Hi Everyone!
Me again; I'm posting this mostly for education and knowledge sourcing, and also because I thought Souffle would be interested.
After her last litter, Starbuck had a hard time gaining condition back (many of you probably remember). I kept her on supplements and wasn't overly worried. However, about a week ago she got hind end bloated. I booked an appointment with her at Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph with our regular vet, Dr. Kline, and had her checked out.
Neither of us could palpate any obvious masses. My thought was liver/kidneys/cancer(mass), and we knew there was definitely fluid present in the abdomen. We decided to do an ultrasound, and while she was under anesthesia, try to get a blood sample, and take fluid for cytology.
The ultrasound showed a loss of layers in the small intestines, and fluid (no surprise). Dr. Kline had me authorize the blood draw and a fluid sample. The blood draw was ultimately unsuccessful (for those unaware of blood drawing on hamsters, it must come from the carotid artery, which is fairly risky. Me = nervous ball of anxiety), but a successful fluid sample was taken.
A first year biology student is performing the cytology, which I'm pretty happy about because it's teaching someone new, and hey, maybe they'll decide to focus on hamsters.
She essentially has enteritis, though luckily she hasn't had diarrhea. We have her on metronidazole right now, which she *hates*. We wanted the anti-inflammatory properties of this antitbiotic. The enteritis could be from either inflammation, infection, auto-immune, or cancer, so until we get the cytology results back, my vet doesn't want to put her on steroids, just in case it is an infection. Hopefully we hear back tomorrow.
She's still hamstering as per usual, so I'm anxious to hear back soon. I feel she's bloated a bit more, so fingers crossed there is no infection and the steroids will help her feel tip top again.
I'll see about getting ultrasound results for reference.