Hello, new user here, from Paris (France).
Did anyone here had recently lost an Hamster because of Covid ?
I am very suspicious about this. My little Roborovski, 2 months old died last week, really quickly. On Friday evening, he was acting as usual, eating and playing.
Saturday evening, he ate his usual food, but looked tired. I took him with me and he slept (for the first time) on my arm.
On Sunday morning, he was staying in his bathroom, eyes closed most of the time. I tried to give him water or food, but he didn't want it. After that, he stayed lying, as he was unable to do anything. He passed away couples hours after that.
The only event i can link to this (but this is only my hypothesis), is my daughter came back at home on friday for christmas holidays and she has been detected positive on covid.
The death seems to occur really quick (less than 48h before, i didn't suspect any symptoms). He already have diarrhea one time, but with lot of water, stop fresh food and some time, he recovered easily. This time nothing similar, very unexpected.
I tend to the covid hypothesis after finding an article on sciencedirect from a german research team who found the Roborovski a good choice on Covid studies because they develop covid "with consistent and fulminant clinical signs" :
The Roborovski Dwarf Hamster Is A Highly Susceptible Model for a Rapid and Fatal Course of SARS-CoV-2 Infection - ScienceDirect
So, i am absolutely not certain my Hamster died from Covid, but if it is true, be very careful about this