Penelope has wet tail please help

[ReneeS]

So my baby girl has wet tail! I got her last Saturday from petsmart. She was fine all week. I noticed the last 2 night she's hasn't been as active as she had been. This morning as I was cleaning out her cage she wasn't coming down from her little hideout to see what was going on. I opened up her little box and and when I took her out her eyes were all crusty and she wasn't standing right. I have had hamsters in the past so I know that she has wet tail but it progressed so quickly. What can I do to help her get better?? Please help!!

[velma]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry it's not in happier circumstances. If it is wet tail then you need to get her to a vet as soon as you can. As I understand it, wet tail progresses incredibly quickly and needs swift intervention from a vet. You don't want to stress her out anymore than you have to but make sure she has food and water close to her nest to encourage her to eat and drink a little. I'm sure you'll have some more in depth advice from other members soon too. I hope your little ham gets treatment soon and is ok.

[Drago]

Hello and welcome to HC

Like Velma said, if she really does have wet tail, she needs to be taken to the vet immediately. The sooner you can get her in, the better! Hamsters go downhill quickly so it's important that you get her in before it's too late. Are you 100% sure it's wet tail? Hamsters with wet tail may be overall lethargic and sickly, but the fact that she's not standing right and has crusted eyes makes me think that something else could be the problem. Besides, not all cases of diarrhea will turn out to be wet tail! I would also check to see if she's dehydrated as diarrhea can do that. Use the dehydration test with her, if the skin takes more than a second to snap back to normal, then she's dehydrated and needs intervention. You can mix up a solution of salt, sugar, and water and feed this to her via syringe (only if she's unwilling to take it from a bowl or bottle first) make sure to administer through the SIDE of the mouth, not directly in front. Hope she gets well soon


Something that I'd like to note is that you mention you got her last Saturday, and noticed she had this while cleaning her cage. I personally wouldn't recommend cleaning that often It really ends up stressing your ham out more than it helps with cleaning, and your hamster will generally end up compensating for lost scent by urinating more! How large is your cage? How deep is the bedding? Depending upon these two factors, you could find that you don't have to clean the cage for several months! Just something to keep in mind

Good luck at the vets, hope she gets well soon! Please keep us updated on how she's doing

[Pebbles82]

As the others say - you need to take her to a vet. I would find an exotic vet and make an appointment to take her. It might be that petsmart would take her back and get vet treatment but personally I wouldn't go that route as they won't care as much as you do and she may not get treatment quickly enough. I would deal with whatever treatment she needs and then look at possibly trying to get some recompense from Petsmart afterwards (you might or might not be able to). If it is wet tail the only treatment is antibiotics and they need them asap. Hopefully it isn't (you didn't mention diarrhoea) but it does sound like she is unwell.

As Drago mentioned cleanouts can really stress them and usually it's recommended not to clean out or disturb things for the first 2 weeks, while the hamster is settling in and scent marking to familiarise themselves with the cage. After a week or so, if it gets a bit stinky, you could "spot clean" the pee area if it gets a bit stinky, but usually they do ok for a couple of weeks without needing cleaning out. Spot cleaning is taking out a handful of wet substrate and replacing it with a handful of new and mixing it in a bit. Don't worry about poops - they're not smelly - they're like little hard seeds and they sometimes eat them for extra nutrients, which is a normal behaviour for hamsters.

It is bad luck you are having to take her to the vets so soon after getting her, but unfortunately a lot of these pet shops don't keep them so well and they can pick up things or have congenital weakness of some kind.

Fingers crossed for your little girl. Find an exotic vet and take her along. Do you have a pet carrier? Or a small cage you can take her in? The main thing is to get a diagnosis quickly and treatment.