47 replies to this topic

[butterscotch2011]

Sadly, I lost Butterscotch last night. I had taken her to the only two "exotic specialists" in the area. They were both completely useless. They both said she was old and it was likely to be her time and that they could not treat her. It was a bad experience. I think I'll shy away from hamsters until I move to a part of the country where there are vets competent to treat hamsters.

[missPixy]

Sadly, I lost Butterscotch last night. I had taken her to the only two "exotic specialists" in the area. They were both completely useless. They both said she was old and it was likely to be her time and that they could not treat her. It was a bad experience. I think I'll shy away from hamsters until I move to a part of the country where there are vets competent to treat hamsters.

I'm so sorry to hear this. unfortunately it still can be a challenge to
find vets experienced with exotics and, specifically, hamsters. plus,
most exotic vets don't get experience if the general population in
that area just don't take their hamsters to the vet~~ sort of a catch-22
situation. the other possibility is to find an exotics vet with *some*
hamster experience who is open-minded to learning. I'm not saying
to use your hamster as a test subject, but honestly my vet had never
operated on a dwarf before mine. she'd had experience with Syrian
hamsters, but dwarfs were a new scenario for her.

thankfully she was very open-minded and wanted to learn, and I
needed surgery done, so it was a good match.

[Millysmom]

I have a suspicion that my hammy Milly (Campbell Dwarf) has diabetes. She is only 4 (approx.) months old, but has started drinking excessively, urinates more frequently, and her urine smells like a nail polish removal (or some other chemical.) So far, I have not observed any other typical sings of a diabetes. I do not want to take her to the vet as 1.) they are for the most part useless when it comes to hammies, and 2.) I don't want to stress out Milly even more (car drive, vet...) I have the strips that you guys mentioned on this page, Keto-diastix ones. I haven't just figured out how to test her. She is potty trained, has a litter and all, but she hates being put in a strange place (such as an empty tank - where I could test her.) Would it be effective/accurate enough to just let her do her potty in the litter and then use the sticks (in the litter?) Are her signs beginning of diabetes or am I just panicking?

[missPixy]

some of the other members on HH have come up with creative

ways to get a clean urine sample. I'll try to find one and post it

back here. you need the sample to be clean to get a true read,

the bedding can contaminate it. 

 

since you have a dwarf, I would definitely rule out diabetes first

as a reason for the peeing/drinking increase. and you will need

an exotics-experienced vet to formulate the glipizide (if you need

to get it). 

 

some others on the board have chosen to manage diabetes using

diet. I went the glipizide route instead and am very happy with the

results it gave me. currently don't have any diabetic dwarfs but I

know how desperate it feels to have one.

[Millysmom]

Thank you! I will definitely look into glipizide (perhaps even with a combination of a special diabetic diet.)

[tinypixie]

Metformin is also a useful drug for diabetes, to look into. Fenugreek seeds are a good way to go, there is another pinned topic about that!

 

When I had to deal with Diabetes, I kept in close contact with missPixy, and even had my exotic vet chat with her exotic vet. My vet was unsure of the dosing, but missPixy's vet is very well versed. If you find a vet who is willing to learn and reach out to others, this is a great option. I thank my vet and missPixy's vet for working together to help prolong Panda's life.

 

Since she is so young, you might be able to reverse the diabetes with diet!

[Millysmom]

Thank you guys - MissPixy and Tinypixie for some valuable advice. I have been on internet for the past two days doing nothing but researching diabetes and dwarf hammies. I am currently trying to find a good exotic vet in my area as well as figuring out how to take a sample of pure urine from my Milly. I am sure I will come up with something - just a bit of a shock since she is so young. I haven't even thought of reversing the diabetes (I was so focused on decreasing symptoms to their minimum.) Thanks again!

[malloria]

www.vetective.com to find an exotics vet in your area.  The site is managed by a HH member, Cliff, and it is very useful.

 

I'm one of the "creative ways" people missPixy referred to.

 

Try removing the litter from the potty and see if she will still pee there.  My hamsters peed in a jelly jar with no litter or anything in it, and that made it very easy to get samples.

 

Does she also pee in her wheel?  If so you can add a couple drops of water to the dried pee spots to make them liquid again and then stick the strip in that.  You won't get a quantitative reading that way, but so long as you didn't add too much water you should be able to see if glucose is there to begin with.

[Millysmom]

Thank you, Malloria. She used to pee in the wheel, thus I got her the litter and potty trained her but she would not pee in the potty without the litter. We will be going to a vet tomorrow to find out for sure whether she has diabetes (she also has a red patch on her chest.) Fingers crossed.

[FuzzyPolkaDot]

This is very nice missPixy!  Wonderfully done & very helpful!

[missPixy]

This is very nice missPixy!  Wonderfully done & very helpful!

thank you! let me know if you ever have any questions.

 

my vet has been really good about doing a phone

consult with other HH members' vets to give them the

dosing amounts and general info.

[smokeyJoe]

Hi everybody,

I have been trawling the internet for some time trying to figure out what is wrong with our hamster, Babalu. He is a male Syrian, about 1 year and 10 months old. He had been peeing and drinking a lot more than normal for a little over a month, but despite myself and my wife having both had (Syrian) hamsters before we knew nothing about diabetes and just thought he was thirsty because it is the summer.

 

I was away the week before last, and my wife (who is pregnant but still working and doesnt drive, so couldnt take him to the vet) reported to me every day that his condition was worsening. He was losing hair, his skin looked sore, and he was not coming out very much and he was very skinny. When I got home last Saturday we took him to the vet who gave him a steroid shot and said she thought it was an allergy rather than mites, but she suggested we get some "Xeno spot on" anyway. We removed all the coloured pieces from his food, switched to Hammy Hamster (as we were somewhat suspicious of diabetes... we mentioned it to the vet but she didn't say anything about it), and removed all his sawdust, replacing it with paper bedding.

