Poor hamster: Wet tail.

Susannahmia

I noticed the night before last that poor hammy had diarrhea. I brought him to the vet yesterday morning and the he gave him an injection and told me to put the remainder of the syringe in his water over the next two days.

I think the vet said it was baytril but im not sure. There were some really bad developments last night! When I got home to check on him the first thing I noticed was that the injection site was all red and enflamed then I noticed that there was blood all over his bum. He was still happily running around before the vet but is now all hunched up and constantly bleeding! The only thing I can think to do is force feed him cooled boiled water with some dioralyte every 3 hours. Is the medication affecting him or is it just the wet tail? I gave him his dose today but |I really dont think the poor thing is going to make it .

What are his chances and what else can I do? I hate to see the poor little guy suffering so much. I did get through to the vet and he said boiled water.

He escaped last week so I think the stress related to that caused it.

flamingo12

hi
all hamsters are carriers of wet tail. how long have you got him cos sometimes if he's been in a pet shop with a good few in a cage together when they pile on top of each other the ones on the bottom sweat and this can bring it on... also been transported can cause a lot of stress and this too can bring it on.keep his cage cool and buy trigene (from a vet) to disinfect his cage ,
good luck!!!!!!!!

Susannahmia

flamingo12 wrote: »

hi
all hamsters are carriers of wet tail. how long have you got him cos sometimes if he's been in a pet shop with a good few in a cage together when they pile on top of each other the ones on the bottom sweat and this can bring it on... also been transported can cause a lot of stress and this too can bring it on.keep his cage cool and buy trigene (from a vet) to disinfect his cage ,
good luck!!!!!!!!

We have had him four months, he escaped last week and was missing for 48 hours so I think that that must have stressed him a lot. Its just so annoying as every thing was done to the letter in terms of the care of this little guy (he is spoilt rotten) ,apart from his escape. It just shows how delicate they are.

hadook

Force feeding him water may make it worse though. Stress can and will make the wet tail worse. It's thought to be caused by things like E. coli with Campylobacter so his system is under a fair amount of strain right now.

If he's still eating/drinking on his own then try to tempt him with foods that will help his recovery - tiny bits of fruit etc. Otherwise try and get fluids into him without disturbing him too much if you can. I know it's a hard line to walk so best of luck.

Susannahmia

hadook wrote: »

Force feeding him water may make it worse though. Stress can and will make the wet tail worse. It's thought to be caused by things like E. coli with Campylobacter so his system is under a fair amount of strain right now.

If he's still eating/drinking on his own then try to tempt him with foods that will help his recovery - tiny bits of fruit etc. Otherwise try and get fluids into him without disturbing him too much if you can. I know it's a hard line to walk so best of luck.

The thing is he isn't eating or drinking by himself at all. He doesn't particularly like it but doesn't seem overly distressed by it either. At this point I dont think anything I can do will make things any worse than they are right now.

BeansMeansHynes

Hi there.

Just reading you post. How is the hamster doing??

alie

Hi , we have 4 russian dwarf hampsters. The runt gets bad wet tail and i find the only thing pip will eat are sunflower seeds. I never give mine fruit as it runs the divil out of them . Hammy our older one likes small pieces of carrot now and again. Cuddles our eldest and sweetest has a tumour . I never realised all the the things they suffer from but you do get very attached, hope he gets better.

BeansMeansHynes

Yeah I hope he gets better soon.

The most important thing is to keep him hydrated! It is so so important.

Also make sure to keep washing your hands after you handle him to avoid passing the infection back to him.

Susannahmia

Poor little dude died I'm afraid.:( The vet even ended up injecting him with fluids twice but he just faded away.