gerbil

my sister has a pet gerbil, she discoverd this little thing on one of his scent
glands..a soft mass, about as big as the end of a tooth pick and it has some
stuff coming out of it... she took him to a vet and the vet said its a tumor
and to take him out of his cage, put him in an aquarium, take out the wheel,
food dish and put card board on the bottom of the cage and gave her some
ointment to be applied,( he also suggested surgery)......so she did what he
said and the gerbil is miserable... now in the other cage, he was still very
active, played on the wheel and seemed fine....she thinks that this might do
more harm to the gerbil than good.. getting no exercise.. if anyone has any
advice, it would be appreciated.. thank you

"Bluencurly2" <bluencurly2.DeleteThis@aol.commodity> wrote in message
news:20040410222613.12667.00000078@mb-m26.aol.com...
> my sister has a pet gerbil, she discoverd this little thing on one of his
> scent
> glands..a soft mass, about as big as the end of a tooth pick and it has
> some
> stuff coming out of it... she took him to a vet and the vet said its a
> tumor
> and to take him out of his cage, put him in an aquarium, take out the
> wheel,
> food dish and put card board on the bottom of the cage and gave her some
> ointment to be applied,( he also suggested surgery)......so she did what
> he
> said and the gerbil is miserable... now in the other cage, he was still
> very
> active, played on the wheel and seemed fine....she thinks that this might
> do
> more harm to the gerbil than good.. getting no exercise.. if anyone has
> any
> advice, it would be appreciated.. thank you

Gerbils are very social creatures and become lonely and depressed without at
least another cagemate. However, you can try to remedy this by paying a lot
of attention to your gerbil.

As for the vet's advice I don't understand why he would recommend taking out
the wheel and food dish. I can understand the bedding--the chips may stick
to the wound.

Perhaps a way to get around this is to purchase a playpen and put the wheel
and food dish with a bunch of toys in it and let your gerbil run around in
there for about an hour and then put him back in his cage--that way your
gerbil gets exercise and you can keep an eye on him so that he doesn't harm
himself.