My tricky boy being 'tricky' again in a bad way
Well this little boy Captain Morgan the Campbell Dwarf has been 'trouble' from day one. I got him from the store that I work at, mostly because of everything he had been through. Long story short he came into the store healthy and fine, but I noticed he was getting very sickly. Walking with a hunch, loosing lots of weight etc etc. Took him to the vet our store has and they didnt believe me that there was something wrong just because he was still walking. He got worse (though they denied anything was wrong) so I had to secretly medicate him with Baytril. He recovered in about 2 weeks, got fat and looked so much better. I felt so attached to him after arguing with vets, managers, and then secret medicating that I bought him hehe.
Now he's being tricky again and I'm at a bit of a loss. In just the past few days I've noticed the fur on the bottom half of his abdomen has thinned out and you can somewhat easily see the skin. I cant tell exactly because he has dark roots, but it looks like he has patches of dark skin around his scent glands. I originally thought mites but I havent seen any evidence of them in his fur or bedding. Morgan has never been a big groomer, and I never see him scratch. There have been no changes in his attitude, eating/drinking, grooming, nothing. None of the other hamsters have experienced any hair loss or excessive scratching either. No dandruff, no black dots crawling around, nothing. Way back over 10 years ago when I had Chinese we had mites, but all the normal signs were there. My dog had something similar happen once with his skin but the vet couldnt explain it and just gave us some teatree oil. I figured since Morgan started out sickly, he may just be one of those hamsters who has a weak system. I thought of just treating for mites as a failsafe, but I dont want to go throwing chemicals at him.
I would take him to the vet, but even that is a challenge. I have called all over, and there are hardly any vets who work with hamsters. Ive been given the runaround of 'I think this vet takes hamsters here's their number'. The only vet I could find somewhat close who will take hamsters charges 95$ just for an office visit. I simply cant afford that. My boyfriend has no job, and his father has been cut back to just working 3 days. My mother refuses to pay for anything having to do with "those rodents" so I'm stuck using home remedies and over the counter things. I would bring him to the vet at my job but I had to fight them in the first place to believe that there was something wrong with him! Not to mention a misdiagnoses from them killed one of my last hamsters...its like being stranded around here. The nearest hamster breeder alone is 5 hours upstate...so its quite lonely out here when it comes to hamster care.
My biggest fear honestly is that its Cushings. So far I havent noticed an increase in eating or drinking at all. He's going the same speed as the other hams, and I never notice any excessive urination in his tank. He's actually one of my 'clean' hamsters. I mean I figured he would always be sort of sickly just from how he started, but if he's in any discomfort I'd like to ease the pain. I'd honestly take mites over Cushings cause at least thats curable...not sure what to do though. Frustrated...
Last edited by operationotohamstry; 02-13-2011 at 02:36 AM.
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