Where is it coming from?

[shazzy]

I am a little concerned about my Syrian Little Mo...

For a little over a week or so now, I have regularly been noticing tiny little drops of blood in Mo's bedding. I monitored her, and when I noticed a little bit more blood than usual one night (although it was a paler colour stain) I decided to make an appointment with the vet.

Her wee was also quite orange, so after telling this to the vet she decided that it was probably a uring infection and proscribed some Baytril to clear it up.

Well, the blood spots still appear despite being on Baytril - and now, I am really not sure that the blood is actually coming from her back end/urine infection. (her lady bits look fine - no discharge, and her belly is quite squidgy to feel rather than hard)

The tiny specs of blood do appear near where Mo stores her food, so I wonder if she has cut her mouth somehow.... although I check her teeth and they do not appear to be too long (the bottom ones do seperate slightly at the top however - is this normal?)

Mo is acting fine - running round like an absolute loon, enjoying coming out, gets up at normal time, and is eating and drinking fine (touch wood - sorry, superstitious!). She doesnt like her hamster mix much, but has been chewing her water bottle spout and eating Bonio, another dog chew, her treat stick, corn flakes and carrot crunchie treats since the bleeding appeared, so thats another reason why I dont think her teeth are too long as surely she would not be eating these??

I've tried my best to examine her mouth, but she is such a wriggler - I got one quick but good look at her teeth and couldnt see any blood actually in her mouth...

Could she have cut her mouth a little while ago, and it is just taking a little while to heal?

Not sure whether another Vet trip is in order, or whether to wait and see if it clears up...

[shazzy]

PS. The bed she sleeps in, a natural living log cabin, does have some rough and splintery edges, so wonder if she has hurt herself on that (although could not find any scabs on her)

To rule it out, I've bought her another house to see if the bleeding continues after switching

[ellisyellis]

hiya,

finding blood is always a worry. if theres no sign of an injury then it must be coming out of either her bottom end or her top end. is she sneezing or anything? maybe it could be coming from her nose if you dont think its the bottom end??? also hammy wee is very strong normally. hope you find out and your hammy is ok x x

[shazzy]

Hmmm... I haven't heard her sneeze...not while she is up anyway - I occasionally hear a little snuffly noise coming from her while she is asleep, but dont think it is anything troublesome

a couple of days after noticing the blood, I put her in her ball for 10 mins and when I got her out I noticed a little bit of blood near her top teeth/nose area.....maybe she hurt herself like this before and it is still healing???

I check her bum like 100 times a day and havent noticed any blood from it as yet...

The blood spots are tiny little dots

[souffle]

Does she bar chew at all? She could have a cut in the corner of her mouth which keep opening up. It could be coming from the teeth or there may be something like a seed which has jabbed her gum or pouch. If she seems otherwise well and bight enough I would monitor her closely. Feel her cheeks to see if there are any lumpy bits in them that don't come out.
Sometimes the pink biscuits in food can look ike blood if they get wet or foods like beetroot can stain the urine. I think it is a good idea to take the scratchy house out for now. The teeth do look separate sometimes but they should not move in the gum.

[shazzy]

Does she bar chew at all? She could have a cut in the corner of her mouth which keep opening up. It could be coming from the teeth or there may be something like a seed which has jabbed her gum or pouch. If she seems otherwise well and bight enough I would monitor her closely. Feel her cheeks to see if there are any lumpy bits in them that don't come out.
Sometimes the pink biscuits in food can look ike blood if they get wet or foods like beetroot can stain the urine. I think it is a good idea to take the scratchy house out for now. The teeth do look separate sometimes but they should not move in the gum.


Thanks for your reply Souffle (was hoping you might!)

She used to bar chew, but has been in a Duna tank cage for a month or so now...she did take to chewing her water bottle though, so maybe she could've bit her mouth/cheek/tongue doing that.
I took the bottle out for a while and gave her a water bowl because of the chewing, but have since put the bottle back because her antibiotics are added to the water (I didn't want to give her the full dose of antibiotics straight in the mouth cos I wasnt convinced that the blood was coming from down there...).

She does chew the metal clips that her ladder climbing frame hangs from and the edge is quite sharp...so I am also suspisious of this.

It could be so many things, I'm pulling my hair out trying to find the source.

I'm just a nrevous wreck becuase I read of a very similar story on this forum, and the poor wee hamster had Pyo and sadly died...I am so scared it could be something like that. However, as mentioned I cannot seem to feel any swelling in the abdomen..she's quite squidgy

[souffle]

Maybe you should take everything that is suspicious out of the cage for a few days and give her cardboard boxes and tubes just to see if that suddenly stops it the you will know if it was caused by chewing them :)

[chavvy91]

I also was puzzled as to why my hamsters blood was dotted around his cage, and there was quite alot at one point, does he have any respiratry problems? The vet said it was likley to be a secondary infection, and ive got some baytril!!!