Teds still poorley!

[PinkEmily]

Going to phone up vet this morning and book him in again. The baytril and cream eventually helped his belly last time but its clogged back up again and looks reallly swollen.

When it cleared up i started to see what was underneath the big scab which was a kind of lump thing, i knocked it a little by accident and it started to bleed :? by accident. Since his medication has stopped the scab has came back.

I think i kind of know what the vet will say.... operation, but i really dont want to put him through that, plus he would just bite the stitches and make it worse, hes constantly licking the cream off that i put on him :evil:


Link to old thread - http://www.hamstercentral.com/forum/vie ... php?t=2682 (http://www.hamstercentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2682)

[souffle]

Poor little Ted. These ventral scent gland infections in dwarfs are quite common and with them being so low to the ground it is hard to heal them. An op might be worthwhile Hope he does well at the vets

[PinkEmily]

Hes back from the vets now and the vet said he was very worried. He explained that he thinks he has an infection in his umbilical cord which is linked to his kidneys, bladder etc, so it could be worse inside. hes been put on baytril again for 3 months plus his cream again.

I didnt realise they had an umbilical cord tbh... i thought it was his scent gland, none of my syrians had an umbilical cord. :?


The vet really annoyed me, he picked ted up using the back of his neck, i remember reading a book that said never pick them up by the back of the neck!?!
Ted was obviously very frightened and wouldnt keep still, in the end i said look he wont bite you, the vet put him down and ted fell over onto his back to avoid him. So i picked him up instead by just holding him and making it so that he could see the belly. After that Ted just sat in my hands really still :( All the nuts in his mouth also ended up all over the place after his struggle with the vet :evil:

[souffle]

All mammals have an umbilical cord pinkemily including your syrians! It usually shrivels and drops off leaving the 'belly button'. In some animals there can be a developmental error or an umbilical hernia which can cause the bowel and parts of the inside to push through the weak gap in the abdomen. If these become penetrated they become infected and scar tissue can form tracts to the inside and allow infection in. How is little Ted in himself? Does he seem withdrawn or is he acting normally? Give the meds a chance to work and see if he improves. I really hope he does. He has had a real tough time. Would it be worth changing the bedding to something very plain and not something that will stick to the wound? Get well soon little guy :?

Scruffing is a normal way to pick up a small animal to keep them still and done correctly does not hurt at all. We have started scruffing our dwarfs to clip their nails as there is simply no other way to do it. Jean Tye showed us how at the last show.

[Gust0o]

I'll agree with Souffle that scruffing is an appropriate - and sometimes the only! - way to pick up a small animal; I do so with my dwarves, to no ill-effect, though you will need some practice to be able to do so comfortably.

My dwarves have pronounced 'belly-buttons', I suppose you would call them - and, I'll admit, I did wonder what they might be, until the obvious dawned on me.

With them being so low, and the feature so pronounced, I believe problems are relatively common - but it sounds treatable, with the Baytril and the cream.

Something about him losing his nuts made me very sad - he was probably looking forward to those. Will you make sure he gets a special treat, for being so brave?

[PinkEmily]

Hehe i sound so thick "my syrians didnt have umbilical cords" i ment i couldnt see them :D

Hes absolutely fine in himself, he does sleep for longer than Chip and Dale though.

Ive cleaned his cage out and put him a new toy in there to play with, going to keep cleaning his house every few days, and cage every week maybe more.

Maybe he didnt like being scruffed because he isnt used to it?
He wasnt even supposed to have any nuts in his mouth! I put him in his carry box which had the sawdust he had in from last time which had monkey nuts in it, i had to take one off him because i knew he was going to be weighed later on, he must have found some more underneith everything. He had a yogurt drop when he got home :)

[souffle]

It is unusual to see the actual belly button Gus. I imagine what you see is the ventral scent gland. In syrians as you have now found out, they are on the hips but in dwarfs they are on the tummy in the belly button position! They can get quite stained and sticky sometimes particularly when there are girlies around. Ted's sore is a bit lower than the scent gland position. I will try and get some pics of our guys tums to show these. :lol:

[PinkEmily]

Teds belly is so swollen tonight! i had a good 30 mins play with him, and gave him his medicine, which mostly ended up over his face :x He was quite hyper actually he had a strange obsession with climbing my hand bag.

Dales belly is always sticky n horrible when hes near Chip, he wipes his belly on everything in his cage and it stinks!

[jayne]

Hope Ted gets better and the medication sorts him out :)

[souffle]

Is it definitely and infection pinkemily? Can you feel any lumps as sadly it could be a tumour. May I ask where Ted came from? Was it P@H by any chance? You need to watch him very closely. Is he in with the other two because I would say he may need separated now if he is. I am so sorry he is ill and hope there is some improvement soon.

[PinkEmily]

No all three are seperated and yes he was bought from pets at home, the reason being is that he had a sore foot, i think his toe was broken so i felt mean leaving him there when i could give him lots of tlc.

The area around the umbilical cord is all raised like a doughnut shape with a scab etc inside and a bit of a lump of skin.

He came out for a run today and hes still very happy running around everywhere, he even helped me clean dales cage which was nice. :)

[Holly]

I hope he's ok, Emily, I'm keeping everything crossed for him. He's so lucky he's got you to care for him and get him the treatment he needs.