Hamsters- Need Some Help

[halifaxhoney]

Hi everyone! So I need some experienced hamster owners help. I've had a hamster since June 2004 and it's my first one so I'm not really any help to a friend of mine. I gave her a cage for Christmas and she went out and got a hamster on Christmas Eve. She found her hamster had passed away on January 1st. He had wet tail. She is feeling pretty guilty about it so I went online to try to find if there was anything about the causes of wet tail. I was just wondering if there was anyway that this could've been avoided. I just want her to stop feeling guilty.

Thank you!
Crystal

 

[LiberatedChick]

Wet tail is caused by stress. My first hamster died from it after I bought him a new cage. The new surroundings got him a bit stressed out at first and he died from wet tail.

Wet tail is a disease of the intestines...it's pretty nasty so I won't go into details of what happens inside the poor hammy. But there's two types of bacteria in the hamsters instestine....good bacteria and bad bacteria. Just like in humans if the bad bacteria increase so there's too many we can get ill....in hamsters this is fatal as they're only little creatures. So stress allows the bad bacteria to grow more and they take over the hamsters intestines...causing the diarhea that results in a constantly wet or dirty tail area. There's not a huge amount you can do once they get wet tail. Wet tail takes about 7 days to develop any symptoms and once symptoms are seen the hamster can die within 24hours. So you could try to get them to the vet as soon as you see symptoms but all the vet can do is give them antibiotics...sometimes these work, sometimes they don't.

It's likely that the stress on being brought home from the pet shop caused the wet tail...unfortunately this is a common cause. Or the hamster could have had wet tail (in it's symptomless stage) before it was brought home. There are several things you can do to minimise the risks....

1. Before she even thinks about getting another hamster she should throughly clean that cage. We're talking scrubbing with bleach and hot water here! Wet tail is highly contagious amoungst hamsters. So you wouldn't want any bacteria still living in that cage.

2. Prepare the cage for the hamster before buying it...getting it home and putting it straight into it's new cage will minimise the stress.

3. Buy from a different pet shop. It may be that the pet shop she bought from has hamsters that are genetically more susceptable to getting wet tail. It may be that the wet tail started in the pet shop also so wouldn't want to get another hamster that will have the same problem.

4. Check the hamster over in the pet shop...any sign of a wet or dirty tail...don't buy it! Also check that it's eyes are clean and it's fur is well kept.

5. Once the hamster is brought home put it into it's new cage and leave it well alone for 24 hours. It needs to get used to it's new surroundings and this will be a bit stressful at first...it doesn't need the added stress of new surroundings and getting used to people as well.

6. After 24 hours sit by the hamsters cage and talk to it, give it food and a few treats through the bars. You need to make friends with your hamster. I allowed my first hamster two weeks of getting used to me feeding through the bars and putting my hand in the cage before I got him out of the cage. This worked well. My second hamster....well I'd forgotten what I did with the first so with my second after giving 24 hours to get used to his cage I tried to get him out. Poor thing was so scared of me and legged it as fast as he could lol. He's fine now but I was so scared that stress could have resulted in wet tail....thankfully it didn't. Definately need to make friends slowly before getting them out.

This should ensure that stress is minimised...hammy should be brought home to a set up cage and left alone in it for a while, then 24 hours later start making friends with it but don't get him out straight away. Allow at least a week of regularly talking to him, feeding through the bars and putting your hand in and feeding from your hand before getting them out. This allows the hamster to have one stressful thing to deal with at a time instead of all at once.

 

[Flopsy Rabbit]

If you have a problem with wet tail put some peptobismol in the drinking water enough to make the water pink, this will help sooth their tummy, also go to the health food store and get a bottle of high potency acidophilus in capsules (the kind with powder inside that you can pull apart) you want one with 5-6 billlion per capsule. Get some bannana baby food and put a half a spoon full on a flat dish or jar lid, open the capsule and mix it in. Do this every day till it clears up. Antibiotics will likely make it worse because it is a problem of an imbalance of bacteria and a lack of the "good" intestinal bacteria. Antibiotics kill all bacteria including the good. When antibiotics are necessary for other things they can often get diarhea also which can be treated with the acidophillus quite well. Another thing to watch for when any animal has diarhea is dehydration. You want to keep an eye on their water intake and if they are not drinking much or enough do something to encourage them to drink more. You can put a bit of apple juice in their water or try giving them some apple flavored pedialite or other brand of pediatric electrolite replacer.

 

[halifaxhoney]

Thank you for the advice. She took the hamster to the pet store and they gave her a new one for free. I guess I just found it strange that it affected her hamster and when I got mine it didn't. I also think that mine was older when I got it. Thank you for the advice! I appreciate it.

Thank You,
Crystal

 

[anna9559]

i had two hamsters that only lived for 3 days! They also had wet tail. And yes it is caused bu stress! There's nothing we can do to prevent it!

 

[halifaxhoney]

Wet tail stinks! Now, I have another question. As a hamsters ages does the tail slowly start sticking out more?

 

[Flopsy Rabbit]

Don't think their tail sticks out more, they have such tiny little tails.

 

[halifaxhoney]

My hamsters sticks out more than usual. It happened a couple days after I got thim and then it stopped growing.

Crystal

 

[jlujan69]

I thought I'd just throw this one in on what NOT to do to hamsters. When much younger than I am now, I had several hammies. One fine day, for some strange reason, I thought it might be "cute" to spin one of them in a sock and watch him stagger around in a drunken state. My aunt told me it was harmless fun. Well, the poor thing died as a result. I never did that again! Anyway, we had a mini funeral for it. I place him in a soap box and buried him in the yard adjacent to a Jehovah Witness Kingdom Hall.

 

[halifaxhoney]

I thought I'd just throw this one in on what NOT to do to hamsters. When much younger than I am now, I had several hammies. One fine day, for some strange reason, I thought it might be "cute" to spin one of them in a sock and watch him stagger around in a drunken state. My aunt told me it was harmless fun. Well, the poor thing died as a result. I never did that again! Anyway, we had a mini funeral for it. I place him in a soap box and buried him in the yard adjacent to a Jehovah Witness Kingdom Hall.

Awww poor thing!

Crystal