Seriouslly ill hamster with wet tail advice?
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Well we only noticed this earlyer tonight and no vets near us and no emergency pdsa we can get to.
As said we only noticed this properly tonight after having had personal domestic issues to deal with lately (no excuse I know). But we noticed our daughters hamster (6 months old) seems very weak (in thinking it may have started a few days ago) and very smelly tonight. Can bearly move and most of it's left side of it's bottom is kind of all wet and sticky.
A quick research suggests wet tail\infection but the hampster looks very ill. Anyone know if it would be kinder (pdsa helpline suggests it may not last the night) to let it drift off during the night than disturb it by changing the food and water again and trying to have a closer look at it?. Because it seems most wont recover from this without medication and dont wish to disturb it any more in case it does'nt last the night.
As said we only noticed this properly tonight after having had personal domestic issues to deal with lately (no excuse I know). But we noticed our daughters hamster (6 months old) seems very weak (in thinking it may have started a few days ago) and very smelly tonight. Can bearly move and most of it's left side of it's bottom is kind of all wet and sticky.
A quick research suggests wet tail\infection but the hampster looks very ill. Anyone know if it would be kinder (pdsa helpline suggests it may not last the night) to let it drift off during the night than disturb it by changing the food and water again and trying to have a closer look at it?. Because it seems most wont recover from this without medication and dont wish to disturb it any more in case it does'nt last the night.
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BTW it's usually caused by stress, poor diet or a dirty cage.
Well I've heard that too but it really needs antibiotics from a vet and quickly or it will die.
What have you been feeding? Have you moved him/her lately or anything happened that could cause stress?
We had been feeding it as normal as if it was stressed we cont see what may have caused it seeing as we have not been doing anything different than notmal.
It proabaly died by about 11 this morning. just got to tell our daughter when she gets home it's gone to the stars to play in the big cage there for all the poorly hampsters.
Thanks, Yes thankfully it was an only hamster. As if we had any others they would have been taken to the vets right away to make sure it did'nt have or catch the same thing.
if you decied on getting another hamster i would disinfect the cage and bleach it, to make sure any infections don't tranfer to a new hamster.
I grew up with hamsters myself so sadly know how relativly little time they live at best and this 1 was only 6 months old. Never had this happen to any of mine as a kid so wander if these infections are something more common than they were near 25 years ago?.
Anyway I guess we will learn from this and will keep a closer eye on the next 1 now we have a better idea of any illness signs.
As well as disinfecting the cage thoroughly you need to also disinfect any cage equipment and accessories - ie bowls, water bottles, wheels, etc.
I would't use household bleach (it could irritate any new hamster - even when you can't smell the bleach on the cage, etc the hamster may be able to). I would stick to a disinfectant designed for small animal cages and use this to disinfect everything.
It would be best to leave then leave the cage and equipment to rest before introducing a new hamster - I would say at least 2 weeks, preferably a month to be sure.