Sleeping too much? Syrian.

[Danny_G13]

Hi guys and gals, new member, don't bite (pun intended).

Me and the lady got an 8-week old Syrian on Monday.

The girl in Pets at Home checked him out and he passed the health check so all seemed fine, and when we put him in his new cage he seemed bright-eyed and curious and all was well.

That night he was climbing and spinning on his wheel so we planned, the following day, to trying handling him.

Problem is, basically, since that first day, he has done literally nothing but sleep - we had to wake the wee guy up to change his bedding on Wednesday night but he effectively seems to have been asleep 24/7 since we got him.

Yesterday was mild disaster - OH noticed he had a soiled backside on one of his rare trips to drink/eat and immediately this struck us both as wet tail. He had no pellets in his bed at all - no hard faeces at all. And he squeaked loud and aggressively at me when I had a look at him.

Indeed he was soiled and better safe than sorry we managed to get him to the vet who gave him an antibiotic injection and gave us a syringe and that's what we are supposed to administer him with tomorrow. Problem is how do you give anything to a hamster who is always asleep?

As I type this it's 3am and he's still asleep.

None of this bodes me as a good sign at all and I am not exactly sure what, if anything, we've done wrong.

Anyone got advice? Does he have wet tail? Will he ever stop sleeping? And will we ever get the opportunity to handle him?

[walfy]

I agree with you it is not a very good sign, and he does sound like a poorly ham.
You have done nothing wrong, don’t blame yourself for that. If the vet has given you medication for him, he must take them, wake him up gently to administer.
If he is, as you say, 8 weeks old his own immune system will have now started to mature and hopefully should win the day, let him sleep as long as he wants.
Keep his environment as clean as you can, change his nesting material daily.
There is not a lot more you can do, I hope all turns out well for you.

[Danny_G13]

Originally Posted by walfy

I agree with you it is not a very good sign, and he does sound like a poorly ham.
You have done nothing wrong, don’t blame yourself for that. If the vet has given you medication for him, he must take them, wake him up gently to administer.
If he is, as you say, 8 weeks old his own immune system will have now started to mature and hopefully should win the day, let him sleep as long as he wants.
Keep his environment as clean as you can, change his nesting material daily.
There is not a lot more you can do, I hope all turns out well for you.

Appreciate the advice. We're waiting on the shopping arriving so we can administer blackcurrant juice with the drugs we've been given - vet told us blackcurrant is the best type to use.

We're basically going to give it till Monday - give him the weekend with hopefully taking the drugs ok - if there's no sign of any improvement I'd say the only option is to put the wee guy out of his misery.

Or is this premature?

[walfy]

Although he has diarrhea it doesn’t attest to the fact he has wet tail. He may have some other underlying problem that is causing the diarrhea. Follow your vet’s advice and instructions then ask his opinion again on Monday before making that final decision for the little man to be pts. I truly hope he does show some improvement in the next day or so.

[Danny_G13]

Originally Posted by walfy

Although he has diarrhea it doesn’t attest to the fact he has wet tail. He may have some other underlying problem that is causing the diarrhea. Follow your vet’s advice and instructions then ask his opinion again on Monday before making that final decision for the little man to be pts. I truly hope he does show some improvement in the next day or so.

Her opinion. Yeah, we were going to give it a couple of days but there really is no sign of improvement. We just woke him up there to give him his meds but it was a battle to make him take the syringe. I basically nigh on ended up squirting it in his mouth area hoping he'd swallow some. One positive thing is he DID eat. I saw him nibbling on a piece of grain so that was positive. I am hoping there is SOME sign of progress over the next 2 days or so or pts is probably the only option. We do not want this little guy to suffer any more than he has.