Long nails and trimming

[Crayolalaura]

This is academic now as the hamster this about passed away in her sleep in May aged 1 year 3 months- its more out of curiosity

Here's the questions and the story behind my questions below if you're interested

Have you ever had to dal with continuously over grown nails? Did a vet trim them? Did they have to give anaesthesia? Any problems from that?


Lily (she was actually a he if that's important lol) was very active and I didn't start noticing her nails getting long till she was 10 months old. Before that they were fine
She had lots to scratch on so really unsure why it was happening
I had another hamster and I've never not had a hamster in my life even as a small child. But never had a come across this
Anyway I contemplated cutting them myself but quickly saw sense and sought professional help
So I took her to Pets at home to their vet to get them trimmed. They'd need to give a teeny amount of anaesthesia to do it
However it turned out that this would be an on going problem and she would need to go every 4 weeks to get them trimmed- with the anaesthesia
On her last trim the vet said to try leaving it longer to bring her in- maybe 6 weeks, because having to regularly have anaesthesia wasn't recommended so I'm going to presume the vet saw something was wrong but didn't say because two weeks later Lily passed away :( I'd never had a hamster live for such a short time! She was also massive. She was the biggest of the litter- my mum has her (his lol) brother and he's far smaller and still going
So who knows
But I believe it was likely the anaesthesia

[chesca_27]

Anaesthetic can be very risky in small animals, particularly hamsters if you see an inexperienced vet. There could have been post-anaesthetic complications but it is unlikely after two weeks. Sometimes it can just be the hamsters time to pass on, others there could be a genetic fault causing an early death. Were his nails so long they were curling round?

It is uncommon for Syrians to have overgrown nails and is typically seen with dwarfs. You could make a small rockery with sanitised, smooth stones to help with nails. Other things include a sand bath and wooden climbing toys. I have seen some people use emery boards, but you don't want to let the claws get too short. My fluff gets shelled sunflower seeds which he has to open. This is good for his teeth and nails and he really enjoys them :). You can get them in bird sections and possibly supermarkets.

[Crayolalaura]

Anaesthetic can be very risky in small animals, particularly hamsters if you see an inexperienced vet. There could have been post-anaesthetic complications but it is unlikely after two weeks. Sometimes it can just be the hamsters time to pass on, others there could be a genetic fault causing an early death. Were his nails so long they were curling round?

It is uncommon for Syrians to have overgrown nails and is typically seen with dwarfs. You could make a small rockery with sanitised, smooth stones to help with nails. Other things include a sand bath and wooden climbing toys. I have seen some people use emery boards, but you don't want to let the claws get too short. My fluff gets shelled sunflower seeds which he has to open. This is good for his teeth and nails and he really enjoys them :). You can get them in bird sections and possibly supermarkets.


I think it was more because she had to continuously get it and she had four times within 5 months and I think the affects of it wore her down

It is so rare in syrians! And I had all that for her, there was no reason why they should keep growing but they did! So strange

[SKB_Hamsters]

I'm sorry to read this about Lily and it can be really hard when they pass away young.

Anaesthetic can be risky in such small animals especially if the vet doesn't have a lot of experience treating hamsters. The anaesthetic may have contributed to her early death but their could have be an underlying hidden illness to. Anaesthetic can affect each individual animal in a different way. I have never had a problem with overgrown nails but have had experience with regular anaesthetic this past May to August I had to get my 2 year old Syrian, Sherbet teeth trimmed every 2 weeks (as she broke her top teeth and damaged the roots) using gas anaesthetic and also had an operation to remove an abscess at my local vet, sadly she was PTS due to old age but my vets were quite cautious with the amount of time she was under and kept the process quick as possible to minimise any affect with being under.

Try to remember all the good times you spent together and treasure these memories. Sometimes the sad times can remain in our head and our thoughts but the good times help us see what a lovely life they had with us and helps us to treasure the time spent together.

[Pebbles82]

There are a few ways to help keep their nails short. A rough stone or terracotta plant pot base under the water bottle and/or food bowl means the nails get roughened each time they eat or drink. This worked with our Syrian till he was about 2 years old, but when he got less active, his nails started to get too long. You can clip them yourself. If you know what you are doing - it's actually not difficult. I used a small pair of child's mini nail clippers. You only take the very very end pointy bit off. If you clip too far, you cut the quick which is painful and can bleed and lead to possible infection. So that made me nervous. It really depends on how tame and lazy your hammy is I think, to be able to do it yourself. Our hammy used to be quite dopey around 8pm so I'd get him out on the sofa, wait till he was having a bit of a snooze and then gently lift one foot into view and do one nail at a time. I used to find there were only one or two nails that had got a bit long.

If your hamster was younger and regularly had all nails too long, you probably just needed something in the cage to keep them worn down. I don't think an experienced vet would use anaesthesia to clips nails.

I got this piece of rough granite from Rodipet which was good to have under a water bottle. It only costs a couple of pounds but the postage is about £8!

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/rodipet-granit-klima-pflegestein.html

It sat on top of a flat house roof with the food bowl on it and the water bottle over it. Because it's heavy it's a bit risky having it sitting on the substrate in case they burrow under it. If you are buying anything else from Rodipet it helps to do it with another order as the postage is a flat £8 ish no matter how big or small the parcel/order. Although be warned - the site is a bit addictive! They have some excellent houses, hides, treats, and food. I copy and paste into Google translate to work it out.