Rat
Rescue :: Baby
gerbil’s injured paw
Baby gerbil’s injured paw
In July 2005, myself and my daughter Coral helped
foster some silver fawn gerbils – among many other small furries!
- from GBH Rescue in Kent.
Within two days of their arrival, lots of squeaking indicated
that Mum gerbil had given birth to seven babies. Having never
had new born animals before, I was far too frightened to handle
these little guys for the first day or so – they looked so fragile.
However, I was assured by Jacky that the Mum would not mind
and eventually I took the plunge, handling the babies every
day for a few minutes and making sure they were all okay.
Jacky also gave me a crash course on how to sex the gerbils
and we eventually established that we had 5 little boys and
2 girls.
Late one night when they were about 10 days old, I was checking
them all over and saw that something was not quite right with
one of the little boys. Initially I thought something had got
stuck to one of its front paws, but on closer examination, it
was the limb itself which was the problem. It was very swollen
and didn’t look at all nice.
Coral came over the following morning with her camera and took
some pictures in order to get some advice as to the problem.
On zooming in, it looked as if something had wrapped itself
around the limb and was cutting into it. I was mortified and
could not understand how anything could have got into the cage
which would cause this to occur. That afternoon, off we went
to the vets with Mum and all her babes.
Our vet managed to remove the offending article which resembled
a thread, but could give us no guarantee whether the little
chap would lose the limb or not. Antibiotics were prescribed
together with some cream which we were told to apply liberally
to the wound in an endeavour to promote healing and minimise
any scar tissue.
The baby boy was very good and liked his medicine so much that
he would nibble the end of the syringe! Applying the cream was
not quite so easy as he was so small and wriggly and invariably
the cream ended up not only on his paw but around his nose and
all over his body as well.
Days passed, the swelling subsided and although the wound healed,
the end of the limb was not bearing his weight and would bend
under him at right angles. I was convinced that the end of the
limb was totally useless and that he would lose it, but it remained
pink and healthy looking, even though the paw itself was not
useable.
Five weeks after the birth, the babies were split with the
2 girls remaining with their Mum. The boys became little characters
in their own right and as days went on, I realised that the
little boy with the poorly paw was getting around just as easily
as all the others, the only noticeable difference being the
way he held his food.
They were delightful to look after and I continued to handle
them all on a daily basis, just holding them in my hand as I
took them out of the cage one after the other until all 5 were
in my hand where they would all sit quite happily for a few
minutes before wanting to be on the move again.
They went off to the new home before Christmas by which time,
it was very difficult to find the boy with the damaged paw.
He had made a wonderful recovery, his fur had grown over the
wound and unless you looked very, very carefully, it was difficult
to tell him apart from his brothers. The limb had regained its
strength although I suspect that a weakness will always be there.
I just hope it will never hinder that little chap in any way.
Article by : Sylvia Meetens
