Hamster Central - View Single Post - Dwarf Complete personality/behaviour shift?

Penn · 07-17-2019, 10:16 AM

Hi everyone!

I've been having trouble with my Dwarf, Flynn, lately. He's 2 years old in September so he's getting on a bit. He's always been a MASSIVE grouch. He's bitten me more times than I can count, he's been very standoffish since the first day I got him. If you put your hand in his cage he would go for it, scratch, swipe, and bite. Trying to get him out to handle him just used to stress him out but when he was out, he was fine.

Recently I kept seeing him with blood all over his face, chest, and paws, I thought maybe he has a scent gland infection, so I took him the vet and after having a good look at him the vet put it down to a broken tooth and prescribed one drop of Metacam and one drop of Baytril on his food per day. The broken tooth was probably my fault because I gave both him and my Syrian a tiny piece of banana chip each. ^^; I started softening Flynn's regular food with a bit of water to help him chew it and got some babyfood in which to put his meds. The vet told me to basically keep going with it until I ran out of meds, so that's what I was doing.

Then at the start of the week I noticed there was blood again that seemed to be coming from his poops/anus, his rear end looked as though it was displaying wet tail, but because he'd been on the Baytril I knew that was unlikely. One night while inspecting to see if he had a poop stuck, I saw what I thought was a MASSIVE lump inside his anus and started to panic.

I know Metacam can be super harsh on their system (I believe it caused Renal Failure in one of my past Syrians, his body smelt of the Metacam heavily) so I stopped all meds and the baby food for one night to see if that made any difference... and, his personality has done a complete shift.

He's gone from wanting to chew my hand every time it's in the cage, to, crawling on my hand with abandon, and scrabbling to get my attention so I will take him out, to licking yogurt off my hand. I found him twice crashed out on his cage floor like he'd fallen asleep while walking, and he spent two days going from scrabbling about trying to get out of his cage to sleeping so hard that he'll shift once if I touch him and then continue sleeping, no matter what I do; stroking him, gently poking him, even putting my entire hand under him.

I took him back the vet today and was charged £30 just for the vet to say he couldn't see a lump and that he's "Bright, Alert and Responsive which is good enough for a hamster of his age."

But I can't shake the feeling that there is something going on.

Has anyone ever has their ham have a drastic personality shift like this?

07-17-2019, 10:16 AM
Penn Hamster Pup Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Liverpool, UK Posts: 110	Dwarf Complete personality/behaviour shift? Hi everyone! I've been having trouble with my Dwarf, Flynn, lately. He's 2 years old in September so he's getting on a bit. He's always been a MASSIVE grouch. He's bitten me more times than I can count, he's been very standoffish since the first day I got him. If you put your hand in his cage he would go for it, scratch, swipe, and bite. Trying to get him out to handle him just used to stress him out but when he was out, he was fine. Recently I kept seeing him with blood all over his face, chest, and paws, I thought maybe he has a scent gland infection, so I took him the vet and after having a good look at him the vet put it down to a broken tooth and prescribed one drop of Metacam and one drop of Baytril on his food per day. The broken tooth was probably my fault because I gave both him and my Syrian a tiny piece of banana chip each. ^^; I started softening Flynn's regular food with a bit of water to help him chew it and got some babyfood in which to put his meds. The vet told me to basically keep going with it until I ran out of meds, so that's what I was doing. Then at the start of the week I noticed there was blood again that seemed to be coming from his poops/anus, his rear end looked as though it was displaying wet tail, but because he'd been on the Baytril I knew that was unlikely. One night while inspecting to see if he had a poop stuck, I saw what I thought was a MASSIVE lump inside his anus and started to panic. I know Metacam can be super harsh on their system (I believe it caused Renal Failure in one of my past Syrians, his body smelt of the Metacam heavily) so I stopped all meds and the baby food for one night to see if that made any difference... and, his personality has done a complete shift. He's gone from wanting to chew my hand every time it's in the cage, to, crawling on my hand with abandon, and scrabbling to get my attention so I will take him out, to licking yogurt off my hand. I found him twice crashed out on his cage floor like he'd fallen asleep while walking, and he spent two days going from scrabbling about trying to get out of his cage to sleeping so hard that he'll shift once if I touch him and then continue sleeping, no matter what I do; stroking him, gently poking him, even putting my entire hand under him. I took him back the vet today and was charged £30 just for the vet to say he couldn't see a lump and that he's "Bright, Alert and Responsive which is good enough for a hamster of his age." But I can't shake the feeling that there is something going on. Has anyone ever has their ham have a drastic personality shift like this?