Posts Tagged ‘smz/tmp’

Pinky Was Red ..

June 26th, 2010

.. with blood :-(

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.

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Posted in Hamster care, Hamster health | Comments (0)

Wet Poo Poos

May 21st, 2010

The bad pet owner that I was gave in to that cute begging face of Winnie’s & gave him apple skin. Not a good idea. The next day (this was the beginning of last month), Winnie had diarrhea .. really bad diarrhea!

Winnie diarrhea

Compare the above picture with a picture of normal poop. Because chinchillas poop constantly, Winnie kept stepping onto his own poop & smeared the wet poop everywhere; it was such a mess.

When the vet performed a gram stain on Winnie’s poop, the vet said that the ‘bad’ bacteria outnumber the ‘good’ bacteria; the ‘bad’ bacteria have always been present in Winnie’s stomach, but because of the apple skin, Winnie’s stomach got upset. Here is a detailed timeline:

  • 5 April: started on Baytril (0.2 ml twice daily for a week) & Bene-Bac (a pea size, approximately 1 gram, once daily for 2 weeks).
  • 7 Apri: I started to syringe feed Winnie with Critical Care because the Baytril reduced Winnie’s appetite.
  • 15 April: no improvement, so the Baytril was discontinued & Winnie was prescribed another medication that’s labeled as “SMZ/TMP Ped Susp” (0.25 ml twice daily for a week), which didn’t help much.
  • 19 April: started on Doxycycline (0.2 ml tiwce daily for a week), which was given alongside the SMZ/TMP. Winnie’s poop improved considerably.
  • 26 April: the course for Doxycycline & SMZ/TMP was over, but Winnie still continued on the Bene-Bac.
  • 9 May: Winnie finally finished his course of Bene-Bac & was diarrhea free!

I always made sure that after being in contact with Winnie while he was having diarrhea, I would wash my hands before touching Tubby. But I guess that wasn’t enough, Tubby eventually fell ill too; I have a feeling this was a parasitic infection that was easily transferred from my clothing because I didn’t change my clothes after being in contact with Winnie. Tubby’s poops were soft, but not as wet as the photo above. Tubby saw the vet on the 28th of April. Because Tubby’s poops weren’t as bad as Winnie’s, the vet didn’t want to prescribe Tubby with antibiotic that would kill the ‘bad’ AND the ‘good’ bacteria. Instead, the vet wanted to try a more ‘natural’ approach, by encouraging the ‘good’ bacteria to multiply. Tubby was prescribed Diarysanyl (a pea size, approximately 1 ml, twice daily for 5 days) & Bene-Bac (a pea size, approximately 1 gram, once daily for 2 weeks). Unlike Winnie, Tubby’s initial recovery as much faster. But the strange thing was that Tubby’s poops would get better one day & the nexy day he’d revert to soft poops. This continued even after his medication course was over. Tubby didn’t return to the clinic though, I just kept an eye on him & eventually the soft poops didn’t return.

*sigh* The troubles my animals went through just because I gave 1 chinchilla a fruit treat .. I’ve learned from my mistake & I no longer give in to those sad-looking eyes that seem to say “Puuhhhllleeeassseeee give me something sweet!”

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Posted in Chinchilla care, Chinchilla health | Comments (1)