Rodney

[Stanza]

So sorry to hear Rodney is not so good today. Thinking of you both.

[Ria P]

Rodney asked to come out and run on the saucer in the playground. He looked better in the dim light than in the harsh daylight (so do i) or the bright light at the vets.

After about 20 mins he gets thirsty. He gets so thirsty that he climbs up to my face and looks at me. I rarely saw him drink before he got ill. And he pees a little less now. This thirst is a recent development.
He then has a long drink and goes to bed.

I know it is against the last vet's advice but i gave him some Metacam tonight. Maybe i should have waited till Saturday to see his regular vet but i was concerned and saw a young locum who came across as very confident but i didn't get the right vibe. Not her fault, i think i just got used to the ways of the regular vets.

I'm undecided which path to take.

Finish the course of antibiotics and parasite treatment next week then move him into a clean cage. The antibiotics stress him because he won't eat the food so has to be via the syringe with Ribena and a clean, different cage would cause him a huge amount of stress.
Or
I stop all treatments, put him on Metacam, leave him in his cage which i spot clean daily (i take out furnishings when he is asleep and clean them) and let nature take its course until he dies or has to be pts which wouldn't cause him additional stress.

I'm sitting on the fence because he's not getting better which could be partly down to age.
Vets are medics who do their best to diagnose or at least treat symptoms so couldn't expect an opinion from there.

Hmm, what would be in Rodney's best interest? A question directed at myself but if anybody would like to give an opinion please feel free to do so.

[Ria P]

That's Rodney tonight, hanging on to the bottle.20220901_203522.jpg

[Ria P]

Hmm, Rodney's cage/poops don't smell quite so bad this morning, maybe the baytril does have an effect afterall so decided to continue.

Coaxed Rodney out of his house with a cheerio and gave him the meds. He wriggles, then gets mad and bites the syringe which is the moment i squirt it into his mouth.

He's not so stressed now because he knows what's going to happen.

[cloudy]

This is so encouraging! I agree with your decision to give him some baytril. He looks so much brighter today.

[Stanza]

Maybe the infection is turning a corner, let’s hope so, how many days of treatment do you have of the baytril. Perhaps hold off the full cage clean / swap for now as your daily clean routine sounds effective without the stress of a move right now until he’s feeling a bit stronger.

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by Stanza

Maybe the infection is turning a corner, let’s hope so, how many days of treatment do you have of the baytril. Perhaps hold off the full cage clean / swap for now as your daily clean routine sounds effective without the stress of a move right now until he’s feeling a bit stronger.

It's a 7 day course finishing Tuesday but may have to go back to get some more. I wasted some by mixing it in various foods but he took one sniff and walked away.

The cage clean won't be happening until he's finished his anti parasite treatment the Friday of next week. Planning it for Saturday but its all a bit hit and miss.

It's the possibility of tapeworm eggs i'm concerned about and the reason for the deep clean not the suspected demodex mites. Demodex live on hamsters anyway and an overgrowth that needs treatment doesn't require a deep clean. According to the locum vet i should have deep cleaned his cage before each parasite treatment but i think she got her mites mixed up.

Still undecided whether to put him in a holding box and move him back in his Alaska or move him straight into a Hamster Heaven and keep him in there. Not a great deal of difference apart from the height. The lower height may not be a bad thing for an old hamster. Mind you, his monkey barring, swinging off the ceiling days are gone but he's still fairly agile.

I give Rodney and 28 months old Rory Metacam for arthritis which really got Rory up and running again. I'll continue with it for Rodney as well because i'm keeping an eye on his poops anyway. It does help old and ill hamsters a lot and gave Edwina and Ozzy a few more comfortable months of hamstering.

All this planning can change again tomorrow but that's just life.

[Stanza]

Yes, it’s just one day at a time, every extra day that you are helping him to get better and give him the most comfortable life in his more elderly yrs, is another day to treasure.

I keep thinking of Rodney and wishing him well. Hams and I talk about all the hamsters on HC when he’s out in his playpen, my OH thinks I’m mad

It’s a real shame that hamsters find the whole cleaning process so stressful but I guess that’s what comes from scent being one of their strongest senses. As Rodney is older now and you’d be pretty much replicating his home in another cage, maybe he’ll be like us humans and as we age we tend to worry less about an untidy house and a bit of dust (or maybe this is just me) so perhaps he’ll be carefree about the process.

[Ria P]

Lol! I love it that you tell Hams all about the hamsters on HC!

Rodney is very confused tonight. He gets days like that and I can tell as soon as he gets up when he has one of those. He's gone back to bed now.

Rory wasn't much better. He asked to come out and walked straight into a shelf unit to have a sleep. Then he came out and walked into the corner behind the clothes rail which is another favoured sleeping place. I picked him up then and put him back so he could go to bed.

They are a pair of very lovable dottery old men.

[Ria P]

Rodney just now, eating a bit of scrambled egg. He pouched the rest and went back to bed.20220905_183818.jpg