Injured Hamster

[racinghamster]

You can use a storage box or Bin cage in the meantime omz to keep them seperated until a spare cage can be found. ebay is the best place to find second hand bargains or free-ads. A mini Duna can also be bought in Pets At Home if your desperate.

If you have made up a spare container for one of the hamsters, you just need to mesh the top if he can easily reach it. If the box is tall enough, it won`t need meshed, but finding him a cage or making a Bin cage would be great. A Zoozone 1 tank would make a great home. These come up often on ebay but are around £30 new online from some retailers. Really worth the money though as they are good cages.

Keeping pairs of dwarf hamsters usually ends like this, so it`s nothing you have done to cause it. Dwarf hamsters can be difficult to keep together after they reach a time in their lives where they just don`t want to be together anymore and one turns on the other for reasons only they understand, so once this happens, it`s better just to accept it and keep them alone and safe.

I`ve kept small animals for years and having kept two roborovski males together once and had to deal with a similar situation, I know how difficult it can be. I only keep single hamsters nowadays for this very reason because we can`t be with them 24 hours a day and most of the time this fighting happens during the night or when we are away and come home to find a very badly beaten up hamster, which is a shame, but when they are kept in pairs or groups, it happens all too often I`m afraid.

Please keep us informed of how both hamsters are doing.

[amie]

Thanks for the update. Glad that Brownie is ok. It can often be the case that one is the aggressor but not always.

Hope Whitey improves. Do keep us posted. (don’t worry about the names, very logical and why not call them Whitey and Brownie.)

Best wishes to the 3 of you.

[omz123]

Ah yeah, it is kind of sad to have to separate, but as it is for their benefit, I guess it is the best thing to do.

Whitey seems to have more or less recovered, the only thing that I can see now is the recovery around the eye taking place. Any idea how long the scabbing process would take? Brownie is fine and seems really energetic since he got his wheel back (as in the temporary container did not have one).

So I thought that the temporary container was suitable and could be improved so that I could use it as a permanent cage. Brownie is a little smaller so I thought that this size would be sufficient. It is 10" x 14" x 10" with a plastic grill on top with lots of small holes in it as can be seen in the pictures. It is held down with cable ties on one side and a latch on the other to allow me to open it.

Would love to hear if feedback on this little set up.

[omz123]

I have been examining Whitey today and I have noticed that there appears to be some sort of puss or puss like substance on his eye. Could this be from his eye, as in, would this be like an eye infection that I would need to attend a vet for? Or is this most likely from around the eye which spread onto the eye?

I have attached a picture, sorry if its not very clear. 20121223_230923.jpg

[racinghamster]

His eye looks very bad to be honest and a vet might be a good idea to make sure his eye is okay. Tell the vet what happened and they will probably prescribe an eye drop or an opthalmic cream if required.
The discharge from the eye could mean something isn`t working properly or there is infection going on.

Your cages are fine for temporary seperations omz, but they really need to be double that size for each hamster to have decent running space with more accessories. Water bottles need to be more secure as cardboard is light and easily knocked over and they could end up without water for too long.

Amazon sell metal water bottle hlders cheaply for tank style cages, or you can make a bottle holder using an old plastic juice bottle. All you do is cut off the top, make a hole in the plastic for the bottle spout to fit through and place some pebbles in the base to weigh the holder down.

Stand this in a corner of your bin cage at a height the hamster can easily sit and drink from. Cheap and easy to make.

[amie]

Aww, poor Whitey. I would advise that he needs to see a vet today. The eye looks very sore.

You've done well to create a temporary cage so quickly. As racinghamster says you will need something bigger longterm with stronger accessories than card and a plastic lid. Bin cages can be cheaply made. There are plenty of ideas on the forum about bin cages to give you ideas. You can use the search button if necessary but I think a lot of cages are in the ‘DIY (Do it yourself) Hamster Projects!’ on the main forum menu.

Also have a look at this:

Photo Guide to Making a Bin Cage

Very best wishes

[omz123]

So, on monday afternoon I took whitey to the vet to which she said that brownie bit him on his eye lids, upper and lower, which appears to have led to some infection, atm he cant see in his left eye but she prescribed me some cream which i am to apply to the eye daily which is the best chance of him getting sight back. I believe it is called something like- fucithalmic. So now I have to take him back next week for a follow up.

If anybody is curious, the total cost of seeing him as well as the medication was around £25

[omz123]

Ah yeah, she also said that an ulcer has developed on his eye which is probably something to do with the infection.

[gutterglitterxx]

I'm so sorry that Whitey is struggling to recover from his injury. I just now caught up on this thread but I'm sending good vibes to precious Whitey for a speedy recovery. xx

[racinghamster]

Hi omz. That`s good that the vet could have a look at him and prescribe you some antibiotic cream. Fucathalmic is one I`ve heard of and used myself although it wasn`t for a hamster at that time.

It will be a matter of treating Whitey now and giving him peace to recover. If his eye doesn`t respond to treatment (some do, some don`t) I would just make sure his eye in particular doesn`t become bulging or starts to waste. If your concerned if his eye gets worse, I would see the vet again but I doubt there would be much they could do except remove his eye if it got really nasty, but hopefully it won`t.

Eye problems like this in small animals can be difficult to cure once the damage is done.