My goodness.

My goodness.  I have never had a group of gerbils that didn't get along before, but officially all of the girls now live separately.  Melon made it clear when I bought Whitey and Tamari for her that she didn't want friends and I guess that's understandable since she'd lived alone for so long by the time she came to me.  But Whitey and Tamari have lived together since the pet store... and we've had them for (I'm guessing) about a year now.  Things have been fine all of this time - there have been some small scuffles and play-fighting, but that's normal. Today when we checked on them, though, Tamari's back end was bloody and chewed up.  She is not looking good.  🙁

Since she was so bloody I thought I should wash her wounds.  I did that and she bit the hell out of my thumb.  I haven't been bitten like that since I bought Testiclees (my first gerbil who I chose because he bit me and dangled).  Poor Tamari was also dangling from my thumb over the sink and it hurt.  But she clearly doesn't feel well and I know that bathing them is stressful so I understand.  I'm not mad at her.

Right now she's resting in her own home - where no one can hurt her.  I Googled what to do for an injured gerbil and there is not a lot of information out there, unfortunately.  I know that they are pretty resilient so I'm hoping we got to her before she was hurt too badly.  I'll post an update tomorrow.  I'm REALLY hoping that she hangs in there.  She's Shadow's gerbil and it would SUPER SUCK to have her die on his birthday.  I mean, obviously I don't want her to die at all, but the timing could make it harder on my son.  🙁