Hamster with infection keeps sneezing/chirping??

[luciillama]

Hi!
Our hamster, Silver, is a few months old and recently had to be taken to the vet as her teeth had grown in too long and started pushing into her nose, which resulted in her having a pretty bad infection (swollen & crusty nose, crusty eyes, poor baby )

We've been giving her antibiotics through a syringe as she wasn't interested in eating for the first few days, the medicine bottle says '1.00 x Septrin Paediatric suspension (100ml) per ml' and the dosage is 0.04ml every 12 hours. She's had it for 6 days now, tomorrow should be the last day.
She has improved a lot - her eyes are bright and no longer crusty & her fur is looking good. Her nose is still a little bit crusty and red but seems to be getting better (hopefully it will be all gone by day 7, I'm not sure if I should continue giving her medicine for just a couple more days if it isn't?)

The thing I'm concerned about is, she makes this small sort of squeaking noise pretty often which sounds a little bit like a sneeze, I'm not sure if this is from the infection she has or maybe a different infection entirely, and if so, is it safe to assume her antibiotics should help that? She does make this sound sometimes when I give her the medicine (I assume because she's not exactly happy with it, I haven't had a chance to fully tame her yet although she's never gone to bite me) but she also does it sometimes when she's sleeping, when she's eating, or just sitting and grooming.
I know they can chirp if they're happy or stressed, but I can't tell if it's related to that or if it's a sneeze or respiratory issue. I wouldn't assume it's respiratory as everything else about her looks fine and healthy (minus her nose not being 100% better yet) and she is getting more and more energetic & lively each day, and she is eating.

Could she be allergic to her bedding? We use Megazorb wood pulp bedding which has been fine with all of our hamsters so far. I'd like to try changing it to see if it helps (suggestions are welcome) but I'm unsure about doing it yet as I'm worried about stressing her out too much? Especially with what she's having to deal with already.

What do you think? Do I risk stressing her out more by changing her bedding now or wait until she's better? Could she just be a noisy hamster? Taking her to a vet is difficult at the moment with COVID-19, so I'm trying to do all I can for her at home.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, I tend to worry a lot and I think that sometimes clouds my judgement a little!

[luciillama]

Just thought I'd add, in case it helps at all:

She's sleeping right now and I listened very closely for a while - I didn't hear any clicking noises or anything to indicate difficulty breathing. She occasionally wakes up and makes the noise quite a lot for a little while, but while she's actually asleep, she remains pretty silent.

[cypher]

If she's improving other than the noise, eating & drinking ok as well I wouldn't worry at this stage, some hams do make odd squeaks even when perfectly healthy so it could just be that, wait until the meds are finished & see how she goes.
If you're unsure about whether to continue the meds for a bit longer than prescribed you could ring the vet & ask.
An allergy to megazorb does seem fairly unlikely & I think with an allergy you would. probably see more pronounced symptoms rather than the odd squeak, she's been through quite a lot already so I think that the stress of changing all her substrate could do more harm than good so I would wait a while on that too & just see how she goes for now.

[souffle]

It's likely not healed fully yet. I don't think a couple more days would do any harm but you could just ring to check up. The teeth may need trimmed frequently through her whole life if they are not meeting correctly as they will just grow back out again and damage the palate. There could be some lasting damage that will never resolve and she may always be a wheezy hamster which is fine as long as she is well otherwise. Their tubes are very tiny and any scarring or swelling does make them sneezy. It's essential you monitor the teeth length and have her seen for trimming before they get too long again. I hope she recovers well.

[luciillama]

I managed to get a quick video today of her making the noise, this was shortly after giving her medicine this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4_Jsw23kI

Straight after getting the video she took some food out of her pouch and started eating it, so that could be a good sign? She still acts normal, it's just that she gets into these sneezing 'fits' a fair few times a day. I also made a little clicking noise to her shortly afterwards to get her attention and to try getting a better look at her and she wasn't making any sound at all while she was breathing, so it's not constant (she is also silent when she sleeps, but sometimes wakes up and has another one of these sneezing episodes)

Her fur has come off a little bit around her nose, which I feel like could be because she does groom around her nose a lot? I've started giving her a little bit of thyme tea as well to see if that helps her, it seems like she just gets moments where she sneezes a lot and her nose gets a bit congested, maybe it's a cold? It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens a lot.

I've kept her bedding as it is for now, and have been having a quick look at her teeth each time I give her medicine - the teeth seem to be doing okay in terms of length, if I notice them getting too long again I will definitely have them trimmed.

It could just be that she's not fully healed yet, I'm going to go ahead and give her antibiotics for a couple more days and see how she goes, I'm just very stressed at the moment (and so is she, I'd assume) and I'm just not sure what to do

[cypher]

As souffle said there could be some residual damage that has effected her breathing & that's causing her to sneeze & make odd noises.
She could have a cold but that would seem unlikely as she's been on antibiotics, I wouldn't give thyme tea to a ham tbh.
If she still seems to be ok in herself I would just keep an eye on her & see how she goes for now.
She may be grooming around her nose a lot because it's been painful & is healing, there does seem to be a lot of fur loss there, you could try giving her some extra flax seeds & a drop of. evening primrose oil on food daily to help with that growing back, hopefully once she's fully recovered she won't keep grooming it so much.
I would keep up the antibiotics a bit longer, if you can get it I would give her some probiotics too, not at the same time as the antibiotics, at least a few hours apart & continue that after the meds are finished as that should give her a boost. Most people use proC which you can get from pet shops or online, I prefer potent brew but proc is fine just don't put it in water as they say you can just end up with a contaminated bottle, sprinkling a tiny pinch of food is fine.
Hope she's over this & better soon.