Pica went to the vet today, they had never seen a robo in person before and were astonished by her size. The tech there actually said "I've heard of pocket pets, but she's more like a change-purse pet"
I was a little proud to show them my little Pica, since I feel hamsters are under appreciated here.
When it was time for the vet to examine her she promptly spewed food all over him and the exam table--once again shocking the tech! I explained that this is a defense mechanism and the tech was really intrigued...
The vet performed a skin scraping on Pica, which made me feel awful for her because she just doesn't understand and looked so pitiful afterwards. After examining the scraping under a microscope he found no parasites, but found what he believes could be a couple of eggs on the hair shafts. Based on her medical history of polyuria and polydipsia the vet diagnosed Pica with amyloidosis. A progressive degenerative disease of the kidneys in hamsters, that invariably presents with sarcopitic mange.
Our local vet is not a specialist on hamsters, and he gave me a referral to an exotic pet vet. He did say that we could try Ivermectin injections, but he wasn't going to recommend any treatment without a difinitive diagnosis of the parasite.
I had been suspecting that something more serious may be going on with Pica and I'm quite upset. The vet says that Ivermectin injections have a 50% efficacy in hamsters with amyloidosis and that there is no topical Ivermectin treatment in the US that he is aware of.
I'm going to have to take her to the specialist...I'm torn as to what is the best choice for Pica. I don't want her to suffer, and if the Ivermectin shots could provide comfort to Pica while her kidney issue and alopecia progresses than I think it's worth it. But, I don't want her to suffer injections that wont help her unnecessarily either....