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12-04-2021, 07:58 AM
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#41
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House of Hamsters
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Posts: 7,103
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
Have you tried giving him something nice to eat at the same time? Something naughty like a raisin.
It is very helpful of you to write everything down because we never know when it will come in handy.
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12-05-2021, 03:47 AM
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#42
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
I gave him three peas, a piece of sweetcorn and a floret of broccoli yesterday and he looked very pleased about that.
Roc doesn't seem to like very sugary fruits - he looks sad and sighs huge sighs afterwards if I give him anything like a sweet fruit. He's very much a vegetable guy though. He also likes nuts, after initially being unfussed about them.
I think it's kind of funny because our last hamster, Daisy, was stupendously active and ate almost only peanuts, but she got through massive numbers of them. I used to give her big handfuls of peanuts with the shells on, and she sat for ages shelling them noisily and putting them in her store room. She had no time whatsoever for vegetables.
Oddly Daisy was very slim and only about 145g, while Roc is a big solid chap and weighs 245g.
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12-05-2021, 05:51 PM
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#43
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Hamster Antics
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
Made me laugh about the articulated lorry too. And Roc being elastic. It's very helpful to write that down for others. He sounds like he's accepting you doing that. There's also the need to be a bit careful pulling the skin top and bottom of the eye as hamsters eyes have been known to pop out. That is usually when children have been squeezing them too hard. And they can lose the eye then. But I'm sure you are being careful! Scruffing them can also cause an eye to pop out (which is then a painful condition).
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12-06-2021, 05:46 AM
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#44
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
Eeeek! What a thought! Thank you for mentioning.
I have run out of eye drops again, but Roc's eye was wide open this morning, without any help from me, so I think that is a very good sign. The Vet is sending more drops in the post.
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12-08-2021, 09:09 AM
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#45
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
I have more eye drops now. That took a lot of phone calls.
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12-09-2021, 11:21 PM
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#46
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
This looks a bit better doesn't it?
I happened to open his box this morning when he was wide awake and this is what his eye looked like. I think that's quite encouraging.
That's him had Exocin drops, 3 a day, going directly into his eye for a couple of days.
I'm getting the drop in every time now, first time. Except for yesterday when I had to use two on one of the treatments.
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12-10-2021, 06:19 AM
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#47
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House of Hamsters
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Posts: 7,103
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
Oh yes, Roc's eye looks a lot better so the eye drops and all your efforts seem to be working.
Did Roc start to mellow in his old age? If i remember right, Roc used to be a hamster who objected to being handled. I find that hamsters sometimes become more tolerant of us mere humans as they get older.
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12-10-2021, 11:54 AM
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#48
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
You have a good memory!
Yes he seems to have mellowed into a lovely old softie. It's odd, because until he got this conjunctivitis, I didn't dare to touch him as he gave me such a bad bite when he was about 4 months old. He's been living a very private life in his massive cage + burrow since then.
However, now that I have had to roll my sleeves up and get on with it, I'm finding that he is a completely different character these days.
I've had to really be quite firm with him these last few weeks, in order to manage to get the eye drops into his eye, and the worst kickback he's given me is to open his mouth once, and then shut it, having thought better of the idea.
I really feel glad that I am having the chance to get to know him a bit better. I'm hoping that I can clear up the conjunctivitis and maybe have some time of knowing him on friendly terms.
I am still going to be quite careful though, because I do think he is quite a nervous chap, and I don't want to overstep the mark.
I thought it might be nice to open his box and give him a few peas in the morning and say hello though, once the eye thing is fixed.
He's still a great big lad (250g) and very keen on moving nuts around and sawing up his enclosure so I think we have plenty of fun times ahead.
I'm sleeping in his room just now because our bedroom is being redecorated, and Roc likes to roll nuts down his pipe in the night and still runs on his wheel so he's still very full of life.
He's 20 months old now.
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12-10-2021, 12:01 PM
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#49
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
After he bit me that time, I bought some of these gloves:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They're an absolute godsend. I never handled him, pre-conjunctivitis, unless I absolutely had to, but if I did, I used these gloves and it makes the whole process much safer.
I'm now holding him with only latex medical gloves on, while I do the drop, and nothing bad has happened. <touch wood>
We're fortunate in that my son likes to have the concept of a pet, but prefers not to have to actually do anything with it. In that respect, he and Roc are a perfect match.
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12-10-2021, 12:13 PM
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#50
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Hamster Pup
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 108
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Re: Conjunctivitis still getting worse after two sets of antibiotics
This is what his cage looks like now. (photos attached)
The biting problem occurred because he wanted to sleep at the bottom of the pipe. When we first got him, the pipe led down into an empty children's paddling pool, which his predecessor hamster (Daisy) had liked to exercise in.
Daisy nested in a carboard box on the top shelf of the cage, so it had been easy to shut her safely in the cage when she went to sleep. However, Roc had a very firm view from the start, that he wanted to sleep right inside the pipe, at the bottom of it. So when I tried to lift him into the cage to put him away safely, he objected and bit me hard, right through my thumb. He was furious about it all, and I was not that happy about the thumb. It was not a good week, that.
After a lot of discussion on this forum, I figured out what to do. We got a locking plastic box for him and put it at the bottom of the pipe, and my husband and son 3D printed an adapter piece so that the pipe could be permenantly attached to the cage, giving Roc free run of the cage, pipe and box 24 hours a day.
Roc has been a very happy chap ever since (as far we can tell anyway). He's still a very private, quiet fellow, and keeps himself to himself. But he never shows territorial or threatening behaviour, and doesn't rush around scent marking the cage, and arching his back the way he used to do.
He also accepts food treats now, which he never did before.
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