Sick Gerbils and Magic Powders

Geronimo the Gerbil is currently residing in a 10-gallon aquarium in a corner of our dining room. He's a very quiet pet, making tiny noises only when he cracks tough seed-coats or when he nibbles on the wrapping-paper, paper-towel, or toilet-paper tubes we occasionally give him.

For much of the past two and one-half school terms he has lived in my classroom at school. But he developed some distressing symptoms at school, so I decided to bring him home to work on improving his health by beefing up his nutritional program.

The problem he developed looked like a long cut on his pale underside. It was in the middle of his tummy--about an inch and half long and it looked bloody and sore. When my co-teacher inquired, I informed him delicately that I believed what we were seeing was an infection in his promiscuous parts (apologies to Rudyard Kipling). He had always had a tiny opening there--about one fourth of an inch long, but the size and bleeding were new features. I felt a little sick every time I looked at him but I had no idea how to treat a gerbil for anything, let alone put antibiotic ointment on a cut on his underside. This one had sunk his teeth firmly into the thumb of the last person who had tried to pick him up.

After I got him home, I changed his bedding first. Then I forged ahead with my nutrition plan in spite of my sons poking fun at the plan. I started sprinkling powdered food supplements onto his seed mix. I used just a pinch of dehydrated, powdered vegetables and a pinch of glyconutrients--expensive stuff, to be sure, but I reasoned that we'd never miss a pinch. Then I started offering him sprigs of fresh parsley and bits of carrots and apple cores. I also limited his access to sunflower seeds (He's had an obesity problem in the past), the part of the seed mix he always ate first, leaving much of the rest untouched until I had to dump it because it was stale or soiled. I offered him one large sunflower seed every day when I fed him. He ate it out of my hand. Then I gave him all he wanted of the rest of the seed mix, minus the sunflower seeds. The wild birds got those.

For a number of weeks, nothing changed. "What's his problem downstairs?" Joel asked when Geronimo once stood tall on his back legs with his belly facing toward the outside of the aquarium.

From an internet site I learned that the "promiscuous part" on Geronimo's underside was in reality a scent gland which secretes a fluid that is useful, in the wild, for marking territory. The scent fluid is colored a deep, nearly red, orange. In aging male gerbils, tumors often develop around or on the scent glands. While seldom malignant, they are abnormal.

I wasn't quite sure now whether Geronimo had ever had a health problem after all. Perhaps the nutritional cure was wasted.

On further reflection, I concluded that the "blood" I had seen was likely scent fluid that had stained his white fur. But, given the fact that Geronimo has already outlived the pet store owner's prediction by a year and a half, I think he very likely also has had tumors growing in the area of his scent gland. Tumors have been known to disappear completely when glyconutrients have been added to the diet.

At any rate, I'm sticking with the story that I do know a thing or two about nutrition, and those veggies and those glyconutrients can work miracles. Yessir!

Geronimo's stomach slit is back to being one fourth of an inch long, and it's as white and tidy-looking as ever. I'm pleased to report that he is lean and svelte and active.

I'm trying to decide whether it's safe to take him back to school. I'm just not sure I'm up to explaining what I'm doing if anyone sees me giving him a furtive pinch of mysterious magic powders.