Red mites killed by hamster

[DearTiquito]

Tonight a vet had to euthanize our beautiful, charming winter white dwarf hamster Tiquito.

This morning we saw that she was sleeping in the corner of her cage. We thought it was strange as she's never done that before. She usually sleeps in her plastic house on the second floor of her cage.

We needed to go to work so my husband and I left. She seemed okay and was dozing.

This evening when we came back from work she was not okay. I mean NOT OKAY.

She was lying on her back and her eyes were in slits and she was breathing shallow. When she tried to walk she fell over. It was extremely traumatic to see her this way.

We immediately rushed her to a 24hour vet.
On the way to the vet I noticed small red bugs crawling on her fur. We had seen these bugs before and had immediately cleaned out her entire cage and washed all her plastic house, wheel, and everything in the cage.

I was shocked to see the red bugs were back.

At the vet, the vet put her on the steel table and she just flopped down, unable to walk.

He told her she had nerve damage. The reason? These red mites had burrowed into her ears and were affecting her balance.

We were shocked, saddened and in extreme pain for Tiquito. She is like a child to us.

Apparently these red mites come from hamster sawdust. The sawdust we were buying for her and changed so diligently was the source of the problem!

The vet told us that either he could hold Tiquito for six month and put hydroxide droplets into her ears to kills the mites (an extremely expensive process with a low chance that she would survive) or euthanize her.

We chose to euthanize. We didn't want her to go trough 6 months more pain.

Tonight we are brokenhearted. My husband cried and I've only seen him three times in my whole life.

I just want everyone to be EXTREMELY VIGILANT with red mites. Alot of forums say not to worry too much about mites, that they're not that dangerous.

They are.

Please don't let your hamster go through the pain that Tiquito had to go through. If you spot even one red mite on your hamster get them treatment immediately. I have now read that there are shampoos or sprays that you can use.

We live in South Africa and I am curious to know whether this problem is unique to our country. The fact that we are being sold sawdust that is contaminated is very worrying. Please let me know if you have any experiences in this...