it's important that you make yourself familiar with the at least common
illnesses that your pet can be affected by that way if your pet starts to show
signs or symptoms you're familiar with them and that you are able to recognize
that you need to take your pet to the vet so today we're going to be talking
about five common hamster illnesses of course these are not all of the
illnesses possible for a hamster to get but these are just some of the more
common ones the first common illness is respiratory infections hamsters have
very sensitive respiratory systems so there could be a variety of factors that
could cause your hamster to develop a respiratory infection such as using
bedding like pine, cedar or soft wood shavings, using chinchilla dust instead
of sand or using scented beddings signs of a respiratory infection would include
clicking when breathing, if you guys can hear that I'm not sure but um as you can
see his right here is very laboured breathing too. Any wheezing or sneezing
keep in mind that one or two sneezes doesn't indicate a respiratory infection
but if your hamster is sneezing quite a bit it could be a sign of one. Discharge
from the eyes or nose as well as decreased activity levels if your
hamster has signs of a respiratory infection please see a vet the faster
they can get them on antibiotics the faster your hamster can start feeling better
mites and parasites there are many different types of skin parasites
that can affect your hamster so it's important that if your hamster is
showing any of the symptoms that you do take them to the vet your vet will do a
skin scraping and that can help them detect which type of parasite your
hamster has and which type of treatment plan they need to go on signs of
parasites would include hair loss, skin redness as well as an increased itching
and scratching of an area if you notice your hamster is really really itching
all the time same exact spot for long periods of time
and it looks like it's really irritating them that could be a sign of parasites
keep in mind of course hamsters do groom quite a bit and they will tend to
scratch themselves sometimes so if your hamster scratches themselves once or
twice it doesn't necessarily mean they have parasites generally parasites can
travel in things like hamster bedding as well as wooden items so to prevent your
hamster from getting any mites or parasites you can freeze your hamsters
bedding for 24 hours as well as you can bake or freeze any wooden
accessories. Tumours and lumps oftentimes hamsters can develop lumps and bumps and
there are a couple of different types first there are tumours there are two
different types of tumours the first one is benign which is one that generally
doesn't affect the hamster too much they don't tend to grow or spread a whole lot
and the second type of tumours are malignant ones which are cancerous and
they do tend to spread unfortunately tumours are quite common to see with
hamsters now in days thanks to the breeding industry and their lack of care
for the hamsters health and genetics the next type of lump is an abscess this is
a pus filled lump that is caused from a bacterial infection from a cut scratch
or any type of wound this happens when your hamster hurts themselves as they
get a scratch or a cut or any type of thing like that and the injury ends up
getting infected and the last type of lump there is is a cyst. A cyst is a soft
round, movable, lump which generally contains fluid air or other substances
cysts generally do not develop into cancer and they can be caused by a
variety of reasons. Make sure to not confuse things like your hamsters
scent glands or your male hamsters testicles as tumours, cysts or abscesses
a scent gland and testicles are both normal things if you do notice any lumps
or bumps on your hamster it is important to take them to the vet to get it
checked out and your vet can then determine what the next step is to take
whether that be treating it with antibiotics or removal
diarrhea and wet tail
this is quite a confusing illness and I'm going to try my best to make it
make sense but a lot of people tend to think that when their hamster gets
diarrhea that means that their hamster automatically has wet tail which is not
true there are many illnesses that look the exact same as wet tail but are in
fact not wet tail. Wet tail is a specific disease that is a bacterial infection
and has only been seen in young Syrian hamsters and is caused by
*siri* Lawsonia Intracellularis
Lawsonia Intracellularis which I don't know how to properly pronounce but it is a bacteria
that causes a thickening in the small intestine. So just because your hamster
develops diarrhea and other symptoms of wet tail does not mean your hamster has
wet tail especially if your hamster has already been living in your home for
quite some time it is very very unlikely for it to
actually be wet tail that being said if your hamster does have diarrhea and they
are not eating or drinking it is really important that you take them in to the
vet to get treated
pyometra
pyometra is an infection of the uterus or womb in
female hamsters and it's more commonly seen in older female hamsters. There also
is two types of pyometra and that is open and closed with open pyometra there
will be discharged of blood or pus this is a reminder that female hamsters do
not have periods and bleeding for them is not normal and then there is closed
pyometra and this is when the cervix is closed so all of that pus and blood
starts to build up causing a buldge and bloating in the abdomen it's really
important that if you see any of these signs you take your hamster in to the
vet immediately so that they can treat them as pyometra can lead to death very
quickly the vet will either treat pyometra with antibiotics or they will
have to do a spay removing the uterus. Because hamsters are prey animals they
are very good at hiding any signs of being sick or hurt
so it's really important you're always playing quite close attention to your
hamster so that if anything suddenly changes you can take them to the vet if
you notice any type of discharge coming from anywhere diarrhea,
hair loss, inactivity or decreased appetite or dehydration you see a vet I
really hope this video can help because a lot of these illnesses are
life-threatening if not treated and it's super important that as soon as you see
those symptoms that you are taking your hamster to the vet to make sure they get
treated so yeah guys thank you for watching bye