I think my Syrian hamster is having strokes.
Her name is Hammyester, female Syrian hamster, she is just turning 2 years old now. She's had no health issues at all throughout her life but she never got used to me handling her so I stopped trying but of course, I still love her I just wish she would let me hold her, she does like to be stroked though and accepts food/treats when I give them to her by hand.
She's just started having these strokes?? i think they're strokes. She collapses randomly then is paralysed and her breathing gets extremely fast, she twitches, tries to move around slightly then freezes again then when it passes she can barely walk, is super wobbly and just wants to sleep. The first time it happened was on 21st october 2021 and that one lasted for roughly 10 minutes. The net one was Monday 25th October 2021 which lasted roughly 5 minutes. And most recent was today 30th October 2021 which was 20 minutes.
After the first one I simplified her enclosure by taking out some things so she won't be falling on them i also took out all hard things so she has a few cardboard boxes for hides, cardboard tubes, eggboxes, and her wheel and she still has 6 inches of bedding.
A day after it happens she acts like nothing happened apart from is a tiny bit wobbly when walking around. She isn't really drinking that much or eating all her food like she used to or even using her wheel but ive left it in there just incase. She still eats when i give her things like crickets and veggies but she doesn't really touch her actual food. Maybe i should try cruching the food up for her to make it softer?
i can't really take her to a vet about this as they are pretty bad in my area and would jsut say to euthanise her which i don't exactly want to do unless that's really my only option. Even though she doesn't like being handled i love her to bits and want the best for her.
Does anyone have any advice for which i should do?