rufus
01-18-2011, 12:24 PM
Hi,
I am new to the group and posted on the Syrian forum since I have a syrian and two dwarf hamsters. One of my dwarf hamsters is a Campbells dwarf called Pye. I adopted Pye in October 2009, she has been an unusual hamster to say the least, I have attached a photo. From the time we adopted her she would occasionally just fall backwards. I have seen hamsters on TV shows do the same but with Pye at first it was very occasional. We would put her in an exercise enclosure and she would just stand up and fall backwards or she would be in her cage on top of her igloo and fall backwards. This went on for around 6 or 7 months, then during the summer we noticed she started falling backwards more often. She also suddenly developed cataracts and her eyes began popping out a little. With increased age she has also lost her black coloring and has turned grey. We believe Pye is now a year and a half in age, not really old but she has had a lot to contend with. Obviously she has been taken to the vet numerous times, at first the vet believed she had an ear infection and perscribed anti biotics. However those never did anything, other medication was perscribed with no effect either.
Within the last few months Pye seems to be loosing muscle tone in her back end, will occasionally bleed a tiny amount from her genitals and is falling backwards more and more. The vet believes she has a neurological issue and now may have developed a tumor making the neurological issues worse (with the cataracts being possible from diabetes). The last time we were at the vet we did talk about putting Pye to sleep but she is a very fiesty little girl. She still has plenty of energy, like most dwarf Russian hamsters do, she is eating and drinking and still runs on her wheel. With all that going for her we did not feel it was the right time to put Pye to sleep. She is fighter and although this is not something she is going to win, I wanted her to have a chance to live out her life at least while she is not suffering. We are of course watching her closely for any signs her time may be near but at the moment she is constantly surprising us. Our vet is a small animal expert and she has not seen anything like Pye before, has anyone else come accross this type of condition before?
I am new to the group and posted on the Syrian forum since I have a syrian and two dwarf hamsters. One of my dwarf hamsters is a Campbells dwarf called Pye. I adopted Pye in October 2009, she has been an unusual hamster to say the least, I have attached a photo. From the time we adopted her she would occasionally just fall backwards. I have seen hamsters on TV shows do the same but with Pye at first it was very occasional. We would put her in an exercise enclosure and she would just stand up and fall backwards or she would be in her cage on top of her igloo and fall backwards. This went on for around 6 or 7 months, then during the summer we noticed she started falling backwards more often. She also suddenly developed cataracts and her eyes began popping out a little. With increased age she has also lost her black coloring and has turned grey. We believe Pye is now a year and a half in age, not really old but she has had a lot to contend with. Obviously she has been taken to the vet numerous times, at first the vet believed she had an ear infection and perscribed anti biotics. However those never did anything, other medication was perscribed with no effect either.
Within the last few months Pye seems to be loosing muscle tone in her back end, will occasionally bleed a tiny amount from her genitals and is falling backwards more and more. The vet believes she has a neurological issue and now may have developed a tumor making the neurological issues worse (with the cataracts being possible from diabetes). The last time we were at the vet we did talk about putting Pye to sleep but she is a very fiesty little girl. She still has plenty of energy, like most dwarf Russian hamsters do, she is eating and drinking and still runs on her wheel. With all that going for her we did not feel it was the right time to put Pye to sleep. She is fighter and although this is not something she is going to win, I wanted her to have a chance to live out her life at least while she is not suffering. We are of course watching her closely for any signs her time may be near but at the moment she is constantly surprising us. Our vet is a small animal expert and she has not seen anything like Pye before, has anyone else come accross this type of condition before?