I could put it on one end, thanks for reminding me! Curious, Blake is moving around a little, despite still being very listless....
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