im so upset

[loopylou6]

i know it doesnt sound much but my sons gerbil died this morning, he hasnt been right for a couple of days, it was like he suddenly lost all his fat in a matter of days, anyway took him the vet this morning and he said the gerbil was severley dehydrated, i dunno how coz he always had plenty of water and food available, the vet thought it was an internal problem, anyway he gave the gerbil fluid injections under his skin and put him under a heat lamp, then 2 hours later i got a call to say he had died , i had the horrib
le job of telling my son when i picked him up from school and hes devastated, hes just gone with dh to get a new one. thing i wanted to know was, has anyone been in a similar situation with a gerbil? its really horrible not knowing what was wrong with him, we bought 2 at the same time and the other one is fine, im worried about how this is gonna effect my son aswell as hes so sensitive.

Awww. Poor you. And poor Son. And gerbil. How old is your boy? He'll feel better about it soon. The new one will be a good distraction. I remember when my DD was about 6 (she's 11 now.) One afternoon I realised there was something wrong with our hamster. It was too late for vet attention. I sat with the poor thing until it died. I had to tell her when she got home from school. She broke her heart. I cried too, I hated seeing her so upset.

for you, son and the late Loopy gerbil.

DS hamster is now 2 and half and sleeps and sleeps and sleeps - he really can't have long now. Dreading when he dies but it is good for children to learn about death.

Just had a look at your profile See your DS is 8. I've got a DS who's 9 today. He's very sensitive too. Love your pictures - your lounge looks a lot like mine!!

My son had mice (still got 3) - he has learned that cos they don't live long, they are all REALLY old when they die

I think rodents typically don't live over 3 yrs so the kids need to be prepared that 2/3 yrs old for them is REALLY old - that seemed to help DS anyway.

Hope he recovers soon

thanks so much everyone for the comments, and thanks mummypenguin for the compliments my DS is not so bad today, he got a new one last night and is trying to convince himself that it is cuter than the other one (its not though ) he was on the phone to my mum last night telling her about his new gerbil and it broke my heart because he said to her "im sad nan because last night me and ginger (the dead gerbil) where watching fireworks from my bedroom window, i cant believe hes dead now" to be honest i think it upset me more than him, i was crying into my brandy for most of the night last night, think tis coz i saw how poorly he was and had tow atch the vet picking him up by the scruff of his neck ans sticking needles into him ohhhh well, thats life i suppose.