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01-15-2018, 05:25 PM
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#1
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Adult Hamster
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: London, England
Posts: 294
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Hamster smells sour
Hello all,
I am concerned about my Syrian hamster Custard. He is approaching 2 years old and has had a healing scab on his back for around 3 weeks.
I think he must have gotten stuck or fallen on something in his cage (though I could not find an exact cause for the injury). He has lost a bit of fur there but it has been growing back and the scab has improved a lot; we have checked it daily. He is eating and drinking normally and still has lots of energy during playtime.
However, tonight I noticed that his fur all over smells kind of sour. You have to be up very close to smell it but he doesn't usually have any odour.
Because of this I'm worried that he has an infection. The scab doesn't bleed or ooze but could it be making him sick? What else could cause this, if anything?
Please help.
__________________
Over the Rainbow Bridge - Custard 2 years and 8 months. Rest peacefully little one; forever loved xx
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01-16-2018, 08:27 AM
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#2
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Montreal
Posts: 182
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Re: Hamster smells sour
How is his behaviour? Is he eating, sleeping, and playing well? If yes, please change the bedding and keep monitoring the next day. If it still smells the same, please take him to the vet since healing the scab for 3 weeks is long enough to make him feel painful.
Does he look energetic as usual?
Last edited by SunnyOy; 01-16-2018 at 09:56 AM.
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01-16-2018, 09:35 AM
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#3
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Adult Hamster
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: London, England
Posts: 294
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Re: Hamster smells sour
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunnyOy
How is his behaviour? Is he eating, sleeping, and playing well? If yes, please change the bedding and keep monitoring the next day. If it still smells the same, please take him to the vet since healing the scab for 3 weeks is long enough to make him feel painfree.
Does he look energetic as usual?
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Hi Sunny,
Generally he seems to be himself. Eyes are bright and he still runs around a lot outside of his cage. He's still very enthusiastic when he hears his food bowl being filled and runs straight to it. He also loves drinking from and chewing his water bottles through the night.
In the last few months (before the scab) he has slowed down a bit and also doesn't really use his wheel much anymore. He does sleep more often too but I attributed this to ageing and the weather changes. Since this injury I haven't caught him climbing the bars or doing anything risky, which makes me think whatever happened has traumatised him a little.
One day he was fine and the next day we took him out there was a big scab with a furless patch about the size of 5p on his lower back.
The past 3 weeks the red part has reduced a lot and the skin has been turning pink with fur starting to grow back.
We haven't used any saline or ointments on it.
I initially thought it was taking time because of its size, his age and also if he was scratching or over grooming it. However, this odd sour smell (like when you take off a bandaid) is suddenly all over him.
I will change his bedding tonight as you mentioned and see if this helps. Hopefully he has just stashed some fresh food in his nest or something.
__________________
Over the Rainbow Bridge - Custard 2 years and 8 months. Rest peacefully little one; forever loved xx
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01-16-2018, 10:05 AM
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#4
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Montreal
Posts: 182
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Re: Hamster smells sour
Sometimes hamsters behave a bit weird but it's safely weird. The smell could come from his mouth, his private spot, his surrounding beddings, accidentally touching the urine, or simply urinating in his nest. As long as he seems okay, there is nothing too dangerous could happen since he is already a hammie-grandpa now.
If he still smelled the same tomorrow after waking up and no urine spot founded in his nest, there could be something abnormal happened inside of him. By then, scheduling an appointment with vet asap is a good idea.
Hope everything turns out to be just fine to your hammie.
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01-16-2018, 12:12 PM
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#5
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Hamster Antics
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
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Re: Hamster smells sour
I wouldn't change his bedding just yet - it will stress him. I would suggest taking him for a vet check in case he needs any medication and for a diagnosis.
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01-16-2018, 01:00 PM
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#6
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Yorkshire, UK but my heart lies in Scotland!
Posts: 28,184
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Re: Hamster smells sour
How well ventilated is his nest box? When they are older and spend more time in their beds these can get damp and the moisture encourages dampness and fungal skin infections. This may be what the smell is. I'd change the bedding and also the nest box to something well ventilated. I would suggest a cardboard box, open at the bottom with big doors and windows cut in it to let air through. Use really absorbent bedding like torn white loo roll. Never use the fluffy stuff. If he doesn't improve then a vet visit to check his skin would be best.
