Willow has now been off the antibiotic for three days (see '
So Scared - Need To Talk!'), and seems to be doing well. However, I still have some concerns about her behaviour, and what I should be doing.
She still gets wet on her tail and underside, but I have smelled and it is not diarrhoea: It is wee. She wees in one corner now, out of preference, instead of the litter tray with sand in. Her process being; dig down into the corner, wee, then walk away with underside flat on the ground, brushing along the shavings to wipe.
All fine, but she then doesn't clean down there afterwards. So every time she goes for a wee, she gathers more stale urine. This happens over the course of the day, and over a couple of days she really gets a very grotty underside. In fact, today it looked nearly as bad as when she had wet tail, but it was wee - I am sure of it, having smelled what wet tail smells like. She is a long haired hamster, which compounds the problem a bit.
Is this something I should be concerned about? I gave her a wipe down there with a weak, non-toxic, homemade antiseptic and most of it came off. Will I have to do this every three days or so for the rest of her life, or risk her getting pyometra or some other infection?
The other thing is that she is still sleeping a lot, and when she does come out she is coming out in a much more diurnal pattern than nocturnal. Although she has run on the wheel a bit she isn't doing it a lot or consistently. She spends most of her time arranging her bed from within, or eating from her store. I have not seen her clean herself, but aside from her tail area the rest of her is glossy, full and fluffy, and her weight is excellent. Is she just a lazy ham now, or is it more serious than that?
Dig, Pee, Wipe, Clean...?
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