Ham-Ham Heartbreak

My hamster is very sick.

I first noticed it last Monday - the usually lazy, but healthy ham seemed to be staggering around his cage and obviously breathing heavier than normal. I also noticed that the left side of his face, around his eye and nose, were swollen. He was making small panting noises, and wasn't sleeping through the day as normal.

At first I thought he was just old and dying, but when I took him out of the cage he started to bolt around the couch as normal. Everything about him other than the symptoms above was normal. At this point I also noticed that he had not touched his food (not even his treats, which is completely absurd) in two days. I felt helpless for a little bit, hoping that he wasn't hurty, and then turned to the internet.

All of his symptoms showed up in a search for hamster problems - the culprit, according to several websites, was an abscess in his cheek pouch. I was somewhat relieved, but also worried even more now - especially due to the lack of appetite he seemed to develop. I took him to the doctor the next day.

Getting a hamster to a vet is kind of a pain. People on the phone at the vets offices seemed to be taken aback by the fact that I wanted to bring a hamster in. I think one of them laughed at me. Eventually I found him an appointment at a place in Fairless Hills for the same day. I learned that hamsters are considered "exotic" and therefore more expensive to bring in. Funny to me how they are probably one of the cheapest pets you can buy.

Having the hamster at the vet was very cute but very worrisome. I giggled the whole time the vet was handling him. He weighed him in a little bowl, used a stethoscope to listen to his little heart, used a little pointer thing with a little light to check in his mouth and ears. The vet said he seemed pretty healthy, he was acting very normal, but he did have a problem. He said that there wasn't enough puss in the back of its mouth for it to be an abscess, but he thought it would be more of a tooth issue. Either way he wasn't exactly sure what it was, but gave me some medicine for him and said it should help. He was prescribed an antibiotic which he is to take twice a day for ten days, painkiller that he can take once or twice a day, and some powdered diet.

I took him home and started him on the medicine. He seemed to like the painkiller, as it made him sleep a lot. I had a lot of problems feeding him, though. The dropper the vet gave me was too small for any food particles to make it into the dropper, so I was basically force-feeding him water for at least a day.

For two days he seemed to be alright, I gave him pieces of apple that he chewed a bit of, and he was still running around happily.

However, Saturday morning things took a turn for the worse. I woke up the ham to give him his morning dose of medicine, and noticed that he had diarrhea. I also noticed that his weight had dropped significantly more - I could now feel the little bones in his rib cage and back. This made me very upset - my hamster has always been very fat and seeing this physical change in him was quite a shock.

I assumed that the diarrhea was because of the fruit I had given him, so I made a change. Instead of giving him the apple I was going to feed him more times a day with the liquid diet. I cut the top off of the dropper and finally got it so it sucked up nothing but food. He ate for awhile, but definitely made it known to me when he didn't want anymore. He spent the rest of the day sleeping.

Sunday morning and afternoon he did not have diarrhea again, so I was relieved. he did eat, however, instead of running around a bit he just sat in a ball cuddled up on my lap. Every time he tried to move around he stumbled a bit - it was completely obvious that he was weak and starving. This morning his condition had not changed at all, but instead of eating a lot I believe he stuffed up his cheeks with a lot of the food. I hope he eats it.

So this is where we are now. I'm feeding him once in the morning and once at night, and I plan on adding another scheduled feeding after I get home from work today. The outlook is grim, I'm really unsure where to go with this, but I'm doing all I can.