Big Bob died...

[Mario van Ginneken]

Hi,   We had 4 Gerbils for quite some time now: they came with us in october 1996. At first we all called them "Bob", because we could not recougnize one from the other. After a short while we could and they became "Small Bob", "Big Bob", etc. :-)   Last sunday, Big Bob looked very ill all of a sudden. He layed in an odd corner of his cage and was not moving at all. He was also breathing very fast. I picked him up and he felt stone cold! All day I kept him by me, trying to feed him, keep him warm and stuff. I don't know what was wrong with him, but he did not stop breathing fast and I also heard little clicking sounds when he did. When he moved, he wobbled like he was drunk.   That night, I wanted to put him in a smaller box, to prevent him from staying in a colder corner of his big cage that night, but when I put him in the box, it looked like he freaked out: he started running around, fell in his waterbowl, ran some more and after a minute or so (I was trying to put him back in his cage by then) he fell to his side, breathing very heavily, and finally stopt breathing. It looked like he felt he was going and was fighting it.   It is needless to say we were very sad about it. Seeing that final moment kept with us up until now.   Could any of you give us a clue of what has killed our Big Bob? Was it just his old age? I checked his teeth and they were quite long too, but we did not have the impression he was eating less than normal.   Thanks Mario van Ginneken - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Marion van Ginneken - [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.comatherm.nl/mario