What are the signs of urine infections & diabetes?

[A_Couple_In_Love]

I was just wondering if anyone could help me out, i am not sure weather or not one of my recent russian/hybrid hammies have got evea of these two problems.

If anyone knows the symtoms please could you list them for me? I am quite worried as when i got them from P@H they seemed to have had the same problems but i just thought maybe thats just how russian/hybrid hamster are.

They were all given lots of orange in there cage when i went and bought them so im worried now that it could of effected them.

Thanks for any help! Much appriated.

[linford27]

Hi!

you can read all about it Here

But from memory, its excessive drinking, lots of wee, rapid weight loss/gain.

Linford
x

[A_Couple_In_Love]

Thank you, i will have a look at the link also.

[CharlieB]

Finley currently has both and its very very difficult to shift the infection with Diabetics. With him the symptoms were:

- being aggressive
- Strong smelling wee
- excessive drinking (until his infection got worse and then limited drinking)
- drowsyness
- difficulty waking
- eating loads to begin with but since he has deteriorated he eats very little.
- In the later stages of diabetes there is weight loss which has recently started to fin
- blood in the wee (for UTI's)
- Urine stains in the fur (again UTI's)

Ive had a couple of times I have rushed him to the vet as he just wouldn't wake up. To test for diabetes you can do at home, you can get kits I cant remember what they are called, I will go hunt out mine when I see to the hammys next and find them and let you know. Prob be about 9.45 before I get back to you though.

[A_Couple_In_Love]

Thank you for the detailed list Very helpful!

Also that would be great thank you so much, ive read you need to dip a stick in there pee, how do you do this with it being soaked into the woodshavings or is there another way?

[CharlieB]

The way I did it (with advise from some great guys on here!) get a plastic container, I used my spare bin cage but a washing up bowl would work aswell. Wake your hammy up and put them straight in the container and they should do a wee quickly, however some hammys can be reluctant to go in a plastic container so for this situation connect a water bottle to the container they are in so they have access to water and wait! I only left Finley in there for 20 mins at a time before he would get really annoyed and angry as he just wanted to sleep. You can dip it in the puddle that they make. If this doesnt work I have more techniques that I have used for Finley now that he doesnt like coming out of his cage but It takes longer and doesnt work as well!

[A_Couple_In_Love]

Oh thats a great idea! never really thought of doing that. Thanks

Also do you know where i can get the kits from and how much are they roughly do you know?

[CharlieB]

soooo sorry i didnt get back to you. they are called keto-diasix made by bayer. I got 50 in a pack for just over £10 from my local pharmacy, you can also order them off ebay

[A_Couple_In_Love]

It's ok, no worries! and ok thank you i will have a look about for that one.

[Vectis Hamstery]

You can get ketodiastix from amazon.co.uk and they're about £10 for I think 50 strips. If your ham only does a very small sample or your want them to stretch further (such as when I test all of my lot) then you can cut them lengthwise with a clean pair of sharp scissors. Just make sure that the scissors aren't sugary! If you get a positive result and are feeling obsessive or inquisitive, you can test your pet-safe disinfectant (if this is what you clean your carrier with) to make sure it hasn't altered your results. If you're not sure how to interpret them then read the packet - and you could always cut one strip and try the two halves on other things to see what a positive result would look like, e.g. fruit juice or non-diet fizzy drinks! Plus there's info on this thread One of my hamsters has Diabetes.