Help identifying what killed my hamster

newhamsterowner · 11-01-2018, 07:57 PM

Hello all,
on Wednesday morning (oct. 31) my first hamster, Vincent, passed away. I do not know what caused his death, and I would like your help so I can warn others of the symptoms.
here is a run-down of everything that happened:
he was sleeping past his wake up time and got up to run on his wheel in the late night/early morning, and was active as usual in the morning. when waking him up before that time he was a bit wobbly.
the night before he died he almost didn't wake up at all. when he did he looked like he was intoxicated. his eyes were closed and he seemed disoriented. he could not climb on things he could do with ease before. he had little/no interest in physical activity or eating and he did not drink much of his water from what I saw. he only got up to pee in his potty, but he just ended up peeing outside of it. in the morning he was buried under his bedding, which is normal, but instead of sleeping in a ball like usual he was lying flat and his breath was slow. he died minutes after I found him buried in his bedding.
all living conditions were good, he got fresh water every 1-2 days, fresh food every morning, healthy treats, plenty of time in his exercise ball, lots of toys and chews, and a large tank. the symptoms appeared two days before his death. he did not have any diarrhea, puss, or any problems peeing or pooping. besides his eyes being closed there was no mucus or anything. he looked physically normal.

anything you may know can help me find out what killed him and warn others. your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

alpacassei · 11-01-2018, 08:07 PM

How old was he? It sounds like a normal death caused by old age tbh.

Just saw you got him not long ago, unless he was already older when you got him, it was probably a health problem caused by poor genetics/overbreeding

cypher · 11-01-2018, 10:46 PM

I'm really sorry to hear your hamster dies suddenly & so young, it's often very difficult to know why in cases like this but in a young hamster it can be that there was a congenital defect of some sort & something in his body just stopped working.

Pebbles82 · 11-02-2018, 03:08 AM

I agree with Cypher. I am so sorry. It may have been a stroke or heart attack due to a genetic predisposition. Nothing you did would have made any difference. Your little ham is playing free over the rainbow bridge now - free from pain - with all the other much-loved hams. It is so hard when they go so young. It helps when you’ve had some kind of goodbye ceremony or burial.

When you feel ready you could maybe think about getting another hamster from a breeder or a pet rescue (they have baby hams in pet rescues as well). It is sad but breeding is so unknown with pet stores and it’s pot luck.

Rescues also care for hamsters well and I usually reckon if they’ve survived as far as a rescue then they’re pretty healthy. Although with babies things don’t always show straight away.

You may not feel like getting another one just yet but don’t let it put you off - in fact it can be part of the healing to have another hamster who is fine and gets to a better age without issues xxx

Pebbles82 · 11-02-2018, 03:14 AM

Only thing to be aware of at this time of year is room temperature and making sure they have lots of bedding to keep warm and build a big Nestor they can go into torpor if it gets too cold and not come round. But it doesn’t sound like that was an issue at all from what you described and just a sad genetic predisposition.