Sulfatrim, Possible Cyst

[Jo80]

Hi everyone,

Just joined although it maybe a little late. So Fat Jack as my dad named him JackJack as i prefer has always had a large back half. I believe he is actually a she but I'm not changing names now and JackJack suits.
OK so Syrian hamster, thought to be a decent age when i got him as living alone (in cage at the pet shop, not like one bedroom apartment over looking the river) Think he may have been left due to size and all the kids want the cute little baby.
I've had JackJack I've had jack about 18 months so no spring chicken although you would never have guessed till about a month ago when stopped coming out of nest except to drink, pee and eat. His little ears are permanently down and he looks sad. Fur is still lovely and the softest of any hamster I have ever owned. His abdomen started to swell and put on 45 g which appears to be fluid.
Took Jack to the Vet and after a lot of man handling and rubbing/squeezing the swallow en sides the vet said she thought it might be cysts on ovaries or infection. I had gone in there asking if maybe it might be Pyometra which everyone talks about but she said no.

So jack has metecam and 0.05ml once a day of Sulfatrim. We've been on it a week and no change except 8g weight GAIN. Anyone got any experience or advice? 168 g total hes huge and waddles but he eats, drinks, wee's and poo's normally. doesn't mind being handled for med's. Just sleeps, ears down and looks sad.

Any advice or thoughts? I love this little guy more than anything in the world.

[LunaTheHamster1]

He/she is a cutie. If it is an infection then it can take a while for the antibiotics to work, i don't know what to say about the possible retention of fluid though.

I am not saying this is what it is, but only sharing from my experience, my Luna (syrian hamster) had blood and infection down below last year, it wasn't pyometra, her kidneys were failing - she went from about 180g to 230gram - i think some of that was because she wasn't as active. At one point she was only active for 15 mins, but once the antibiotics started working she got back up to an hour or 2 activity every night and got some quality of life back. I would just give your hamster some time and see what happens.if she gets a bit more active again and of course go back to the vets if still worried or no improvement, especially if you think the fluid is building up. I would say both my female hamsters that got infections (common in older hamsters) ended up taking 3-4 weeks of antibiotics to get rid of the infection and everytime I took them off, it came back again so they ended up being on medicine for the rest of their lives.
I hope everything works out for you. Goodluck.

[Vierville]

Jack is adorable. I'm sorry he or she is unwell.

[Charlie Dunn]

Aww Jack is a beauty. I hope he starts to get better soon x