Salt in water!

[milly]

Should i put a tiny amount of salt in the water to clean my hamster's eyes? One of my friends said I shouldn't but we have done this with our other two hamsters(they were also syrian) and they never seemed to be affected, but I thought I would ask anyone here!

p.s It's only a small amount of table salt!

[SnuggleHam]

I never heard of this being done so at the time I’m going to advise against it. Wait for Babyboos or Emma to respond, they know a bit more and Emma is a vet student.



Why are you cleaning out the hamsters eyes anyway, does it seem to have an infection? I would imagine that salt in your eyes would be very painful? Have you ever gotten salt in an open cut on your lip before? It hurts quite a bit!

[babyboos]

Hamsters should be able to groom their eyes perfectly adequately themselves without any interference from us.

IF due to illness they have gunky eyes this can be moistened gently with a saline solution such as we use for our eyes - I prefer brine/rock salt rather than plain sodium chloride table salt if I am making up a solution for bathing cuts etc..

[milly]

Hey

Thank you both for your replys! It has been much help! :) Although my mum did hear from a vet that washing their eyes with the tinest amount of salt does help, as long as it is fully dissolved it shouldn't really affect them! but thanks anyway! please reply! :lol:

[SnuggleHam]

I never heard of using salt in the water untill now.. :?

[milly]

Yer! As long as it's been FULLY dissolved then it wont hurt them! We used it on our other two hamsters and it never affected them they were fine and never got an infection from the salt! It has only got to be the tiniest amount and fully dissolved and they should be fine. :lol:

[babyboos]

Table salt contains additives (e.g. iodine, preservatives, sugar, etc.). Sea salt is usually free of these, and therefore preferred.

[milly]

Thanks for the replies they have been a great help!

[Emma]

Using salt water to bathe at home is a home version of the sterile saline solution we'll use at the vets to flush things. People usually put too much salt in at home - I usually say 1 tsp salt to 1 pint of water, a really small amount. The saline we use at the vets is only 0.9% solution. A strong salt solution will sting and be irritant, a very mild solution is the way to go.



I'd be a bit concerned as to why you're having to clean your hamster's eyes though - what is the problem?

[milly]

Sorry about the late reply!

He had in his eye, so to speak, 'sleep'. Kind of what we have, but it was there for a few days! It has cleared up now and he is fine!

[furrynavel]

I used the sterile saline solution you can buy to clean contact lenses when my human baby had a stiky eye! :D You can get it in most chemists.

[Emma]

Sometimes the saline designed for contact lenses has other stuff in it so do check the bottle first. There's also no need for the water to be sterile when bathing cuts....so just clean fresh water will do.