new to hamsters - 'strange' behavior

[DeeDee74090]

Hi ALL,

I am new to hamsters. I have a Syrian hamster female called Dumpling. she's 1 year 8 months old and has been acting very different to her usual self.

normally she's moving at 100 mile an hour, bright and alert. she would wake at about 6/7 pm every day without fail and have a rummage around, go in her wheel then start suggesting we get her out. she normally has about 2/3 hours an evening out of her cage, that is made up of in her ball, on the sofa with us and a good run loose in the bedroom with door shut.

Friday 8th everything was normal.
Saturday she didn't come out at all. this is not unusual as sometimes she doesn't, especially at weekend if we are out during the day.
didn't think anything of it.
Sunday nothing all day/ evening she usually pops her head out at the weekends during the day. we had to clean her out anyway so gently took her house off and she was sound asleep.

Did her cage and scattered her food as usual, left her millet out. put her back, she had a look round and went to bed. normally she would be stuffing her face for a good hour or two!
Monday no hamster,
we left her some rice and cheese out as she had not foraged for her food which is not like her! she's a pig!

Tuesday morning there's no rice or cheese left. Tuesday night ... nothing, we woke her up, she was asleep again. got her out and gave her some water and broccoli she ate and drank in my other half's hands but didn't move at all. when we put her back she was really really dazed and slow, ;like in slow motion.

she's a bit better now but barley comes out, she's eating and drinking fine and now she's peeing in her sand pit like she normally does (at the beginning of this behaviour she wasn't even leaving her house. just peeing over the other side.)

she not in pain, I've given her a feel over and nothings broken or sensitive, her belly's not distended, pooping fine, she's warm as she has a heat mat under her terrarium where she sleeps. (has had for the past year and a half)
when she does come out now she's ok in the bedroom (slower than before) and on us but in her ball she's clearly weak. she has visibly lost muscle tone, but she used to be 125g (before this)
the first weekend she was 130G and the next weekend was 134g I weighed her last night (seemed a touch more alert ) and she was 174g. no way is she fat! she still looks really skinny.

is this normal is she just getting old or is this weird.

we thought it was down to getting a couple of dogs but she's met them, climbed on them and in their beds etc all voluntarily and she's more than happy with that....

we rang the vet, first thing he asked is is she eating and drinking, has she lost weight. that's all fine so he said give her time.
I don't know what to do....

[souffle]

I think she needs seen by the vet. It could be a number of things but the weight gain is a worry as this is likely fluid retention or bloating. The most common cause in females is a pyometra or womb infection. This can be closed where the womb is full of pus. To survive she would need spayed to remove the infected womb.
Heart problems can cause fluid to gather and so can kidney and liver problems. Some of these are treatable short term to make her comfortable.
A slight stroke could be making her less active and an antiinflammatory can help recovery.
Get the vet to do a full check including teeth and feeling the abdomen carefully for lumps as well as the womb for swelling.
Hamsters retaining fluid tend to feel squishy and not firm and muscular. Is she drinking more would you say?
Don't let her meet the dogs - it will stress her and make he more prone to problems. No matter how much you trust them you never know with dogs. Keep her in a separate and quiet room. Hamsters hide fear well but it releases stress hormones
Hope you can have her seen and she can be helped.

[DeeDee74090]

took Dumpling to the vet on Friday evening, she was more alerts and active than she's been for three weeks!!! sods law. vet gave her the all clear and said just give her time, and keep doing what we are doing . as long as she's eating drinking, pooping and peeing then she will come out of it as she doesn't have any swellings or lumps. all good. and she said she was the nicest hamster she's ever met. she is super friendly and came out to meet the vet and receptionists and has never bitten anyone
thanks for your reply soufflé xx

[flowerfairy]

Great update. Its such a worry when they aren't themselves isn't it?

[DeeDee74090]

She's pretty consistent, always has been. Sometimes she has a day or so of sleepiness but then goes straight back to crazed activity! she seems to be happier now. Although our weather has suddenly got warmer and she changed when it went cold so maybe that has something to do with it. Even though she doesn't technically feel the cold as she has a heat mat to keep her warm while she sleeps! xx

[Pebbles82]

I think it might have been a reaction to the cage clean Our hamster will go very reclusive after a cage clean and needs a couple of weeks sometimes to go back to normal. They tend to guard their nest and hoard if their scent has gone from the cage and if everything smells different they're not sure if their environment is the same or maybe a predator has been in there!

But then it sounds like you've had her for a while and she has presumably had cage cleans before. In which case, maybe she is just slowing down with age. I thought our hamster was slowing down with age and then he suddenly started acting like a younger hamster again! But that was after a change of cage. At first he was reclusive and then enjoyed exploring all the extra space and using his new wheel more than his old one.

So change can really affect them. Sometimes one cage clean can affect them more than another, depending on whether the nest or the hoard needed to be removed.

So can you think of any recent changes, or anything that might have been different with the cage clean?

[DeeDee74090]

yeah I've had her since she was 12 weeks old and she's 1 year 8 months now, she's normally scurrying around post clean, searching for her food as we don't put it in a bowl, we scatter feed. she seems pretty content cleaning on her Astroturf or in her sand bath (before she pees in it then its just her toilet!) she makes her bed each time too.
The weather did suddenly get cold, but that was it! she's got her heat mat under her house on during the day and intervals at night. I checked that she wasn't too cold but she was all snug as we tend to over compensate with her bedding! the only other thing is that they are building across the road maybe they started something new while we were out and she didn't like it. they have been building there for about 5 months or so. apart from that her life is pretty standard as it was before. she seems happier now, she came out twice last night so hopefully she will be back to herself x

[Pebbles82]

Sounds good! Hope she gets back to normal soon and glad the vet check went well.