do/can vets do much for tiny pets - eg gerbils

[hatwoman]

our gerbil doesn;t seem well. not moving about much. one of her eyes seems half shut all the time. without wanting to sound harsh I'm a little sceptical about whether or not a vet would/should/could do anything for her? any opinions?

(just to show me up, she's just started skipping about...)

[smurfgirl]

IME its not worth it, they seem to recover on their own or they don't, vet intervention has never saved a small pet of mine.

Sorry to be so pessimistic - maybe others will be more positive.

[AaliyahsFirstXmas]

They can do stuff but tbh cos they are so small there is little they can do.

Although we used to have rats and one of them had cancerous lumps removed about 3 times so....

it's the anaeasthetic that does them but if they have injections its normally ok.

[TheFallenMadonna]

Not according to our vet. One of our gerbils was ill a few months back - couldn't open eyes fully, not moving. Vet said dehydrated, could be one of many causes, but prognosis poor and gave a 2ml peritoneal injection of fluid, which seems like a huge amount to me. Anyway, I think it hastened the end. She didn't really move at all after the treatment and died the next morning.

[hatwoman]

tbh you're mostly confirming what I thought. and making me feel less bad for the groaning guilt I was wondering if I should feel for not taking her to the vet on christmas eve...

[AaliyahsFirstXmas]

I wouldn't take her unless you can see something that could be fixed. If she's just "ill" then there isn't much they can do.

Is she eating? How old is she?

[hatwoman]

difficult to tell if she's eating as there are two of them - I don;t think she is. she's not really doing anything. she's about 7 months so not geriatric

[AaliyahsFirstXmas]

That's not old at all.
One of our gerbils went quite young but the other one then lived to be 5 years old

[Blondeshavemorefun]

take to your vet and see what they say

appointments for small furries are about £13 and maybe all they need is some antibos