Potential Cushings Dilemma...I’m stuck - Page 4

Pebbles82 · 02-24-2020, 07:36 PM

That sounds sensible to see how she is after the medications. The baytril tastes really nasty so it can be difficult to get them to take it. Our Robo got so stressed that I didn’t want to try and hold him to give it to him and had a very helpful tip on here from Vectis who has medicated many hamsters and knows what’s what. She suggested a beefy dog food- just a tiny bit no bigger than a pea. And put the drop of medicine on that and mix it in. It needs to be something strong flavoured and tasty or they won’t eat it and it needs to be something they will eat all of. It worked very well for me and made things a lot easier for our Robo. He loved the beefy dog food daily and would come out waiting for it! And he’d eat it up and lick the plate clean. It was worth buying a few pouches of the dog food just to get the meds done so easily.

With baytril it is important they get the full dose regularly and finish the course once it’s started - as with humans. Otherwise any infection can get worse and become resistant to the antibiotics.

Another member on here drew up a tiny bit of runny honey in the syringe after the medicine and found her hamster would just take it from the syringe. It depends how tame the hamster is partly.

Periwinklepets · 02-27-2020, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

That sounds sensible to see how she is after the medications. The baytril tastes really nasty so it can be difficult to get them to take it. Our Robo got so stressed that I didn’t want to try and hold him to give it to him and had a very helpful tip on here from Vectis who has medicated many hamsters and knows what’s what. She suggested a beefy dog food- just a tiny bit no bigger than a pea. And put the drop of medicine on that and mix it in. It needs to be something strong flavoured and tasty or they won’t eat it and it needs to be something they will eat all of. It worked very well for me and made things a lot easier for our Robo. He loved the beefy dog food daily and would come out waiting for it! And he’d eat it up and lick the plate clean. It was worth buying a few pouches of the dog food just to get the meds done so easily.

With baytril it is important they get the full dose regularly and finish the course once it’s started - as with humans. Otherwise any infection can get worse and become resistant to the antibiotics.

Another member on here drew up a tiny bit of runny honey in the syringe after the medicine and found her hamster would just take it from the syringe. It depends how tame the hamster is partly.

Bijou is definitely not very tame at all, and very unmotivated by food, even with new foods and treats she’ll usually just ignore them. Dog food sounds like it’s worth trying, thank you for the suggestion!

Maybe since it’s so smelly it will interest her, I’m not sure that I’ll have much luck administering her medicine in anyway other than force-feeding by syringe. But who knows, maybe she’ll like dog food and I won’t have to use the syringe! I’ll pick some up tonight. I’ve tried drawing up a bit of baby food after the antibiotic, but even then she’ll wiggle and nip a bit and isn’t interested if it’s on a spoon or in a syringe. She might like honey though since it’s sweet! It’s hard to tell how much of the medicine is actually getting in her mouth. I had that problem as well with the new mite medication, which I gave her the other night. It’s only supposed to be given to her once, and then administered one more time in 60 days. I definitely got a lot of it in, but not the entire pills worth, so I’m waiting for a phone call from the vet so I can ask her if I should try giving a quarter of another pill or something. I wouldn’t want to overdose her though!

Pebbles82 · 02-27-2020, 07:53 PM

I'd try the runny honey then

Celestial · 02-29-2020, 04:39 PM

I hope Bijou feels better soon with the medicine and her new home and food! You are doing your best to try and help her, so don't feel bad if things don't work out... (but hopefully everything will be all right!).

Periwinklepets · 03-04-2020, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celestial

I hope Bijou feels better soon with the medicine and her new home and food! You are doing your best to try and help her, so don't feel bad if things don't work out... (but hopefully everything will be all right!).

thank you so much, this really means a lot to me!💕 I hope so too🤞😢

Periwinklepets · 03-04-2020, 06:19 PM

Quick and possibly unrelated update... I’ve noticed in the past little while that Bijous eyes are dark underneath, I don’t believe there was any darkness when I first posted this thread, but it stood out to me more today than in the past few days. I’ve attached photos here:
https://imgur.com/gallery/cwupUQV
Is this something to be worried about? Also her left eyeball looks kind of “matte” if that makes sense, rather than “glossy/clear”. (I noticed that a while ago as well)
It might just be her illness progressing or aging but I’m getting kind of worried.

Celestial · 03-04-2020, 08:39 PM

Poor little Bijou

I don't know why her eyes are dark underneath. If she were a human I might suggest they sometimes are caused by lack of sleep, but I'm not sure if that happens to hamsters.

Keep her warm and cozy (but not too hot!) and give her lots of love.
Give her some love from me too! <3

Pebbles82 · 03-05-2020, 05:27 AM

It's probably a temporary thing - our robo started to look quite ropey when he was antibiotics - side effects etc. But he soon got back to normal once the course was finished.

Periwinklepets · 03-14-2020, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celestial

Poor little Bijou

I don't know why her eyes are dark underneath. If she were a human I might suggest they sometimes are caused by lack of sleep, but I'm not sure if that happens to hamsters.

Keep her warm and cozy (but not too hot!) and give her lots of love.
Give her some love from me too! <3

Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot to me❤️ I’m monitoring Bijou for now because I don’t think my vet thinks xrays and testing followed by surgery is realistic or safe, and I’m not sure if I’d be able to afford it even if she did agree to it.

Periwinklepets · 03-14-2020, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

It's probably a temporary thing - our robo started to look quite ropey when he was antibiotics - side effects etc. But he soon got back to normal once the course was finished.

I’m hoping it’s a temporary thing, but Bijou isn’t reacting much to the antibiotics at all, the cut on her stomach looks almost identical to how it did before two weeks of antibiotics

The vet has kindly donated to me some of her own Metacam, which is a pain management drug and might make Bijou more comfortable and livelier. She also hasn’t had any hair growth from the mite medication, but since demodex mites proliferate when there’s an underlying problem, I don’t think it would be a lasting effect unless what’s causing her illness is addressed (like a tumor or cyst that may be causing the mites)