[Vierville]

Monty is a Russian Dwarf Hybrid female of around 20 months old.

We've had her for 17 months and she's always weighed around 58 grams on every vet visit she's had as an adult and she has always been 'well padded'.

Recently I noticed that she has been feeling skinnier and her bones are now very easy to feel when I stroke her. She has also seemingly stopped eating her dry food as her food bowl seems to remain untouched. She still eats her daily fresh veggies and seeds and baby food.

I started weighing her two weeks ago when I first noticed how bony she felt and she weighed 58 grams. Subsequently I've weighed her four times and each time she is down 1 gram. She now weighs 54 grams.

I decided to check her teeth and using an earbud I managed to open her mouth and examined her teeth but her teeth seem fine, not broken or overgrown which I believe are causes for a hamster to stop eating hard food. One thing I did notice is that her breath smells quite bad and I also noticed that she had a smelly white cottage cheese-like substance in her mouth but before I could get it out to examine it she had swallowed it.

I've dealt a lot with my other dwarf hamster Nanuk's mouth as he has been on medication twice a day for six months which I administer orally with a syringe so I know how their breath should be and I've never seen white cottage cheese- like stuff in his mouth...

Should I take her to the vet for this? Could the smell in her mouth and the white stuff be linked to her weight loss?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.