Split Caging Gone Bad Need Help!!!!

[RedEaredWonder]

Ok guys you might remember me from when my two gerb boys started fighting and the dad was neutral... you told me split cage wouldnt work.... and your were right... but its not the boys this time that has the problem... the father... i came home yesterday from school and noticed him laying in the corner of the cage, so i figured he was sleeping. later i went back and saw that he was STILL laying in that same spot... i picked him up and he was all Bloody... we cleaned him up but the biggest worey was the nose.. his face is all swollen, but he is doing about 100% better from yesterday... his nose is bleeding a lot and i have to clean it off (with klenex + water) but even after that he still is having some trouble breathing. The split cage thing is the next part... they chewed a hole right through it so the boys could fight... i split them up PERMINANTLY with minimal injury to either one. as for the dad i suspect he might have gotten caught in the wall as he was diggin through it and maby even ate a piece of the metal stuff.... i hope he didnt but you never know.... neither one of the boys hate him or anything. they all sleep on him. but the dad is swollen up like a blimp and not movin around all that much. (he still runs like hell when the cage door opens =)) anyways, he was all red and bloody and swollen yesterday and it seems to have gone down a great deal, but his face still looks like a watermellon. ime not a troll or whatever you call em here. look at my last post if you dont believe me. any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

ps- please tell me how i could possibly take care of the dad without a visit to de doc which tends to be
a. expensive, and b. hard to do with one parent hating rodents, and the other not really caring about them.....

[RedEaredWonder]

btw... dont get on me about how a gerbil cant get in that condition in one night... i picked all of them up before i went to school and they were all in TIP TOP SHAPE. the hole appeared once i got home...

just thaught ide let ya know...

[andreaS15]

Yikes, dosn't sound good at all, poor little fella.

Ok, now if the Dads bene beat up, he's bleeding and swelling, is the swollen parts warm to the touch. Touch another gerbil then touch him to see if there is any difference.
If he is you will need to take him to a Vet for antibiotics, it would be because he has a major infection.
Second thing running through my mind was, because you said his nose won't stop bleeding & the heard to breath thing.... what bedding do you have him on?
These symptoms are usually from a allergy, and usually it's to beddings like pine or cedar.

Now if he was my gerbil, I would seperate him, keep a heating pad on low in a corner of the tank for him. Give him cat food and apple sauce, adn clean his woulds well and with antiseptic creams like hibitain or polysporn. I would clean his tank and put him on shedded paper and paper towel only.
If none of this helps him I would make an appointment to see a vet ASAP.
gerbisl can overcome alot I haev found, but infections are tough specially if they spread in the body.

Good luck, and I hope he starts showing signs of improvment very soon.

[Zouave]

A moistened styptic pencil stops bleeding in tiny cuts. I see no danger with that.

You may consider gently administering tetracycline (ornacycline) also. But never force liquids into a sick animal; he could drown!

[RedEaredWonder]

No prob guys... hes not on pine or cedar that stuff is bad i hear... ile go check the nose (crossing fingures!!!) and hes on this bedding stuff that is like greyish shredded paper stuff that they have been in for over a year and a half at least... I cleaned the tank and took out one of the children (cuz both will fight) i kinda like when two are together cuz he cleans the dad and stuff and lays on top of him keeping them warm. they both like each other A LOT and ime afraid that separating them would make the dad really depressed and he could get sick (like i said they like each other a lot) the breathing thing ime worried about isnt the litter... i am afraid that he might have swallowed some of the metal from the fencing i placed in the middle of the cage. When i saw the hole, they had completly decimated the area. they chewed out the hole then split up the wire mesh stuff a lot. he could have easily stuffed it down his fuzzy mouth thus the cuts on his lower and upper lip, and it could have punctured a lung or something? I know very very little about gerbil anatomy and stuff so tell me if ime sounding like an ideot putting bad ideas out.... so today is day 2 and gerbs seem to be doing about the same/better. the dad is still a basketball of fluff, but he seems to be a lot more active. i havnt picked him up yet cuz i dont wanna disrupt them much though i need to soon to make sure hes ok and about the nose being warm stuff...

