Robo acting strange

[Ren97]

I had friends looks after my robo ‘Dumpling’ while i was on holiday. When dumpling came back home it seemed like he had wet tail but the next day it seem to have gone (we cleaned the cage as soon as he came home), since he’s been back he’s been acting like a completely different hamster. Dumpling now sleeps anywhere at any time, whereas beforehand he only slept in his house, now he sleeps in his sand bath, by his water, on his wheel. Also he walks like he’s off balance and a lot slower than he did before. Also one of dumplings eyes is smaller than it was before and he seems to be using his whiskers to navigate the cage.

I really regret leaving dumpling with the friends as it is obvious the change occurred over the time I was on holiday. I am unsure of dumplings age as we rescued him last September from someone who had left the country and had left dumpling at a friends house. We love him a lot and I was wondering whether it’s him getting old or whether he should be taken to the vets.

I’m sorry if this doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I really appreciate any advice to help Dumpling.

[Pebbles82]

I am sorry to hear Dumpling is having problems. I would say that the change of environment with you being on holiday and then back home again, will affect him and have stressed him. I had something similar with our Syrian who we left elsewhere for 10 day and apparently started getting very stressed by the last day. When we brought him home he was frantically bar chewing all the time and running round and round all the time - it was quite worrying and it took about another 2 weeks before he settled down. In the end he sort of got shocked out of it by a full cage clean. Ironical as normally a full cage clean stresses them out! I think he could still smell the scent of the previous house on the cage and once all scent of that was removed he settled a bit - I also started scatter feeding to distract him.

Having said all that - walking off balance sounds a bit worrying and robos are so small. It is possible he may have sustained some injury while you are away which may not be anyone's fault - he could have fallen in his cage and had an injury. The smaller eye may suggest this too (although to be honest it is surprising the things we notice when we haven't seen them for a while and the usually do navigate by scent and whiskers).

How long has he been back with you? You've already done a cage clean so that will also have thrown him a bit and I think the cautious navigating sounds to do with the fact that all his familiar scent has been removed from the cage after the clean, and on top of that he's had a change of environment again.

Robos often do take a while to decide where to nest if something has changed in their cage. If he's been like this for a while then I would suggest a vet check to see if he possibly has had some kind of injury. But if it's just a few days he's been back with you he may just be completely disorientated and needing time to settle again.

I changed our Robo's cage a few months back - moved his old bedding and nest across and left the layout the same and he still freaked out completely and sat and shook next to his wheel for 24 hours and then couldn't decide where to nest - he abandoned his old nest.

If he seems ok in himself otherwise, maybe just let him have time to settle in again - it can take two weeks so during that time don't do any cleaning or change things in his cage. You could scatter feed a bit as well as putting food in his bowl (a bit of each) and maybe hide the odd treat here and there in his cage for him to find, or add a treat parcel to distract him into destroying it (Toilet roll with the ends turned down/in with something tasty inside).

It's a difficult call - because if it is stress and being disorientated then a visit to the vet will also stress him out. It may be best just to observe him and let him settle for a few days if it's all very recent. He may need to re-scent mark his cage, and find a new routine after the changes and cage clean and settle on a place to nest.

How to make the toilet roll food parcel is on this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuPeyD6w-CI

[cypher]

Sorry to hear about Dumpling, the changes you've seen do sound worrying.
It is possible he could have had a stroke, some of the symptoms you describe do sound as though that could be the case, this isn't that unusual in older hams & as you don't know how old he is it could be a possibility, as Serendipity said an accident of some kind is also possible.
A vet's visit can be stressful for them but if he seems to be struggling & you don't see any improvement soon is may be worth taking him in for a check.

[velma]

Poor Dumpling. He sounds like my Hector when he got old. One of his eyes got marginally more prominent (as opposed to one getting smaller). His was age and failing kidneys. Dumpling could be old or have gotten stressed while away. Robos don't get wet tail but they can get diarrhoea when stressed. Or they can get really yellow underneath if they've gone into scent marking overdrive and that can look like they've been ill. Do you have an exotics vet near you that you could try?

[Pebbles82]

How is he doing?