My Gerbils are sick.

Question
We have 2 one-year old gerbils (Cherry and Blossom) who up till now have been healthy and active. Last weekend they escaped from their cage whilst we were away.  We found Cherry immediately but it took two days to locate and recapture Blossom. On Tuesday I bought a new more secure cage, new toys, tube, chews etc.. to amuse them.. thinking they may be bored. Now they are both very sick.  They are lethargic, eyes shut, v fast breathing. Blossom, the one which took longer to recapture appears most ill and may have "passed on" the illness to Cherry.  We took them to the vet this a.m. who gave them an injection of antibiotics but this seems to have no effect as yet.  He advised me to try giving them jam or honey on a spoon to get the glucose level up - they aren't interested though. Blossom feels cold so I've currently got them in their cage in a warm quilted bag with a warm hot water bottle pressed up against the glass of their cage.  I'm taking them back to the vet on Monday if they last that long.  I'm not optimistic.  Any advice on what I can do to help them would be gratefully received as I hate seeing them suffering.

Answer
Hi Claire

It sounds like you are doing a fab job at helping them in anyway you can. You are right to keep them as warm as possible particularly if they are not keeping their own body heat. Make sure you have the cage in a quiet place so they are not disturbed too often.

They do need to try and eat/drink, when i used to treat sick gerbils we would syringe feed them human baby food. Cow and Gate Sunshine Bananna is a good one to use. Mix this powder with water until it is a smooth liquid, so that you can get it in a dropper/syringe, and then you may need to actually feed them very carefully yourseleves. If you actually put the food in their mouths they should swallow it, and you just do this until they won't take anymore. Be careful, and do it slowly as they have very small mouths and you don't want to choke them!! Do this twice a day!
The antibiotics should help, and it is good you are going to go back. They will probably need a course of antibiotics to actually recover!!

There isn't much else you can do for them, as you seem to be doing pretty much all you can, but i hope they are ok and let me know what happens.

Charlie
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