"Wet Tail"

MCHRK1ll3r · 04-21-2011, 02:06 PM

I was given a cute and surprisingly friendly hamster monday by a student. The mom was giving them away because they had as she put it "too many babies" so I took one. I took it home and gave her a 10G aquarium for the time being. She was totally fine until last night and I noticed she was lethargic and hadnt eaten much that day, I picked her up and saw she had "wet tail". I went out to the grocery store and got her some non flavored pedialyte. I gave her some in her water and forced her to take in a little with a dropper last night. I was going to take her to the vet this morning, but unfotunately she had died.

I have never had to deal with this illness before, granted it has been well over 10 years since I have owned a rodent of any sort. I know many on the forum are rodent keepers, is there anything I could have done differently? From my reading "wet tail" is very common in Syrians and most likely brought on from crowding, stress, being moved and diet change. Seems like the poor animal had all of the above. When I got her she was active, went crazy in a hamster ball for the first 2 days. I did notice that she didnt eat much, but again my last rodent was a fatso black rat so I shrugged it off as a size difference. I would like to get another hamster, from a different source of course. Will bleaching the supplies(wheel, ball, bowls, etc) be sufficient? Or should I just toss it all and replace it?

samincittagazze · 04-22-2011, 01:05 AM

I'm afraid I don't really know the answers to your questions, but I'll give this a little bump up for you.

KatiePillow · 04-22-2011, 01:12 AM

Bleaching it all should be ok, wet tail is highly contageous, so you will need to clean thoroughly, wet tail often leads to death, but I'll let somebody else talk more about it as I'm no expert,

I am really sorry to hear about your loss, and it's such a horrible thing, the idea of losing one so young (had nightmares about my babies dying last night!)

When buying a new hamster we usually leave about 24 hours to settle in, and keep the same food as they had in the shop, to reduce stress, and slowly switch the food over to the one you want, bit by bit.

It does just sound like it was bad luck though, =[

hamster mum · 04-22-2011, 02:16 AM

So sorry you lost the little hammy, as you said she was probably very stressed when you got her. As far as disinfecting the things she touched, I always use this stuff, its veterinary disinfectant and kills germs but is safe to animals even when wet, dont be shocked if you order some, it comes in a tiny bottle but you need to get a spray bottle and water it down a lot, it lasts for ages.
F10SC Veterinary Disinfectant 100mls | eBay UK

Gizmodo ^_^ · 04-22-2011, 03:53 AM

Im so sorry to hear that your little hamster passed away

MCHRK1ll3r · 04-22-2011, 01:30 PM

Thanks all, Im in the US and I have access to green soap(used in tattoo shops) and bleach. I will probably give the ball, wheel and bowls a soaking in bleach water then followed with some green soap and then more bleach. It really sucks to know an animal died and there wasnt much else you could do, she didnt even make it long enough to go to the vet in the morning. Very surprised at how fast this illness can kill.

fluffymunchkins · 04-22-2011, 02:44 PM

Welcome to the forum, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss.
Unfortunately wet tail is a very serious illness that as you found out can kill extremely quickly. Even with Vet help only the strongest of hamsters make it, I would say you did very well to quickly diagnose the problem but time was your enemy sadly.

It sounds like you've got a good plan for cleaning the supplies, I hope to hear about a new addition in future