Need advice please!!

Cheeba_kaylee · 11-28-2018, 12:04 PM

Help! My hamster is having weird symptoms. She is about a year and a half old I believe I'm not sure. But anyways her symptoms are not moving and when she moves she scoots not using her back legs, she lost control of her bladder the 2nd time, (it's happened twice now the first time she didnt loose control of her bladder), her eyes are closed, she isn't eating or drinking very much, she's lost a lot of weight, she's very lethargic. Weird thing is she snaps out of it withing 45 minutes. We took her to the vet and they're treating for the treatable so like inflammation, diarrhea, and infection/virus. If she keeps it up we'll have to take her to a specialist. They said it could be neurological, this deadly virus they get, or the treatable. They gave me medicine for infection, inflammation, and diarrhea. They said to also change her food to pellets, and put vinegar around her cage so she'll stop chewing it. Any thoughts?

souffle · 11-29-2018, 07:47 AM

It sounds like she does have some sort of neurological injury or possibly she has had a stroke.
Some hamsters do recover from strokes given time however if this is the second time she has become ill is does indicate that things are more serious and the damage will become worse if she does not show some recovery within 24hrs. I'm not sure that the vets advice is sound though as putting vinegar around her cage will stress her and make her unwell with the smell and if she licks it. I would not do that at all.
If she climbs the bars she could well injure herself falling and chewing can also affect them so it would be best to move her in to something like a bin cage.
I would watch her over the next day and if she does not improve then it may be time to think about her life quality if she has back end paralysis and incontinence. Make sure she is pooing OK or else this can block up her intestine and be very dangerous. Watch for swelling in her tummy.

Cheeba_kaylee · 11-29-2018, 05:17 PM

I was thinking neurological too. That's what the vet also said. Okay I wash off the vinegar. I'll also get a bin cage. It is the second time this has happened but she snaps out of it within 45 minutes which is weird. The vet doesnt think neurological because she snaps out of it within 45 minutes. Right now the vet wanted to treat the treatable to see if that does anything. But if it happens again we have to go to a specialist. I'll watch for sweeping in the tummy. How would I check that?