Ob finally had his scent gland removed today after the vet insisting a couple of weeks back that it’s dermatitis. He’s groggy but otherwise fine, ate a couple of cheerios and has fiddled with his belly a little but nothing much.

One thing struck me when I was collecting him – haven’t vets gone awfully americanised? Or at least mine appears to have.

The nurse told me to “keep him on paper tissue or a towel” until they next saw him, and that shavings would irritate his tummy and cause him to effectively rip the stitches out (which by the way, are inner stitches).
Well, I have to say, I’ve never had an issue with a gerbil on shavings after an op before. Yes, if it was dust, damn right it’d be causing problems, but not wood shavings and toilet paper. Oh, and they gave me some man-made fibre blanket to keep him on all week, and effectively said to keep him apart from his tankmates. What was it I said the other day on the forum? Anything you put in with a gerbil will be chewed. Hm. And if a gerbil is on its own, has nobody to distract or entertain them, well guess where their attention will go.

Not only that but also as a first, I was given a bottle of baytril and told to give him two drops a day. For.. what? He’s had a tumour removed?
Yes ok, if there’s a chance of infection setting in, sure, prescribe an antibiotic, but baytril? Seriously? Do they know that baytril is not recommended for any seizure-prone species, and correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t gerbils the model species for scientists to test seizure stimuli and seizure meds on?

It just seems to me that some practises are now just googling the odd problem that they didn’t cover much in vet school and find americanised sites like yahoo answers or american-ran forums, where they come to the conclusion that pine kills!!, peanuts and sunflowers are bad!!, and other well-known chinese whispers. Reedonkulous.