Hamsters foot is swollen

Indico said:
The vet told us we could either very gently rub it in or just keep him occupied and play with him until it dries so he doesn’t lick it off. They actually also gave us something oral as well but I don’t remember what it’s called 😅
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Was the oral stuff called baytril? (Enrofloxacin). That is an oral antibiotic in a liquid. It tastes nasty! Or it may have been metacam they gave you, (Loxicom), for pain relief. Which tastes nice and of honey and they tend to like it.
 
Maz said:
Was the oral stuff called baytril? (Enrofloxacin). That is an oral antibiotic in a liquid. It tastes nasty! Or it may have been metacam they gave you, (Loxicom), for pain relief. Which tastes nice and of honey and they tend to like it.
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The stuff they gave him was Enrofloxacin (oral) and Gentacalm (topical). He will walk on his foot on soft surfaces such as carpet but won’t put all his weight on it if any weight at all. He also lets us touch his foot without showing any signs of pain which I think is why they didn’t prescribe any pain relief?
 
They are both antibiotics so they're maybe trying two types. It does sound a bit to me like it might be a fracture, as typically that is only painful when weight is put on the limb and not from touching it, which will be why he's avoiding using it. I may be wrong and lets hope the antibiotics help.
 
Maz said:
They are both antibiotics so they're maybe trying two types. It does sound a bit to me like it might be a fracture, as typically that is only painful when weight is put on the limb and not from touching it, which will be why he's avoiding using it. I may be wrong and lets hope the antibiotics help.
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What do you recommend I do? Should I wait a bit with the antibiotics or go back and do the X-rays?
 
It's difficult. You maybe won't know until 3 or 4 days if the antibiotics are helping or not and sometimes it can take a bit longer if it's an infection. It didn't really sound like infection with not being hot or red.

I think personally I would want an xray to either confirm or rule out a fracture. But best to keep giving the antibiotics meanwhile.
 
Maz said:
It's difficult. You maybe won't know until 3 or 4 days if the antibiotics are helping or not and sometimes it can take a bit longer if it's an infection. It didn't really sound like infection with not being hot or red.

I think personally I would want an xray to either confirm or rule out a fracture. But best to keep giving the antibiotics meanwhile.
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He doesn’t like it and it does take a while but eventually he does take it all. Do you think I should go back to get the X-rays asap or maybe wait until the weekend to give the antibiotics time?
 
It's maybe a bit six and two threes. If you get the x-ray done and it's a fracture, he won't need to continue on the antibiotics. If you continue the antibiotics for the full week and there's no improvement, then you'd need the x-ray.
 
I'm just trying to think what i would do in the same situation.

I'd give the antibiotics a chance but i would have asked for pain relief because he's not weight bearing. Just in case it is a fracture.
 
On the other hand, I would want to know if it was a fracture before giving pain relief in case the hamster did more damage walking on it while having pain relief. I think if it was me I would get the x-ray done to decide whether or not the antibiotics needed to continue or not and to get a diagnosis (or rule out fracture).
 
Maz said:
It's maybe a bit six and two threes. If you get the x-ray done and it's a fracture, he won't need to continue on the antibiotics. If you continue the antibiotics for the full week and there's no improvement, then you'd need the x-ray.
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Beryl said:
I'm just trying to think what i would do in the same situation.

I'd give the antibiotics a chance but i would have asked for pain relief because he's not weight bearing. Just in case it is a fracture.
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Maz said:
On the other hand, I would want to know if it was a fracture before giving pain relief in case the hamster did more damage walking on it while having pain relief. I think if it was me I would get the x-ray done to decide whether or not the antibiotics needed to continue or not and to get a diagnosis (or rule out fracture).
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So I’ve decided to try and schedule an appointment on Friday. I figured I might as well just do it to get peace of mind that it isn’t a fracture because now I’m just worried we’re giving him unnecessary antibiotics 😅
 
Maz said:
On the other hand, I would want to know if it was a fracture before giving pain relief in case the hamster did more damage walking on it while having pain relief. I think if it was me I would get the x-ray done to decide whether or not the antibiotics needed to continue or not and to get a diagnosis (or rule out fracture).
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Hi again! I had a question that I figured I’d ask you since you’ve been very helpful with this entire situation. A few days ago he started getting some buildup in his eye when he’d wake up. He’s never had issues like this before and the only difference in his routine would be the antibiotics/stress from his foot and giving him the antibiotics. Of course when trying to do further research many places online say it’s an infection but I don’t want to jump to this being the case without any real evidence other than the buildup. It also only happens when he sleeps for a long time.
 
If he's on antiobiotics it seems unlikely it's an infection. Do you mean like a sticky eye? Do you have a photo? Antibiotic side effects can affect them sometimes and make them feel quite ropey and even look ropey but that improves once the course is finished.
 
Maz said:
If he's on antiobiotics it seems unlikely it's an infection. Do you mean like a sticky eye? Do you have a photo? Antibiotic side effects can affect them sometimes and make them feel quite ropey and even look ropey but that improves once the course is finished.
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RainbowBrite said:
Have you tried gently wiping it away? It is quite common for older Syrian hamsters to have sleep in their eyes when waking.
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We are able to wipe it away but he’s only a little over a year old. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo, but I’ll try to get one. I do believe the antibiotics are making him pretty lazy. I also don’t know what sticky eye is. What should I be looking for with that?
 
Sticky eye is secretion during sleep that dries up and sticks the eye together on waking. Sometimes the eye opens up after the hamster had a wash. If not you can dap a cotton pad in warm water and wipe the eye or use it like a compress to unstick the eye. One of my hamsters gets that and he isn't old yet.
 
Our Syrian has had a sticky eye a couple of times. On two occasions it just opened after he’d been washing and on the third I gave it a wipe and it opened. it just seems to happen sometimes and doesn’t seem to bother him.
 
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