 

After the steroid shot he seemed to perk up a bit for two days, but then went rapidly down hill again. His skin looked even worse, he lost more hair (the hair on the top half of his body is missing or very thin now), and what had been a small red dot about 2mm across on his back had turned into a swollen lump about 1cm across. I gave him the Xeno spot on, which if anything made him more unhappy. He began dragging himself about the cage making squeaking noises, going to the corner to pee and then just sitting in his pee spot and trying to sleep.

 

I took him back to a different vet. She said he may have just really disliked the Xeno, and licked it and gotten upset about the taste. But she said she would give him another steroid shot and gave us antibiotics because she thought he had scratched himself and the spot on his back had gotten infected, and also for a smaller spot on his nose.

 

It's been three days and he does seem a bit better. He sleeps most of the time, but the spots are not swollen any more, and his skin doesn't look so red either (before it was really red and very warm to the touch). However, he seems a little disoriented when he gets up, and he stumbles a little.

 

I've been researching more and have come up with a theory about what has happened - he is diabetic, and the diabetes got to the stage where his immune system gave in to mites (demodex aurati I think, as you can't see them on his skin). The lumps were caused by scratching, but the xeno plus the anti biotics should have taken care of the mites and the infection. But it leaves the question of how to deal with his diabetes. We have always given him a lot of fresh vegetables and some fruit, basically he gets a little bit of whatever veg we have with dinner, lots of broccoli and spinach. So we've cut out the fruit and I've gone though and removed all the peas and sweetcorn from his hammy hamster mix. I've also been giving him egg yolk from boiled eggs and we are going to start giving him chicken.

 

I'm now worried that his diabetes is at the stage where he doesn't have long left. The vets don't really seem to know much about hamsters... they seem to almost be guessing, and neither seem to have given any thought to him being diabetic. I am going to get some test strips, and was thinking about this glipizide... but maybe it is too late to help him? I also can't see any vet near us being willing to help with it. Does anyone know what sort of dose is needed for a hammy? Is it possible to dissolve the tablets and administer this without a vet?

 

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to have all the history so that hammy experts on here have the best chance of understanding what is going on. We are really worried about him, it's so sad seeing him so unwell. We can't even tell how much he is suffering and wonder if he is ever going to get any quality of life back, we don't want to keep pushing him if he is in pain. 

[missPixy]

first I'd concentrate on the Bayer ketoDiastix urine test strips. it's very rare for

a syrian hamster to have diabetes. 

 

from your description, the first symptom was excessive peeing and drinking. 

has it been warmer where you live, and in the room where Babalu's habitat is?

his diet doesn't sound heavy in protein at all, which could also cause the 

heavy, increased peeing/drinking cycle.

 

renal failure also causes excessive thirst, and then excessive urination follows. 

in what part of UK do you live? we have a list of member-approved vets in the

U.K. area who could help better diagnose what you're dealing with.

 

there's a good chance that whatever is the problem gave his immune system a

hit and caused the mite explosion, that's definitely true. but it would definitely be

too dangerous to start him on a medication for diabetes if that's not what the

issue here is. even ivermectin, the go-to medication for mite infestation in hamsters,

isn't advised if it turns out another issue is causing his skin problem. 

[smokeyJoe]

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm afraid after initially seeming a bit better Babalu's condition seems to have worsened. It is warm here but wasn't really when he started peeing and drinking a lot.

 

He is wolfing down what food we give him (broccoli and egg yolk mostly) but wont eat any dry food, when he's had enough or if I give him any dry food he picks it up in his mouth and flings it away. After eating just now he seemed to be snuffling about underneath himself and came up eating some poo, then appeared to start looking almost frantically for more but rejected and flung away any that he did find. He had a brief and very wobbly wonder about the cage (he mostly stays in the same spot now) and made some squeaks which I haven't heard him do since last week, and is distressing to hear. 

 

He hasn't done a wee in at least a day I think (at least the cage is completely dry), which is really odd, and I can't get him to drink any water. I knew nothing about renal failure and am now kicking myself for feeding him egg yolk, as it seems that was a really bad idea. Also his eyes don't seem to open and he looks like he's doing everything by smell, though one eye opened briefly when he got up.

 

We are going away tomorrow until Monday, and were going to take him down to my sister in laws for the time in between. I am now wondering if that is the right thing to do, as it's quite a long drive (1hr30) and I'm starting to think maybe he is in too much pain and should be put down, I also don't want to lumber them with a hamster that is about to die (though they have several themselves and will look after him very well).

 

I just wish I had some clue what was actually wrong with him. Aside from drinking/peeing too much he was fine until just suddenly going down hill two weeks ago. If he is going to get better slowly over the next week or more then we'd be overjoyed, but otherwise I just don't want to prolong his suffering. I feel like I have to take him to the vets this afternoon, but I don't think they have a clue either and may suggest putting him down whatever state he's really in.

 

Note that his skin condition and sores have gotten much better, and his fur also looks much better.

Edited by smokeyJoe, 24 June 2014 - 08:15 PM.

[smokeyJoe]

We looked at vets in the recommended list and there are none near by. We are in Southborough, Kent, and the nearest exotic vet seems to be in Maidstone. If I can get an appointment I could drive there, but I don't have much time today. We are also running low on cash as it's the end of the month and our out of hours visit last Saturday cost over £100 already (criminal I know, but we didn't know what else to do).