Ariana - Page 7

**Cinnamon Bear** · 10-09-2016, 05:33 PM

Ariana lost weight since I last posted. This morning she weighed only 19 gm. My free vet voucher ended last Friday. I just found this out while looking at the calendar tonight. Will have to see if the vet can still see her or not. I'm supposed to see them tomorrow at 3pm. Not worried about it too much. The pet store fed her different food so she has to adjust to her new food. Here are a couple pics, she's pretty small. As soon as she's stronger I'll be upgrading her to the 20 gal tank I bought for her recently.

**Cinnamon Bear** · 10-09-2016, 05:35 PM

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Thin Lizzy · 10-09-2016, 08:34 PM

Beautiful pics of Ariana.
Have you thought about buying the food she was on at the pet store and giving her some of both mixes?

**Cinnamon Bear** · 10-10-2016, 05:48 AM

Not really cause I didn't think it was good food if you buy it in bulk. But maybe I should do that? It's a good idea Thanks you!

The vet is going to honor my coupon for a vet visit so I'll be taking her his afternoon. I don't think she needs the vet now that I'm not suspicious of mites anymore. But losing weight could be worth a check up>

flowerfairy · 10-10-2016, 10:28 AM

Great that the vet is going to honour the coupon. May as well have the check up. Hope all goes well for her.

**Cinnamon Bear** · 10-10-2016, 02:22 PM

So the vet visit went ok. Ariana got picked up out of her nest 2x's as I brought her Critter Trail cage in there instead of a travel cage. I wanted it to be as stress free as possible. I'm afraid my efforts didn't work though. So after she got picked up actually several times to get weighed (18 gm) on 2 different scales as the tech though that was a little low. Then she got picked up for a mite test ($20) she didn't have any mites or lice. The vet mentioned part of a piece of her fur was vulnerable for a possible fungal infection. She said to look for sore spots. I don't think it will be a problem though. She couldn't rule out demodex mites, as she didn't want to scrape the skin as she was so little. But for another $13.00 she gave her a topical mite treatment. In another week if the scratching is better than I'll come in for another $13 for a second round of this topical mite treatment.

She couldn't rule out a respiratory infection and wanted to give her anti-biotics but I asked if that could be put off for awhile & I'll keep an eye on her. She said that if her breathing becomes labored then to bring her in for anti-biotics. I told her that it would ruin my relationship with Ari by giving her medication this early. The vet agreed.

I asked about the bedding, how often should I change it? Is anything growing in it? Vet said no just leave bedding alone if I want? That doesn't make sense to me but I'll change in a couple days. It will need changing anyways. I'll wait to upgrade her for another 2 weeks when she's stronger. Vet said to weight her at home every couple days. Said to buy some of the pet store food, as Lizzy suggested.

So Ariana made another nest and she got pulled out of that so the vet could show me another way to give her an anti-biotic. But it didn't work, Ari didn't cooperate but the vet was real nice with her and good with her. Then I wanted topical treatment, so Ari got pulled out of her nest again to get the topical mite treatment. When I got her home she wasn't in any nest. Just unhappy sitting in a corner of the cage stressed out. I tried to feed her mealworms but she wasn't interested.

Will just leave her alone the rest of the night. Hopefully she'll be back to normal tomorrow?

**Cinnamon Bear** · 10-10-2016, 02:29 PM

I asked the vet about Koala Bear and would she have been able to have saved his life. She said there was no guarantee they would have tried a topical medication like she did to Ariana today. She agreed that if the ivermectin didn't work then the topical probably wouldn't have worked either. Vet said that something else was going on with Koala making the mites to stay alive.

Thin Lizzy · 10-10-2016, 07:37 PM

All vet visits are stressful for the ham and the owner.
You could ask the pet store that you got her from if you can have a smaller amount of their hamster mix. I hope she's back to her normal self soon.

cypher · 10-10-2016, 10:44 PM

I'm sure she'll settle down soon enough & get over the stress of being handled at the vets.
Did the vet check her teeth as there still doesn't seem to be any explanation of her weight loss?
It could just be due to the general stress of settling into a new home though.
I would see if you can find a food she really enjoys & is good for her.
I can't remember if you got any flax seeds before or not but giving her a good pinch of those in with her food each day will help with overall nutrition & with her skin/fur condition, she may just be a bit itchy because she's not been eating enough to get all those nutrients she needs.
Once she really settles in & begins to eat better she should be fine.

ETA Just for future reference when going to the vet with shy/nervous hams I find it best to put them in a carrier with just enough substrate to keep them warm & comfortable & then put a small cardboard box (something like a tea bag box) open at one end, preferably a box they're used either from taming/bonding time or something they've had in the cage in with them.
They will often hide in the box which means you or the vet can easily lift them out & gently tip them into a hand.
The idea of taking them in a cage does seem like a nice idea at first but ideally when you think about it the less places they have to hide away the less stressful it is to get them out, you don't want to have to be digging around or chasing them to catch them as that will really stress them (& you!) out.

**Cinnamon Bear** · 10-11-2016, 05:31 AM

Yea the cage idea kind of created more stress as her secure house was invaded repeatedly.

I went to the pet store last night & put that food also in her dish.

I do use flax & hemp seeds & oats, meal worms & crickets.

I really hope she grows stronger. I'll change her cage tomorrow to help getting that old bedding out of there.

I'm so tired of mite treatment!! Worse yet is anti-biotics with a syringe 2x's / day for 10 days. I hate doing that. I've done that with 2 hamsters & it didn't make any difference in their health.

Also, I asked the vet to check her teeth but she never did. If I go back in 7 days for more mite topical treatment then I'll ask again. It only cost $11 to get another dose of mite meds so if I notice that she's less scratching then vet said to bring her back for another treatment.

I just don't know when to clean her cage? Today seems cruel after what happened yesterday. So I was thinking tomorrow or would that cause the mite treatment not to work as well? Vet said it doesn't matter about the bedding at all. But I know that's not correct.

I felt that I knew hamsters better than the vet. She didn't make a big deal about her weight. Said they are all small. She didn't really know the difference between Syrian and dwarf, think she was just playing dumb so I wouldn't worry about her weight.