Hamster bleeding

[LunaTheHamster1]

Hi, I found blood on my Luna(syrian) under her bum/tail last monday morning. I took her to the vets straight away. They gave her 2 injections, I think one was Baytrill, not sure what the other was
.
I have since been giving her 0.2mls Baytrill and 0.3ml Loxicom every night.

At first there was no more sign of bleeding for a couple of days, but then i have still seen blood every other night since.


I am going back to the vets tomorrow as I saw blood again last night.
Apart from the bleeding, there may be a little lump above her female bits, which seems to come and go??? Besides these 2 things there are no other signs of her being ill. She still eats/drinks, active for about every 2- 3 hours, (I have a camera on her 24 hrs!)
She has put weight on - she now weighs 225gram, but i think part of that is due to a few weeks ago she was only active for 15 mins every 24 hours, so even then I had prepared myself for her to slip away in her sleep. I posted on here about it at the time, and I think it was agreed that she was just slowing down due to age (she's at least 21 months, maybe older - i adopted her). Before this medicine she had got back up to 1 hr of being active, but on the medicine she has been more active, the 2 -3 hrs that i already mentioned.

This is such a hard question to ask, is it time to let her go? am i being cruel keeping her alive whilst bleeding, or am i being cruel not letting her live, whilst she still eats/drinks/active.

Is there anything else the vet can do?

I would appreciate anybody's advice but please be gentle in your replies as I am devastated about this, I have cried so much. I just want to do what is best for my Luna and I just don't know what that is, when I don't know what is causing the bleeding and if it can be fixed/stopped.

[Pebbles82]

I am so sorry to hear this. Do you mean 0.02ml and 0.03ml? They are tiny amounts for a hamster and I was confused at first. Assume the vet showed you the correct marking on the syringe for drawing it up?

How old is she again? It could be pyometra, which is something female hamsters can get and that would probably mean she needs spaying as antibiotics rarely knock it on the head. So her age would help with decision-making for you.

[LunaTheHamster1]

Thanks Serendipity. I was told she was 6 months when i adopted her (but i always had suspicions she was older) and i have had her 15 months.
it says 0.2 and 0.3 on the syringe and medicine. it is a tiny amount, like the tip of the syringe.

Is spaying a big thing/cruel to put an older hamster thru? how would i know if it was Pyometra?
I did see that when i searched previously, but i didn't think that was what she has, but then i don't really know what she does have!

just googled quickly, i know why i didn't think it was pyometra, she has no swelling , the only thing we can see is this little lump above her bits which seems to come and go. I would try and get a pic but it's hard with one hand and to be honest I don't want to disturb her anymore. she is not enjoying her medicine and she is letting me know!!!

[Ria P]

So sorry to hear about Luna. I have no experience with Luna's health issues, just want you to know that i feel for you and very much hope that the medication will cure Luna.
You are probably feeling worse than Luna herself and she's enjoying her food more than you do yours.
It's unbelievable how important these little creatures are to us, something that really took me by surprise.

[Pebbles82]

I can't remember - are you in the US - maybe the meds have been diluted to a certain strength. Anyway - a bit on the end of a syringe sounds about right.

At 21 months she would be classed as elderly really - almost two years old. They are difficult decisions and some would depend on how fit and active she is normally. What you need is a diagnosis though. Hopefully the vet tomorrow will be able to give a clearer diagnosis because then you will know what treatment options there are.

I wouldn't say it is cruel to operate on an older hamster if they were active and healthy otherwise (although they can go downhill quite quickly). But it really does depend on what it is. I would suspect female parts issue with it being blood and in that case, spaying may help possibly. Fingers crossed the vet helps tomorrow.

I had a difficult decision with our robo earlier in the year, whether or not to operate - but different circumstances as not an acute thing like bleeding. I decided not to as it was such a large area of his body and he was active and enjoying life. But his is now a slow decline.

[Vectis Hamstery]

Dear Luna. She sounds a character!

I think it's a good idea to find out what the vet thinks it is as that will help with treatment option decisions.

I've had quite a few hamsters spayed. My vets now expect my Syrians to make it through the surgery which is different to when I had my first girl spayed 10 years ago. Chinese hamsters are a bit more touch-and-go.
21 months old is tricky as it is older than I've had most of my Syrians spayed, but she may be older or younger than that. I'd suggest having an open discussion with your vet - it will depend on her body condition now she's had some antibiotics and also your vet's experience and comfort with spaying small animals. Even if the vet thinks it's a pyometra, you would need to be prepared that sometimes they find things aren't what they initially thought when they do the surgery.

There are other options if they think it's a pyometra. I wrote about them here.

I currently have a 2 year old Chinese who has bleeding too, and is also on baytril and painkillers.

Good luck to you and Luna.

[LunaTheHamster1]

Thank you everyone, my head is a bit of a blur with it all. I have an illness which makes reading and typing hard so I am past it in replying to you all individually but I do really appreciate you taking the time to reply to me.
Vectis hamstery I will print that info off - thank you

Luna does not like taking her medicine, and she chunters crossly at me so I don't see giving medication daily as a long term solution as it is stressing her out too much. I think it is the baytrill that she really doesn't like.
thanks again everyone, will have to see what tomorrow brings.

[Pebbles82]

That is a wonderful page Vectis - very informative and helpful and I absolutely love the glasses photo!

That may answer a lot of your questions Luna. Good luck tomorrow.

[Pebbles82]

I had the same issue recently with our robo, and you can avoid the stress by putting it in food. I also had a great tip from Vectis on this as the baytril tastes nasty and they often won't eat food with it in, but I got some country hunter dog food pouches (suggested by Vectris) and those did the trick - meaty strong flavour and very popular with the hamster! So the baytril went in that daily. The metacam can be put in just about anything as they often like the taste of it. I put it in a tiny bit of baby food.

My vet suggested making up the metacam in jelly - ie making a square of jelly (I used a cube in an ice cube tray). So make up one cube of jelly (working out the proportions of liquid for one cube) but a bit less liquid (because you're adding the metacam).

Put some of the liquid jelly in the ice cube tray slot/cube, then put ten doses of metacam in the jelly in the ice cube tray and give it a good swirl around and a stir for a few minutes (I used a cocktail stick to do that). Then put it in the fridge. When it's set, turn out the jelly cube and cut it into 10 equal sized pieces. These can then be kept in the fridge in a little plastic box eg and you just put out one mini cube each day. So 10 days of easy medicine.

To be honest I don't know which is more of a faff - measuring out the teeny bit and putting it in a teeny bit of baby food daily - or faffing about cutting up teeny bits of jelly!

The jelly was good for when I was away and someone else had to give the meds. Also works out cheaper than buying lots of baby food.

This is the Country hunter dog food - the beef one was most popular. It's about £8 for 6 pouches and each pouch lasted me 3 nights from being opened (it says use within 48 hours of opening so first night, then another 48 hours so two more nights - in the fridge after opening). As you only use a teeny bit the rest goes to waste unless you have a dog!

But it worked brilliantly for getting the bayril down every day and that is the really important one for getting the full dose every day, so it can fight the infection. If a dose is missed the infection could get worse.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natures-Men...8-1-fkmr1&th=1

[Pebbles82]

I put the meds on a separate little dish in their respective foods. eg a baby food jar lid.

Really sorry you're not well - stress and worry won't help. Do take care.