Unexpected passing of winter white

[Untitled hamster mom]

Hello,

On the 1st of June my beloved little winter white lady Rhea passed away rather unexpectedly at a rather young age, a few days shy of 7 months. A few weeks prior she had started to drink quite a lot more and also seemed to be gaining quite a bit of weight, so we assumed it might've been diabetes since it is rather common in dwarf hamsters. We tried to limit any excess sugar she might've gotten (not that she was fed anything super sugary to begin with). (Also might I add; the animal safety and welfare laws here wouldn't have allowed for example regular insulin shots, so in case she would've been confirmed to have diabetes, all we could've done is to put her on a very strict diet or put her down).

She eventually started to loose the extra grams and started to drink less. Crisis averted right? Well yes but actually no. She kept loosing weight (just a little bit) and she was drinking even less than when we got her. On Monday when I was going to clean her tank I found her weak and almost limp in the pile of hay she has. I picked her up and tried getting her to drink a bit since she seemed dehydrated (she had only drank a little bit in the morning when she "normally" would drink at least five times during the day) and got her to cheer up. Still quite weak, but she was still wanting to move around, fight against me checking her teeth and such like she normally does.

After a while of trying to get her to eat (which she didn't want to do) and drink, we decided to put her back into her tank since she was really restless. I noticed her breathing being very heavy and after a little while her short life ended in, from what it seemed like, a heart attack.


Considering I've managed to take good care of hamsters before and have them live at least past a year and a half, the only explanation for this I could think of would be some underlaying (genetic?) illness and in that case it would be really important for me to notify the breeder, which I'm yet to do since I would like to get at least somewhat of an idea what caused Rhea's early death.

Maybe some important info:
*I got Rhea from a breeder whom' has been registered by Suomen Hamsteriyhdistys (the Finnish hamster association).
*She was a purebred Winter white dwarf hamster.
*Was fed the Bunny-brand dwarf hamster mix (the one without filler pellets).
*My mom did call the emergency duty vet and they gave instructions similar to what we were already doing.
*The closest vets that might be able to treat hamsters are at least an hour's drive away, plus they were closed for the day -> Even if we could've brought her to a vet, she most likely wouldn't have made it.

I'm more than happy to provide any extra info I can and I really hope someone is able to connect dots to why she might've passed so young.
-Ada

[cypher]

I'm so sorry for your loss, iI know how hard it is to lose a hamster so young.
It isn't always easy or even possible to know why they die, especially at such a young age.
I do think diabetes is unlikely, it isn't common in WW hams (it's most common in Russian hybrids, Campbell's & Chinese) it may possibly have been an underlying kidney problem, the weight gain may even have been fluid retention if that were the case.
I can only guess I'm afraid, someone else may have a better idea.
Although it does sound like an underlying problem that may have been congenital it's not necessarily a genetic problem, I would let the breeder know what happened & see if they have any more idea of what it may have been.
You gave her the best care you could, it is very sad but sometimes no matter what we do it's just not possible to prevent things like this from happening.

[Charlie Dunn]

I am so sorry to hear about Rhea. It is so hard when they are taken from us when they are so young. Sometimes we never know why. Play well at the bridge little Rhea x

[carrie strutt]

Originally Posted by Untitled hamster mom

Hello,

On the 1st of June my beloved little winter white lady Rhea passed away rather unexpectedly at a rather young age, a few days shy of 7 months. A few weeks prior she had started to drink quite a lot more and also seemed to be gaining quite a bit of weight, so we assumed it might've been diabetes since it is rather common in dwarf hamsters. We tried to limit any excess sugar she might've gotten (not that she was fed anything super sugary to begin with). (Also might I add; the animal safety and welfare laws here wouldn't have allowed for example regular insulin shots, so in case she would've been confirmed to have diabetes, all we could've done is to put her on a very strict diet or put her down).

She eventually started to loose the extra grams and started to drink less. Crisis averted right? Well yes but actually no. She kept loosing weight (just a little bit) and she was drinking even less than when we got her. On Monday when I was going to clean her tank I found her weak and almost limp in the pile of hay she has. I picked her up and tried getting her to drink a bit since she seemed dehydrated (she had only drank a little bit in the morning when she "normally" would drink at least five times during the day) and got her to cheer up. Still quite weak, but she was still wanting to move around, fight against me checking her teeth and such like she normally does.

After a while of trying to get her to eat (which she didn't want to do) and drink, we decided to put her back into her tank since she was really restless. I noticed her breathing being very heavy and after a little while her short life ended in, from what it seemed like, a heart attack.


Considering I've managed to take good care of hamsters before and have them live at least past a year and a half, the only explanation for this I could think of would be some underlaying (genetic?) illness and in that case it would be really important for me to notify the breeder, which I'm yet to do since I would like to get at least somewhat of an idea what caused Rhea's early death.

Maybe some important info:
*I got Rhea from a breeder whom' has been registered by Suomen Hamsteriyhdistys (the Finnish hamster association).
*She was a purebred Winter white dwarf hamster.
*Was fed the Bunny-brand dwarf hamster mix (the one without filler pellets).
*My mom did call the emergency duty vet and they gave instructions similar to what we were already doing.
*The closest vets that might be able to treat hamsters are at least an hour's drive away, plus they were closed for the day -> Even if we could've brought her to a vet, she most likely wouldn't have made it.

I'm more than happy to provide any extra info I can and I really hope someone is able to connect dots to why she might've passed so young.
-Ada

Hi Ada,
I am so very sorry to hear of Rheas passing, very sad at any age especially young age. I wanted to ask what diet she was on? Did the tank have plenty of air flow? Obviously she had a wheel to exercise on? Sorry for the questions

[Thin Lizzy]

So sad to read this especially as Rhea was so young, it's never easy when they go but, it's even harder when they go so young.