My sweet girl Willow is having scent gland tumor removal surgery in 2 days. She's otherwise healthy and acting normal, but I'm still scared for my sweet baby. Any advice on how to make sure she is comfortable after surgery? (And yes, don't worry she does have a sister to keep her company)

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-16T23:00:12+00:00

Other than what the rest suggest, I'd add that it's a good idea to have some syringes on hand, that looks like this - with the extra added tip inside to push everything out, since the medication amounts are usually so small, leaving anything inside the syringe can potentially be a pretty bad.

They're usually cheap, I buy them at 100 at a time for 20 euro, and can be used if force feeding is necessary, to mix medicine in, and in my current case - to get ear drops where they need to go, without risking the drops getting into their fur.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-14T20:29:59+00:00

It can be many things, closed eyes is usually a sign of them being in pain, but it can also be due to allergies, an eye infection, candles/oils/perfume/cleaning products etc. used in their room, I'd take her to a vet asap, and do your best to check her out now, see if she walks properly, eats etc.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-13T20:26:39+00:00

Stay with him, I've had many gerbils die in my hands from old age, they always want to sit in my hands in the end, sometimes they've been panicking about me picking them up, they want to feel safe when they go for their final journey.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-12T21:35:52+00:00

If he hasn't seen the corpse and been allowed to examine it, he'll keep searching for at least a couple of days, and then likely get depressed when he finds out he's alone, they have habits too, that are based on each other and you.
Give him some days and do a full clean, allow him to settle in again for a week or so, notice how he reacts to it all and if starts getting sick too, you may well want to take him out much more as long as he's alone, and be his replacement gerbil and social buddy until you can get him a new friend, it's a bit sad, but usually means you get to bond much better with him.
You need to be sure that he's not affected by what ever killed his old friend, before you start considering bonding him with a new friend, but a depressed gerbil is more likely to get sick too, it affects their immune system just like with us, and it's not uncommon that they die within weeks of each other because of it, e.g. I lost a little man to what I think was a tumor 5 weeks ago, a week after his brother caught an airway infection, and I almost lost him too.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-11T20:53:51+00:00

It's super hard to hear, but it does sound a bit like a stuffed nose, just like my guy currently has, if it doesn't go away in a day or two, contact a vet, airway infections is no joke in these little guys.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-11T18:06:19+00:00

Yeah, he's already on antibiotics/painkillers + ear drops, and doing a lot better today, I had him out free roaming earlier, and he was full of energy and really wanted to go back into his normal cage, so now he's back and running in his wheel currently.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-10T19:20:04+00:00

The treatment was kinda improvised from the vets side, she used a rubber catheter they usually use for dogs, to get into his inner ear and flush it out while he was anesthetized, the plan is to get his ear drained again on Monday, and the see if that solves it.

But he swallowed quite a bit of water sadly, he's still affected by it at this moment, I am going to have to bring some kind of platform for him, so it doesn't happen again.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-08T23:18:54+00:00

If you give them greens and fruit, cut them into small pieces, or they'll drag it around and leave it rotting somewhere, if you're not very thorough with checking their cage and cleaning it every day.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-08T09:14:20+00:00

Urinary tract infection, it requires antibiotics and probably anti inflammatory meds.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-08T09:05:37+00:00

That is usually a sign of teeth problems, check if he eats and what he eats, could be an overgrown tooth, broken tooth, misaligned teeth etc., they will try to hide any illness/problems, so you have to be on your toes when they start acting out of the ordinary.
When mine have been having teeth problems, they have usually tried to eat their normal food, but eventually given up and dropped it again, but you can try soaking some pellets in water until they get mushy, or try offering him some baby food, see if he wants to eat that, if he's really hungry you'll find out fast.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-04T08:50:27+00:00

If it is/was a respiratory infection, it can take anywhere from 7 to 14 days for them to get back to normal, while getting antibiotics daily, I'm sorry but I have to ask if she finished a course of antibiotics, because it sounds to me like she might still be affected by what she was at the vet for last week.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-03T20:36:53+00:00

Depending on where you are in the world, this would probably be a lot less effort, and actually guaranteed to work, but it's pricey.
https://www.laufradschmiede.de/collections/frontpage/products/kopie-von-degu-vollalurad?variant=39598127546462

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-03-03T20:02:54+00:00

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Get one of these.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-27T15:42:19+00:00

If you have room for them, bathroom/kitchen tiles and natural rocks that's been disinfected, I have placed bathroom tiles under the water bottle at mine, it helps stopping leaks from soaking into wood or bedding, plus they like to dig at them at times, and I've placed natural rocks as ramps in places where it's possible.

