Hamster vaginal issues ... Please advise ...

[Peanui]

Hi,

I adopted a one year old female Syrian hamster, Roudoudou, yesterday. Her erstwhile humans are moving to the US and wanted to give her up. She spent this one year in a 14" x 8" x 8" enclosure without any wheel and with less than an inch of wood shavings (no paper bedding). So, she looks very healthy otherwise but when I took her in my hand, I saw that her vaginal/anal region has a very dark black patch. There's a white fluid oozing, and it smells. I have heard of horror stories about pyometra and I don't know if it's something serious that she has. I'm trying to get an appointment with the Exotic veterinarian on Monday but wanted to have an opinion from others.

I have never had a female hamster before and I don't know if it's anything serious. She is otherwise very active, running around (a big 33 cm wheel has been ordered) and exploring, perhaps for the first time, and burrowing. I am attaching a couple of photos of hers.

Many thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Shankha.

[Ria P]

She's a lovely looking hamster and lucky to be living with you now.
Yes, she needs to be seen by a vet asap.

It sounds like an infection and could be pyometra. A friend's Syrian hamster recently had surgery for pyometra and she's doing very well.

It could be something else like an abcess but whatever it is, it needs professionan help. Your hamster is young enough and looks to be fit so should make a full recovery from whatever ailment she has.

I must say that i've only ever had male Syrians so have no first hand experience with females.

[LunaTheHamster1]

As you said you havent had a female syrian before i thought i would just say there can be a discharge when they are in heat and they can smell when in heat. My last female syrian moonbeam stank and especially when i first adopted her, i had females before but she was by far the worse smelling when in heat. But like Ria says it could be an infection too, if in doubt always best to go to the vets. If it disapears you will knkw she was just in heat.
I hope she is ok and looks like she landed on her feet with you. Poor thing coming from such a horible background.

[Pebbles82]

She’s lovely. I’ll just add that they come on heat every four days, if you didn’t know. Was it a foul smell (which would indicate infection) or more of a strong musky smell? I agree that a vet check is in order - just generally anyway. But see an exotic vet who knows about hamsters.

Does she seem well and healthy in herself? The black area doesn’t sound good but the vet will give you an indication what’s going on.

If it is pyometra there are two types. Sometimes spaying is necessary. I would hope, if the vet suspects this, they would do a scan or something to see what’s going on, rather than just prescribe antibiotics and see if things improve - although sometimes that’s an option too but if it was me I would want it checking out rather than delay - prevention rather than cure so to speak - to avoid something getting worse of its there.