Hello all, apologies for my first post here being asking for help. I'm a member on MAH (though I'm more of a lurker) and I started a thread a couple of weeks ago asking for advice for caring for older Syrians. And cut a long story short, someone reccomended I ask you guys instead
I have a Syrian called Anfreda who is approximately a little over 2 years old. I don't know exactly as I rehomed her last summer and although I was initially in regular contact with her former owners, they've not been replying to my updates of late. At her old home, her diet was based on low quality commercial stuff, and she had many high sugar treats. She's a longhaired satin and is spayed.
A couple of weeks ago she started to look old, but I was relatively unconcerned and more interested in the general theory of caring for older Syrians. She'd slowed down and was less interested in coming out for free range and a few other little changes, but only those that pointed to gradual decline. Last Tuesday she fell while climbing the bars (not very far, but she's never done so before) and started to look a little hunchbacked. I would have moved her into a 'retirement' cage which is lower than the one she's in, however it's also my rat hospital cage and currently very much in use. Instead I changed her layout to only involve the bottom section of her current cage, gave her easier routes and took her wheel out (she's not used it in ages). I also started giving her soft meals because I noticed she's been eating less of her dry mix than usual.
As a result of the fall and because I was going in anyway, she had a vet check-up last Wednesday. My vet is good, but only recently qualified so doesn't have that much experience yet. He didn't really know what to suggest, although he said he thought older Syrians may be prone to osteoporosis and kidney problems. He also agreed with me that her not being a standard coat is unhelpful because I can't use what her fur looks like to gauge if she's feeling under the weather or anything. Testing her uring was considered, but he didn't have a clue what normal readings for hamsters were meant to be, plus collecting a sample felt challenging! On his reccomendation she's getting slightly more calcium in her food, and is on a tiddly hamster amount of ipakatine every couple of days.
So that was all fine, can do pallative care for slow, feeling confused/ possibly looking slightly senile old hamsters. This afternoon she came out for a little potter around the cage and tried to climb a very small step up from shelf-to-shelf. Her front end managed it, but her back end didn't, and she fell in a heap. I also then noticed she was limping on her left back leg. I got her out of the cage and her back end was completely sodden in pee and she had a few matted bits of hair with added sand bath
I dunked her bum, cleaned her up, chopped off matted bits and then gave her general bum area a clip. She was dried off and stuck in her carrier half on a heatpad to warm up, and then put back in the cage. She's been a bit 'messy' recently, but this feels like she's completely failing to clean herself up now.
She's had a potter around this evening too, and her back legs are both badly trailing - to the extend that sometimes one doesn't complete a footfall cycle and it's dragged. I've also made her cage layout even easier, and moved her water bottle down to the ground floor (it was on a shelf as she used to have a water bottle fixation when accessed from the floor). I don't know if she's noticed it's moved yet, but it should be ok for her to access.
Sorry for all that information, but my knowledge on hamster health problems is virtually non-existant, so I have no idea what's useful and what's not. If she were a rat, I would say that the speed of her loosing back-leg mobility has been really very fast, but dunno with hamsters... I would quite like to give her some Loxicom for the potential pain/ inflamation relating to legs on the basis that even if she does have kidney-damage, I'd rather she has less time not in pain than more time in pain. But I have no idea on hamster dosage. I'm phoning my vet in the morning, but I'm not sure if he'll know either.
Also do these things suggest a specific health problem other than general old age? Any advice? I feel a bit out of my depth...