Syrian girl suddenly lethargic and clicking noises

Kito · 09-11-2021, 05:30 AM

Hi everyone! I used to read a lot of threads in this forum about hamsters before and after I adopted my first hamster Bob, a Syrian female hamster. This is my first post as I am currently very worried about my little girl. She is about 10 months old and she is normally very active. She lives in a wooden custom made cage 1393 sq inches and I try to provide a lot of enrichment plus free roaming almost every night.
I have also a bin cage to use when I take her with me if I go away or someone else needs to take her to look after her which is smaller of course. She is in the bin cage at present.

She was fine 2 night ago. Very energetic and she came out for play time for about 1 hour and a half.
She is currently unwell. The night before she did not come out of her nest at all and she did not pick any of her food (I normally scatter feed her). We went to the vet after this episode. The vet could not tell that something is actually wrong with it her but she prescribed some metacam just in case she is in pain. Unfortunately the two exotic vets in the vet practice we are registered to are both self isolating. Any other vet practices will not take any new patients at present as there is a shortage of vets in the uk. So we didn’t manage to see an exotic vet unfortunately.

I gave her the first dose of metacam yesterday. She is in her nest since. I’m not sure if she is eating. She came out a bit this morning and was looking like she was tidying up her nest. When I offered dry food she did not take it. She took and ate a piece of fresh pepper though.

Her symptoms are lethargy, clicking noises, shivering and reduce of appetite.

I wanted to ask your opinion guys as I know there is people with a lot of experience in hamsters in this forum but I’m only new in the hamster world and I want to make sure I do everything I can to give her a chance.
I am worried that we might need to start antibiotics.
The vet told me to go back if she doesn’t improve in 5 days or if she deteriorates.
What’s your experience? Should I wait and see? Or go to the vet again sooner than later? Unfortunately it will be a non exotic vet again for at least a week.
I really don’t want to take her to the vets for 2 days in a row as she seems poorly.

I also bought some thyme to give as people recommend this?

Thank you so much! I would really appreciate everyone’s opinion.

Ria P · 09-11-2021, 08:16 AM

Hello and welcome to HC!

I'm sorry to hear that your hamster is unwell.

Is her water bottle working ok? Could she be dehydrated?
That's my first thought because she accepted the fresh food but not the dry food.

The clicking sound could point towards a respiratory infection but i'm no vet so am speculating.

I heard about thyme tea but wouldn't rely on its healing properties myself.

Personally, i'd rather take my hamsters to the vet once too often than leave it too late.

Kito · 09-11-2021, 12:48 PM

Hi! Thanks so much for your reply. I haven’t thought about dehydration. Very good point and thanks. She has a water bowl, she never had a water bottle.
I will probably go to the vet again on Monday if she doesn’t get better. I have already booked her in to see the exotic vet in a week.
I will make sure she has some food and water in the meantime. Please let me know if you think I’m missing something.

Kito · 09-13-2021, 09:48 AM

Update: we managed to find an exotic vet today so we went back to the vet as no improvement over the weekend. We started antibiotics (baytril) today. I will update with the progress. In the meantime any advice will be appreciated. I am going to try to mix the medication with some food instead of force feeding it to her. Let’s see how this goes.
The vet thinks the upper respiratory infection might have been caused by the change of environment due to holiday needs.

Ria P · 09-13-2021, 11:06 AM

The baytril should sort it.

The only way i was able to administer it to my late Syrian Henry was straight into his mouth in a syringe because he was not one to be tempted with food. I drew up some undeluted Ribena first followed by the baytril to disguise the bitter taste. It worked for him but he was a very tame hamster.

Kito · 09-17-2021, 01:38 AM

Hello again! She had 4 days of baytril. Thanks for the advice by the way. I tried with food fist and it seems to go down just fine. Thanks god she is still eating. She doesn’t seem to get any better though. Also she developed diarrhoea now I believe and I’m not sure if anything else is wrong down there. She has diarrhoea for a couple of days now. I think it’s might be from the medication. We stopped the metacam. I make sure she has a lot of fluid with food and I also give her probiotics. We have an appointment with the vet on Monday which is in 3 days. What else do you normally give for diarrhoea? Thanks a lot

Ria P · 09-17-2021, 04:08 AM

I've never had a hamster with diarrhoea so can't advise on that. Personally, i wouldn't wait for 3 days to see a vet because hamsters can go downhill very quickly. I'd at least phone the vet and ask for advice.

Kito · 09-17-2021, 09:47 AM

Thanks Ria! I listened to your advice and we went to the vet as an emergency as no appointments available. She is dehydrated so they gave her an injection with electrolytes under the skin and prescribed electrolytes to give 4 times a day. Also, they stopped the metacam as it can cause diarrhoea. They put her on tramadol instead. We will continue the baytril and see how the weekend goes. Thanks so much for your support. I will continue with the updates, but he said that things look concerning ☹️

Ria P · 09-17-2021, 01:18 PM

It can sometimes take a while for the baytril to work so hopefully your hamster will feel better soon.
Yes, please keep us updated.

Pebbles82 · 09-23-2021, 06:29 AM

Hope she is doing ok and do keep us updated. As a female syrian, they can get pyometra (infection of the womb) so I would ask the exotic vet about this when you see them. Hope she is improving on the baytril and tramadol.

They can get stressed by change of cage and environment as well and take a while to settle into normal habits again - up to a couple of weeks. But we've taken a hamster on holiday before and used a holiday cage and they've been fine while away but can take up to two weeks to settle back into their old cage at home again. It could just be the respiratory infection though.