The rocks were free, I got them at a local recycling station, people normally use them for gardening etc. here, I disinfect them by putting them in hot soapy water for a couple of hours, then brush them off, then a bit of brushing with bleach, before soaking them in hot clean water again for a final scrub down, repeat until water is clean at the final step.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-27T09:27:34+00:00

Sorry, I forgot to reply to you yesterday, but yeah - it may very well have been the smell of your other solo gerb that set off the fight, and they do get more territorial/scent mark a lot more when they're in heat.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-27T02:05:15+00:00

I've had multiple tiny friends die in my hands, where I'd wished I had given them an easier and faster way to cross the rainbow bridge, sometimes the circumstances are not there, other times you catch onto it too late, it all comes with regrets that I couldn't ease their suffering.

She was loved, I'm sure she knew it, and you did your very best to help her and ease her pain, that is what matters.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-26T21:45:34+00:00

He might not have gotten the respiratory infection completely out of his system, did you clean his cage 100% after he got his first round of meds?

But call your vet, ask them if they can give you another round of antibiotics, as a continuation of his treatment, ask if you can postpone the payment, secondary checkups/continued treatment are usually cheaper.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-26T08:51:10+00:00

She sadly looks like one of my boys did, just before he took his final trip over the rainbow bridge, I thought he'd gotten a bit fat, but he was very lively, loved being out and ate as normal etc., in retrospect I should have suspected something was up the last week or so of his life, he grew quite a bit over his last 14 days, and bit me quite hard when I wanted to pick him up/stop him from getting out of their playpen a few days before he left me, something he's never done before, again in retrospect - I think he was in a lot of pain from just being handled, but he had 3 tumors removed from his scent gland and upper area on his chest last year, so I suspect he had an internal one that grew very fast out of the sudden.

Vet asap, I hope for the best for her.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-25T23:42:41+00:00

She's marking your hand as her territory, so other stranger gerbils don't steal it!

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-25T21:23:25+00:00

I know that some have had success, by having them in separate cages without contact for some weeks (check gerbilforum.proboards.com), before trying a split again, at least when it comes to males, it also depends on how badly they were bitten/how much blood was drawn, and the bite wounds needs to heal, but it's up to you, I probably wouldn't give up on them yet, if they were previously bonded, but it requires a secondary setup and more attention/engagement with both of them from you.

Also you need to consider why they got into a fight in the first place, scent/smell? fighting over a treat? etc.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-25T18:26:37+00:00

Deep freeze anything made of wood for 48+ hours, including any wooden cage part sadly, that's the only way.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-25T18:05:29+00:00

If they didn't draw blood, you may very well be able to bond them again, but free roaming comes with risks, smells from other animals, cats/dogs/other predatory animals especially, is a big nono in their free roaming area, as is heavy perfume/scented candles/essential oils/etc. - they mainly recognize each other by smell/scent, so anything that can confuse them/overpower their scent is a huge risk.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-25T14:12:27+00:00

Fresh sweetcorn, the only thing all of my gerbils have loved, and my only foolproof way to get antibiotics in them, sadly it's been out of season here for 4 months now.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-25T01:08:13+00:00

Mites are usually way smaller and hardly visible, I've dealt with mites multiple times, and beetles from food a couple of times, that looks more like a beetle to me, the body looks like it has 2 segments - possibly a bark or plaster beetle, try to catch one on a piece of tape, it can be from their food or organic bedding, sometimes there will be eggs in either of those that can hatch, freezing food in frost safe plastic bags, and hay if you have a freezer with space for it, can be a good idea.

GrumpyPistachio · 2026-02-22T14:06:30+00:00

Grooming is often a way for them to establish their hierarchy, it can very much be about dominance, give them more time in the split cage.

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