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01-16-2018, 01:12 PM
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#7
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Montreal
Posts: 182
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Re: Hamster smells sour
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000
I wouldn't change his bedding just yet - it will stress him. I would suggest taking him for a vet check in case he needs any medication and for a diagnosis.
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“Changing bedding” does not equal to “stressing a hamster”, or hamsters would be constantly stressed by regular bedding changes during cage cleaning.
In other words, comparing to visiting a vet during winter by noticing undecidable symptoms could disturb or stress out hamsters much more than just cleaning the bedding, especially for a two-year-old hammie.
Yes, if necessary, a vet clinic visit is essential to determining the exact cause in a timely manner hopefully. However, if there is any chance we could rule out the trigger to a vet visit by simply checking the bedding situation, it would make more sense to me.
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01-16-2018, 01:22 PM
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#8
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Adult Hamster
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: London, England
Posts: 294
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SunnyOy
Sometimes hamsters behave a bit weird but it's safely weird. The smell could come from his mouth, his private spot, his surrounding beddings, accidentally touching the urine, or simply urinating in his nest. As long as he seems okay, there is nothing too dangerous could happen since he is already a hammie-grandpa now.
If he still smelled the same tomorrow after waking up and no urine spot founded in his nest, there could be something abnormal happened inside of him. By then, scheduling an appointment with vet asap is a good idea.
Hope everything turns out to be just fine to your hammie.
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Thanks Sunny I'll be keeping a close eye on him and continuing to monitor his behaviour. If he is still smelly in a couple of days I'll take him in for a vet visit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000
I wouldn't change his bedding just yet - it will stress him. I would suggest taking him for a vet check in case he needs any medication and for a diagnosis.
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I actually did a full cage clean when he initially hurt himself and got the scab on his back as I wanted his home to be as clean as possible to help with healing. What I might do is spot clean his nest area for wet or smelly spots and give him some clean loo roll but leave everything else as it's quite new.
If that doesn't make him smell better in a couple of days I'll take him in to the vets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by souffle
How well ventilated is his nest box? When they are older and spend more time in their beds these can get damp and the moisture encourages dampness and fungal skin infections. This may be what the smell is. I'd change the bedding and also the nest box to something well ventilated. I would suggest a cardboard box, open at the bottom with big doors and windows cut in it to let air through. Use really absorbent bedding like torn white loo roll. Never use the fluffy stuff. If he doesn't improve then a vet visit to check his skin would be best.
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Thanks souffle. Hopefully if there is something wrong it is just an easily treated skin condition. He does have a cardboard house but as he has gotten older he mostly pees in his nest and quite a bit too so possibly if he is spending an extended amount of time sleeping in a wet spot it is making his bedding and fur a bit musty smelling.
I'll freshen up his nesting material and remove any damp or smelly bedding and see if this improves it.
I hope so, as I can't imagine he will enjoy the freezing bus trip to the vets.
__________________
Over the Rainbow Bridge - Custard 2 years and 8 months. Rest peacefully little one; forever loved xx
Last edited by Fluffagrams; 01-16-2018 at 01:51 PM.
Reason: Consecutive posts
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01-16-2018, 04:55 PM
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#9
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Adult Hamster
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: London, England
Posts: 294
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Re: Hamster smells sour
Just a quick update: after cleaning up his cage I may have found the culprit of Custard's weird smell. Lately he has been stashing food under his water bottle every night and by piling up the substrate has kept the bottle slowly but continuously leaking. The bedding under the bottle was really wet through and musty smelling and he digs in there every day for food. I feel so bad I had no idea it was getting wet
So have moved the bottle higher up so it can't leak.
Also gave him a new shoebox but he's mad cause hes been downgraded from Nike to Ugg
__________________
Over the Rainbow Bridge - Custard 2 years and 8 months. Rest peacefully little one; forever loved xx
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01-17-2018, 01:23 PM
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#10
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Montreal
Posts: 182
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Re: Hamster smells sour
Good to hear you have found the issue
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Tags
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scab, sour, hamster, fur, back, smells, energy, lots, noticed, playtime, tonight, kind, sick, making, ooze, bleed, drinking, smell, close, odour, infection, worried, growing, weeks, fallen |
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