Hamster Central - View Single Post

Charbeaner · 06-14-2019, 09:32 AM

Hi there, wondering if anyone has gone though something similar and might have advice.

So a few months ago our syrian hamster Mavis started losing hair and smelled just awful (like abscess or something equally vile). We thought she might also be drinking and peeing more but she could also just have been playing with the bottle. The bedding was wet but we couldn't tell if it was with water or urine.

I took her to the vet (which is 1.5 hours away). The vet thought Mavis might have ovarian cysts but she didn't feel comfortable spaying Mavis herself so she referred me to her more experienced locum who was coming up to her clinic in a few weeks. While we waited she put Mavis on a short course of baytril. The smell seemed to improve but not the hair loss.

Fast forward to a few weeks later we took her back to see the more experienced vet and he didn't want to spay her either as he felt like it was maybe just over grooming. But he had no advice on how to stop the over grooming.

So we took her home and she seemed fine other than the hair loss for awhile then she started smelling bad again and our other hamster Walnut (another syrian female who lives in a separate cage) also started to lose hair and smell bad. I thought maybe it was the paper bedding so we changed it out for pine and both hamsters went back to smelling normal.

Just changed their cages yesterday (we change them twice a week) and went to take Mavis out this morning and she smelled so bad I actually gagged. She has a clean bowl full of chinchilla sand but she uses it to pee in instead of bathe. I took a slightly damp cloth and tried to wipe her down and this just made her smell even more, so even though I know baths are not good for them, she was a total smelly dirty mess and we gave her a quick bath (mostly just her bum and belly cuz she smelled like stale urine) and then dried her really well. Because of her thinning hair she dried really easily and quickly.

She has clean sand at all time, we clean her cage twice a week, she does not have wet tail or any lumps or bumps that might be abscesses, she is alert and eating well and other than the hair loss and smell we can't see anything else wrong with her. We can't even take her out of her cage when she smells as anything she touches then smells horrible as well.

06-14-2019, 09:32 AM
Charbeaner Newborn Pup Join Date: Jun 2018 Posts: 16	Super smelly and losing hair Hi there, wondering if anyone has gone though something similar and might have advice. So a few months ago our syrian hamster Mavis started losing hair and smelled just awful (like abscess or something equally vile). We thought she might also be drinking and peeing more but she could also just have been playing with the bottle. The bedding was wet but we couldn't tell if it was with water or urine. I took her to the vet (which is 1.5 hours away). The vet thought Mavis might have ovarian cysts but she didn't feel comfortable spaying Mavis herself so she referred me to her more experienced locum who was coming up to her clinic in a few weeks. While we waited she put Mavis on a short course of baytril. The smell seemed to improve but not the hair loss. Fast forward to a few weeks later we took her back to see the more experienced vet and he didn't want to spay her either as he felt like it was maybe just over grooming. But he had no advice on how to stop the over grooming. So we took her home and she seemed fine other than the hair loss for awhile then she started smelling bad again and our other hamster Walnut (another syrian female who lives in a separate cage) also started to lose hair and smell bad. I thought maybe it was the paper bedding so we changed it out for pine and both hamsters went back to smelling normal. Just changed their cages yesterday (we change them twice a week) and went to take Mavis out this morning and she smelled so bad I actually gagged. She has a clean bowl full of chinchilla sand but she uses it to pee in instead of bathe. I took a slightly damp cloth and tried to wipe her down and this just made her smell even more, so even though I know baths are not good for them, she was a total smelly dirty mess and we gave her a quick bath (mostly just her bum and belly cuz she smelled like stale urine) and then dried her really well. Because of her thinning hair she dried really easily and quickly. She has clean sand at all time, we clean her cage twice a week, she does not have wet tail or any lumps or bumps that might be abscesses, she is alert and eating well and other than the hair loss and smell we can't see anything else wrong with her. We can't even take her out of her cage when she smells as anything she touches then smells horrible as well.