Gerbil emergency! (by Dan)

On Friday night I noticed that the gerbil's water was low. I told DJ to go fill it and then I took a closer look to discover that Salt (Forest calls them Salt and Pepper) was not acting in a regular gerbilish nature. She (or he?) was limping around, shaking, couldn't balance herself, and seemed to not be able to use her back legs. In fact, she looked like she was about ready to just keel over. I did a quick inspection to find that the two of them were covered in mites - blood suckers. It was late, and there wasn't much I could do. DJ was really upset and had a very hard time sleeping, as he worried a lot about them through the night. We did at least get them a little water. I told DJ that Salt didn't look like she would make it through the night - she looked that bad.

First thing Saturday a.m. I checked, and Salt had made it through the night! I went and got mite killer stuff at the pet food store and started soaking both of them . Pepper started to get the same symptoms as well. And, they both started bleeding from the nose and eyes. At that point I got a dropper and started force feeding them some gatorade- type drink. Low and behold, by Saturday night, they were both looking a lot better and their symptoms were starting to disappear.

By Sunday, they seemed to be completely back to normal! Amazing! DJ said - "Dad, I owe you big time for saving my gerbils' lives." 10 minutes later I asked him to do a chore, which somehow he was suddenly reluctant to do..... oh how quickly we forget!

Here's Salt and Pepper when DJ got them for his birthday in May.