Hamster Central - View Single Post

Little One · 01-09-2011, 04:20 PM

Thanks everyone for such quick replies!
It was definitely wet tail - she had all the hunching over, not eating, drinking, and was starting to have some icky ooze on her when I brought her back. I did get to see the "wellness room" (which horrified me... I saw bugs in one of the other tanks with sick hamsters) and she was being given baytril, though I'm not sure how consistent they were since they "misplaced" her paperwork when I had shown up unexpectedly and had to take my name down again. There were vet papers in there with all the sick hammies, so she did definitely see the vet.
I will look for that probiotic, that's a good idea. She's definitely been pooping correctly, no more diarrhea at all and I catch her drinking and see she's drinking what I think is a decent amount. (Incidentally, how much is a correct amount? It looks like in about 36-48 hours she's had about an ounce of water, give or take what dribbles out of the bottle. I would normally change every day but I'm trying to gauge how much she's drinking and that's impossible if I change it in under 24 hours cause it looks like nothing!)

I guess if nobody else thinks she may still be in danger, then I'll just let her sleep when she wants. I can split that time out into shorter sessions, for sure. She's been checking out the desk and then curling up in her puzzle gym (by the way, these puzzle gyms from super pet are probably the best thing they have for any small animal. I'm almost 27 years old and I get a huge thrill out of creating spaces for her to explore!) for at least ten minutes of that time out. I like that she feels at least some trust with me that she can fall asleep within inches of me, I've been taking that as a good sign.
Thank you so much for pointing out that you think she's a long haired mink! I was told she was a long haired teddy bear hamster and since I don't know any better, I took that as the most "breed" specific information I'd ever need for her. But you're totally right, I looked up "long haired mink" and she looks like those hamsters. I figured being sick, medicine, and about ten days could indeed account for changes, though I'd been very frustrated about it, feeling as though it's still possible that Petco would switch hamsters on a grown up and feeling highly disgusted. But every day she's with me again, she changes back a little bit - lighter coat again (not quite as blonde, but lighter), her ears have that little gray tint to them again, and if you think she's a mink, then she's supposed to have that reddish tint to them depending on how you look at her (light, straight on, etc.). I had a mouse with red eyes and a mouse with black eyes and I guess I didn't think rodents could have eyes that looked both ways! I'm very excited that I'm not crazy - some changes did seem to happen - but there's a reason! My husband will never hear the end of it. ^_^

One last question would be when to expand her cage? My husband and I went to Petco to get her after I had seen her on a rabbit hay mission that had me at Petco when I'd normally be at Petsmart (they were out!!) because I missed having a buddy on my desk and it was Christmastime so she actually turned out to be my present from my husband (clearly he had an opportunity to get me something without having to think it up!). We didn't want to spend a ton of money at Petco and there was a Super Pet "My First Home" on sale for $20 ("with everything you need!" all extras of which I immediately replaced lol). It's really small, but I had figured that I would upgrade within the next few weeks slowly so she didn't get too stressed out and it would give us time to perhaps make a bin cage for her. I think we'd still like to go that route (the US has disgustingly expensive tiny cages!) and I think we've figured out how we'd cut out bars and make tunnels to another cage, but *when* should I add this new stress for her? I want to give her some time even though this is pretty small. I mean, she *IS* sleeping a lot anyway right now so I don't think she's miserable in the small space, plus with the puzzle gym she now has a huge castle in there with three extra levels.

Well, thank you all again for such great and fast replies! This is a very knowledgeable community and I'm very excited to be a part of it. ^_^

01-09-2011, 04:20 PM
Little One Newborn Pup Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Culver City, CA Posts: 4	Re: After Surviving Wet Tail? Thanks everyone for such quick replies! It was definitely wet tail - she had all the hunching over, not eating, drinking, and was starting to have some icky ooze on her when I brought her back. I did get to see the "wellness room" (which horrified me... I saw bugs in one of the other tanks with sick hamsters) and she was being given baytril, though I'm not sure how consistent they were since they "misplaced" her paperwork when I had shown up unexpectedly and had to take my name down again. There were vet papers in there with all the sick hammies, so she did definitely see the vet. I will look for that probiotic, that's a good idea. She's definitely been pooping correctly, no more diarrhea at all and I catch her drinking and see she's drinking what I think is a decent amount. (Incidentally, how much is a correct amount? It looks like in about 36-48 hours she's had about an ounce of water, give or take what dribbles out of the bottle. I would normally change every day but I'm trying to gauge how much she's drinking and that's impossible if I change it in under 24 hours cause it looks like nothing!) I guess if nobody else thinks she may still be in danger, then I'll just let her sleep when she wants. I can split that time out into shorter sessions, for sure. She's been checking out the desk and then curling up in her puzzle gym (by the way, these puzzle gyms from super pet are probably the best thing they have for any small animal. I'm almost 27 years old and I get a huge thrill out of creating spaces for her to explore!) for at least ten minutes of that time out. I like that she feels at least some trust with me that she can fall asleep within inches of me, I've been taking that as a good sign. Thank you so much for pointing out that you think she's a long haired mink! I was told she was a long haired teddy bear hamster and since I don't know any better, I took that as the most "breed" specific information I'd ever need for her. But you're totally right, I looked up "long haired mink" and she looks like those hamsters. I figured being sick, medicine, and about ten days could indeed account for changes, though I'd been very frustrated about it, feeling as though it's still possible that Petco would switch hamsters on a grown up and feeling highly disgusted. But every day she's with me again, she changes back a little bit - lighter coat again (not quite as blonde, but lighter), her ears have that little gray tint to them again, and if you think she's a mink, then she's supposed to have that reddish tint to them depending on how you look at her (light, straight on, etc.). I had a mouse with red eyes and a mouse with black eyes and I guess I didn't think rodents could have eyes that looked both ways! I'm very excited that I'm not crazy - some changes did seem to happen - but there's a reason! My husband will never hear the end of it. ^_^ One last question would be when to expand her cage? My husband and I went to Petco to get her after I had seen her on a rabbit hay mission that had me at Petco when I'd normally be at Petsmart (they were out!!) because I missed having a buddy on my desk and it was Christmastime so she actually turned out to be my present from my husband (clearly he had an opportunity to get me something without having to think it up!). We didn't want to spend a ton of money at Petco and there was a Super Pet "My First Home" on sale for $20 ("with everything you need!" all extras of which I immediately replaced lol). It's really small, but I had figured that I would upgrade within the next few weeks slowly so she didn't get too stressed out and it would give us time to perhaps make a bin cage for her. I think we'd still like to go that route (the US has disgustingly expensive tiny cages!) and I think we've figured out how we'd cut out bars and make tunnels to another cage, but when should I add this new stress for her? I want to give her some time even though this is pretty small. I mean, she IS sleeping a lot anyway right now so I don't think she's miserable in the small space, plus with the puzzle gym she now has a huge castle in there with three extra levels. Well, thank you all again for such great and fast replies! This is a very knowledgeable community and I'm very excited to be a part of it. ^_^