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Old 09-10-2020, 05:21 PM   #1
Amysanimals
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 2
Exclamation Hamster with neurological problems

Hello Everyone,
I really hope I am posting this thread correctly as I am new but I really need some help! To give a quick backstory, I’ve only owned hamsters for 6 months. I hadn’t planned on owning a hamster at this present time but my partner and I adopted a female Campbell’s dwarf hamster from the pet shop he worked at during lockdown of Covid 19 as all animals had been taken off sale due to the pandemic and needed homes. Since getting my hamster, I have been researching everything about hamsters non stop as due to the circumstances I hadn’t done any prior research but still wanted to be a responsible owner and educate myself on how to care for her and give her the best life I can. Kiki, my dwarf hamster is as far as we know very healthy and happy, but we have just rescued a male roborovski dwarf hamster from my partners pet shop that has severe neurological problems. From what I understand, Gizmo (what we have named him) is around 6 months old and has been in the pet shop all this time until we rescued him on 06/09/20. My partner had been responsible for other animals so hadn’t had much interaction with Gizmo but he was told by other colleagues that Gizmo started displaying neurological problems whilst he was still in the pet shop 2-3 months ago. He continuously spins in circles - often in one spot and will spin for approximately 3-4 minutes at a time. When he walks he can’t walk properly, he’s very jittery on his feet and almost walks diagonally, he also tips his head back quite a lot - almost throwing his head backwards, and from doing lots of research I know this is extremely concerning and I don’t know what to do. Gizmo had seen the vets twice whilst at the pet shop and they explained it could be caused by a number of things - genetics, stroke, ear infection, etc, but they couldn’t determine exactly what has caused his symptoms. They said as long as Gizmo is eating and drinking and displaying ‘normal’ hamster behaviours then he can still lead a happy and healthy life. Aside from spinning in circles, head tilts, and mobility issues Gizmo does play in his sand bath, burrow in substrate, chew wood, etc, and displays normal hamster behaviours and since we have put him into his bin cage his episodes are not as frequent and don’t last as long, (he wouldn’t stop before, now he spins for around 3-4 minutes, burrows in substrate for a bit, spins again for a few minutes, then plays and digs in sand, etc) so is this a positive sign? I’ve made the decision to take Gizmo to my vets anyway and have booked him in for an appointment to be seen by one of the exotic vets to look further into his condition and see if we can pinpoint exactly what has caused this. I guess what I would really like some advice on is what realistically does his future hold and is there a way that he can lead a relatively happy and normal life? Are there things I can do to make things better for him and what things should I avoid? I really don’t want to give up on this little boy and I want to see if the vet can do anything for him but at the same time I don’t want him to suffer. If he can lead a relatively happy and healthy life I would do all I could to give him the best life I can. I have made a bin cage for Gizmo with my partner that is 480 square inches of floor space. Unfortunately, it is the biggest enclosure we can have due to space limitations and finances (our female dwarf is in a separate bin cage). We use carefresh and tissue paper for bedding, and we provide plenty of burrowing space - approx 8 inches. We have a lot of toys, hidey homes, platforms, sand baths for the hamsters but have made sure not to compromise on continuous floor space. We have not put a wheel in Gizmo’s cage because I have read conflicting information online that it may not be safe for a hamster to use with neurological issues, but I would put the wheel back in if it is safe for him. If there is any help or advice anyone can give me I would be extremely grateful.
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Old 09-12-2020, 05:51 AM   #2
Pebbles82
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
Default Re: Hamster with neurological problems

Hello and welcome There is a bit of information on spinning in robos on the link below. It sounds like your robo is improved from the bin cage environment. From what I understand, and what the info says, there is no cure - it's a genetic neurological condition. But it sounds like he has a good quality of life. That may save the need for the vet visit unless he gets worse. As that in itself can also be a stressful experience when stress can trigger things. It's under "health" further down the page but quite a bit of info on roborovskis.

You may get varying opinions on the vet visit though. It could possibly be some other cause - eg post injury, a tumour - but generally it is considered genetic. And he would settle again after the trip even if stress worsens him temporarily.

https://hamsters-uk.org/roborovski-hamster/

Last edited by Pebbles82; 09-12-2020 at 05:56 AM.
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Old 09-12-2020, 06:00 AM   #3
Pebbles82
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
Default Re: Hamster with neurological problems

General care would be to avoid stress for Gizmo. I'm not sure how much you've read on here, but cage cleaning can cause them a lot of stress. There are ways round it with "spot cleaning" and partial cleans. You have plenty of substrate so won't need to do clean outs too often.

I tend to spot clean mostly with syrians and use a litter tray. But robos tend to pee in multiple places. Our robo though did use a litter tray to pee in as well - a little one and used his sand bath to poop in mostly.

I adapted the usual cage cleaning with him to doing half the cage at a time. So there was always one half (lengthways half) that was exactly the same. Still mostly a spot clean/partial clean as they aren't really dirty or smelly and tbh I found their pee is so minimal most of it evaporates!

He took to having two nests - one in each half of the cage. So if I started to clean out one half a bit he would move to his other nest. I'd leave doing the other half for another 2 or 3 weeks. But could easily go 3 months without a clean out.
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Old 09-13-2020, 03:13 AM   #4
Amysanimals
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Join Date: Sep 2020
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Default Re: Hamster with neurological problems

I hope I am replying correctly! I just wanted to say thank you so much for your response, I will definitely bear that in mind with cage cleaning and I've moved his vet appointment to a later date so he can settle for a bit (he seems to be stable, and we noticed he didn't spin for very long last night). I just wanted to ask and I'm not sure if you know yourself but should I put the wheel back in his cage? It's a silent running wheel and is 6.5 inches. I took it out of the cage because I saw information online that it is not safe to have it in the cage if the hamster has neurological problems but I don't know if that is correct? Thank you.
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