Post by mwoody on Oct 2, 2011 23:02:41 GMT
Hi,
We have 4 degus, unfortunately one of them died on Thursday which was out of the blue, was fine in the morning with no signs of illness and had died during the day.
This morning we noticed one of them (usually the most active) wasnt really moving to much, and although he had his closed he wasnt asleep. It looks very difficult for him to move and doesnt really respond to anything and his fur is all puffy, he was also quite cold.
We have taken him out of the cage, and he has just been lying in our hands for most of the day (also unusual he usually never stays still, but keeps snuggling into your hand). He seems very unsettled and seems to shuffle forward a bit every so often.
He wouldnt take food or water before (9 hours ago), but would take a treat. Now he will take water occasionaly but wont take any form of food.
He hasnt shown any sign of illness previously and not sure what to do at the moment.
We have made a temporary home for him with a water bottle, moistoned food, treats and soaked a new dish cloth so he can get to water no matter what. I was concerned if it was a disease causing the problem the others might catch it.
I'm worried he wont make it through the night and was wondering a few things-
In terms of whats causing this we have no idea at the moment, i'm hoping this is stress from the loss of his brother a couple of days ago, but the other 2 are completly fine.
We have 4 degus, unfortunately one of them died on Thursday which was out of the blue, was fine in the morning with no signs of illness and had died during the day.
This morning we noticed one of them (usually the most active) wasnt really moving to much, and although he had his closed he wasnt asleep. It looks very difficult for him to move and doesnt really respond to anything and his fur is all puffy, he was also quite cold.
We have taken him out of the cage, and he has just been lying in our hands for most of the day (also unusual he usually never stays still, but keeps snuggling into your hand). He seems very unsettled and seems to shuffle forward a bit every so often.
He wouldnt take food or water before (9 hours ago), but would take a treat. Now he will take water occasionaly but wont take any form of food.
He hasnt shown any sign of illness previously and not sure what to do at the moment.
We have made a temporary home for him with a water bottle, moistoned food, treats and soaked a new dish cloth so he can get to water no matter what. I was concerned if it was a disease causing the problem the others might catch it.
I'm worried he wont make it through the night and was wondering a few things-
- how can we best comfort him?
- how much water does he need to take on? He will drink water if we take the water bottle to his mouth
- is there a way we can force feed him?
- if we can't force feed him, is there something we can get to mix with the water to give him some level of nutrition?
In terms of whats causing this we have no idea at the moment, i'm hoping this is stress from the loss of his brother a couple of days ago, but the other 2 are completly fine.
