In memory of my Robo girlies: Kat, Almond, and Joy.

After DH’s eye was cleaned, the vet inspected the eye, which looked healthy. That’s when the vet suspected that it was folliculitis (inflammation of the hair follicle, specifically inflammation of the hair follicle surrounding DH’s eye). DH was prescribed with an eye ointment (the same one that was prescribed to Baby Hamster for his cysts) to be applied twice daily right on the eye, for 7 days. During those 7 days, I could see that DH’s inflammation was getting better. I also had to continually clean his eye with wet cotton bud.

Fast forward 2 weeks to today, this is how his right eye looks like (warning: graphic photo). Obviously it doesn’t look good. I’m going to make a vet appointment right away for tomorrow & I’ll be updating on how DH is doing.

ps: DH is about 2.5 years old, so I’m just hoping that this is a symptom of ageing & it won’t affect his entire well being.

On the night of 15th June, I noticed that Pinky was bleeding from her rear. I couldn’t figure out whether it was from her rectum, vulva, or from her tail. At that point, I couldn’t do anything until the next morning. I only changed the Aspen bedding to paper towel because I didn’t want the Aspen bedding to irritate her behind.

The following morning, I was lucky to be able to schedule a vet appointment for the same day. The vet felt her tummy and couldn’t feel any lump. Upon further inspection, the vet determined that the blood came out of her vulva & that cancer was a possibility. Since Pinky is a dwarf hamster, it’s possible that the lump could be as small as a grain of rice & that’s why the vet couldn’t feel it. If the lump was that small, it may also not show up on an x-ray. The vet prescribed a medication that’s labeled as “SMZ/TMP Ped Susp” (0.03 ml twice daily for 10 days).

That was on a Wednesday. Because that same weekend I was away, Pinky was boarded at the vet’s clinic. Upon picking up Pinky the next Monday, she was doing a lot better & the vet technicians informed me that they didn’t see anymore bleeding!

Since Pinky came home, she’s been sleeping a lot more than usual. I think that she is getting older. She was brought home in August of 2008, which makes her almost 2 years of age by now.

According to the vet, the exposed skin looks healthy, no flakes to indicate dryness or possible mites. I initially suspected ringworm or mites because during a mites breakout last year & all of the hamsters, except her, were affected. So I thought that maybe it’s her turn to contract mites.

The vet thinks that it’s a psychological issue, mainly that she’s so bored that she overgrooms herself. She can’t groom anymore than the lower back of her body because that’s as far as she can reach.

I don’t understand how she can be bored because she has a lot of things in her cage: a wooden hidey house, a relatively large wheel for her size, plastic & cardboard tubes, ledges to climb on. I’ve since added more stuff in her cage & given her some chewable sticks that I have for the chinchillas & a 42-puzzle playground (that she NEVER goes into even though I hide treats in it!) to the point that there’s little walking space in her bin cage. The vet also suggested that I give her foods that are rich in good oils to encourage fur growth and more toys to keep her entertained. She doesn’t like the plastic ball because it scares her so I’ve only put her in the plastic ball a couple of times when I first got her.

Well, fast forward to today (about 4 weeks later), Pinky has certainly stopped overgrooming herself:

Lesson learned? Pack your hamster’s cage with tons of toys!

Ok, enough venting for now.

In memory of Baby Hamster

And those long whiskers are not for looking cute only, according to Live Science:

Most rats have poor vision, but they make up for it with the “whiskers on their snouts. They use the long hairs, also called “vibrissae,” in the same way that blind people use canes. By whisking the hairs across objects the come across, rats and other rodents form mental pictures of their surroundings.

Just last week, I noticed that the abscess has returned & it’s bigger. I cleaned the area again, applied more aloe & waited for a couple of days to see if it would get better.

Since it didn’t scab up, I took her to the vet today. Vet suspected that it’s skin tumor because he felt a lump. He wanted to be conservative, so he just prescribed Joy with some antibiotic cream. For a week, I’m supposed to clean the area twice a day with hydrogen peroxide & subsequently apply the antibiotic cream. If that doesn’t help, vet said that he could surgically remove the skin tumor & it won’t be a difficult procedure as the tumor is in the skin layer, no need to open her up.

So we’ll see how she’ll do with the antibiotic cream for a week.

I had just cleaned his cage a couple of days ago, so I suspected that the weevil came from the food! I hope that I don’t have to discard the newly opened bag of food

Vet said that these weevils are harmless. Nevertheless, since then, I have cleaned DH’s cage with bleach & threw away his cardboard hideouts.

At first, it was Almond the roborovski; there was some fur loss around her cheeks & her back, some scabbing on her back, & some flaking on her bare skin. Initially I thought it was because Kat & Joy had overgroomed her or they had been fighting. When I removed Almond to be in a cage by herself, even though the original scabs, there were more scabbing not long after. At that point, I suspected that she was scratching herself so bad to the point that she scabbed herself.

Last month, vet scraped some of Almond’s skins & placed them on a slide .. sure enough the vet saw lots of mites & mite eggs breeding on Almond. Euw!  She’s now on Ivermectin (medication for mites), 3 doses of 0.01 ml given 2 weeks apart. Ivermectin is a very strong medication & it had to be diluted for Almond’s dosage due to her small size. Besides, 1 dose is not enough to kill all the mites as mites have successive breeding stages, that’s why they are given 2 weeks apart.

I thought it was strange that only Almond was infested with mites since she had shared a cage with Joy & Kat. Well, a couple of weeks after Almond was discovered with mites, I saw the same symptoms on Joy & Kat: excessive scratching to the point that they bruise themselves & flaking. Off to the vet they went on the 9th of November & now they’re also on 3 doses of Ivermectin.

The vet said that they could’ve gotten mites either from the bedding (I read that people bake their bedding to kill mites, but I don’t want to use the oven that I cook with in order to kill bugs) or from the petstore (it’s just that the robos have always been asymptomatic until now). I’ll just have to stick to the medications & hopefully by the end of the third dosage, all the mites will have been killed. Vet recommended that I clean the cages & the toys in 39 part water & 1 part bleach. Afterwards, air dry them as any remaining chlorine will evaporate.

Almond before the vet visit; fur loss around the cheek area; if you right click  & “View Image,” you can see flakes in her ear

Almond after the vet visit; vet had scraped off some of the mites from the skin; Almond’s skin is dry because it’s exposed to Aspen bedding & I’ve been applying olive oil on it once every 2 days

On the 28th of October, vet surgically removed it. At this point, the lump feels like tissue mass & still benign, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot develop to something more aggressive. On 9th of November when Kat was supposed to have her sutures removed, guess what? She played doctor & had already removed it herself! Felt like my trip to the Animal Clinic was pointless … what the hey, the Animal Clinic is like my new hangout place already (when I call, I don’t even need to tell the receptionist my name, & all the staffs already know me!).

All I can do now is keep a close eye on Kat & hope that the lump doesn’t grow again.