[RedEaredWonder]

Ok guys i checked the nose... i dont *THINK* it is hotter than the others. ime really worried about his breathing. i noticed dry blood over his nose so i quickly got rid of it with klenex and water. i do remember though that before we cleaned them we had this stuff called Timothy Hay... could that have been a problem? come to think of it i think that and the wire barrier were the only things that could have caused this to happen... i mean hes really beat up. i dont think gerbils could fight like that in just several hours while ime at school. But you can hear him breathing. he sucks in with a squeek sound and stuff... he is moving around much more than the other days though. the only things i can think of is the barrier and grass stuff though ime thinking maby the barrier. When that stuff is cut it can be extremely sharp i noticed. maby as they were chewing the hole he tried to squeeze through but couldnt make it through then got caught in the hole and couldnt free himself without beatin himself up... thats prety much the only idea i have, but how would squeezing through do that to his nose? he would try it and if it was that small he would sense the pain in his nose and back off... but his whole body was red and swolen under his black fur...

[RedEaredWonder]

if you wonder why i dont use their names... the gerbil dads name is......drumroll........ gerbil dad =D wanna guess what his beautiful wife's name is???

[andreaS15]

i dont think gerbils could fight like that in just several hours while ime at school.
You would be surprised.
My de-clan happend within an hour or so, one look they were fine, the next blood everywhere.

I would purchase the ornacycline, and hope that the antibiotic will help "Dad" gerbil. To me it sounds like someone beat the crap outta him (boys are growing, and probably want to be the dominent male, Dad didn't like that).
If you cannot get dad to a vet (though i highly reccomend it, he sounds to be in pretty bad shape) then head down to your local Pet Supply store pick up some ornacycline, you will find it in the bird section, as it is sold for birds.

Keep him clean and warm. Give him extra protine (cat/kitten food) and apple sauce or baby food to keep hydrated (the natural sugars will give him energy).

Good luck, and i hope he's well soon.

[RedEaredWonder]

update--day 3

ok i checked up on him when i got home from school and it still sounts like he cant breath.... i took a closer look at it and put my ear right by his nose and discovered something.... it appeares that his nose is stuffed. like when we get colds. there was like gerb snot under it.... i dont wanna distrub him too much if he cant breath cuz i dont wanna kill him cuz he gets to excited and cant get air. but it sounds and looks more like a stuffy nose...

[KikoGerb]

a gerbil with a cold. weird. I have a cold right now, and i feel sorry for the lil guy. colds suck, and being a tiny little guy that cant really blow his nose, its probably VERY uncomfortable for him.

[HandcuffedAngel]

If he was bloody, they got in a fight.

This happened with my hamsters. I had "dwarfs" (I'm pretty sure they weren't dwarfs!) and the boys killed each other in only a matter of maybe an hour or two.

This may disturb you a lot, but I came in after dinner one night to find one had its head taken almost all the way off by the other. The one that died first I guess got a bite in before he was murdered and the other one died on my pillow next to my head at 7 in the morning.

Some animals just can't be bonded. I think this may be the issue. You may just have to keep all your gerbils totally separate.

[RedEaredWonder]

They have been fine together for like 2 years... i had two male dwarfs and they faught all the time but always ended up sleeping next to each other whenever they were tired... as for the gerb. it does look like he got in a fight... i think thats prolly it. his nose is all swollen and i think that has somethin to do with him breathin funny. its like day 6 after he got the snot beaten outa him, seems better... the boy that i think attacked him is the older brother. if you combined the young bro and the father, you might still not match the size of phat (the oldest son) he was the one that beat the snot outa the lil guy too. so i have phat in a seperate cage, and the young son and dad in their old cage. they seem to be doing much better, but phat is very depressed. i switch up the yongest boy and phat every once in a while while ime around so that phat can get some company with the dad. The dad and phat get along fine...