Oaky's Diary

[Hamster Haven]

Did they give meloxicam as well? For the inflammation?

Yes! Enrofloxin and meloxicam.

 

[Hamster Haven]

Aww I've just been reading Oaky's Diary (with a biscuit and a coffee) and love her antics. Sending her (and you) some soft hugs and I hope she feels better soon xx

I'll keep everyone updated.I just delivered the second dose of the antibiotic.

 

[Maz]

Poor little Oaky. So unfair. I really hope she feels better very quickly on these meds. The Meloxicam should help her to feel a bit better

 

[Socks' Mum]

I hope the meds start working quickly

 

[Hamster Haven]

Updates: So, the medicine definitely helped. It's hard for me to tell how much, because she's still not back to her normal self, but she has a follow-up vet appointment on Monday.

Here is what I have seen (This is on an antibiotic treatment + Meloxicam):

• Her fur has grown back in better- it may not be as lush as prior to her illness, but she had a scab that has gone away and there was a line of fur missing near it and that has grown back. Her fur just looks less thin now all over and feels a bit better than it did 2 weeks ago.
• She had gone down to only emerging once a day (maybe twice) for food, and we weren't seeing her during human waking hours. She is now coming out at least twice a day, but often more, and staying out for longer. Her activity consists only of foraging and drinking (she doesn't go on her wheel and I haven't seen her go into her sandbox), but she will stay out for several minutes. She still burrows extensively and will even pouch extra bedding or stuff it down holes to reorganize (she changed her sleeping spot a couple times in the past few weeks due to being annoyed with me over waking her to give her medicine).
• Her size has gone down, in a good way, I think. I haven't weighed her, but she had looked super chonky prior to going in to the vet. At the time, I was just thinking that she grew up to be a much bigger female hamster than I'd expected, but I now I think it was due to the inflammation she had going on in her uterus. She's not super skinny or anything now, but she's just slimmed down a bit overall.
• She is drinking more normally now; prior to going in she'd started drinking huge swings of water at a time. I know this because she has both a water bottle and a bowl, and I could hear her use the water bottle for strangely long periods. I learned that increased thirst can be a sign of pyometra, which is what she was diagnosed with.
• She does seem to have some small shakiness at times. I'm not sure if that's a reaction to medication or if it's a result of her illness. It's not constant.

I will go through my phone and try to post a few shorts I've taken in the past few weeks. She's hard to film in our lighting because of her dark fur, but you may be able to see differences.

 

[Maz]

That sounds positive she's had these improvements after the meds Fingers crossed she continues to improve. Pyometra can be difficult to tackle but antibiotics were definitely the right thing there. She sounds to be enjoying her enclosure.

 

[Hamster Haven]

That sounds positive she's had these improvements after the meds Fingers crossed she continues to improve. Pyometra can be difficult to tackle but antibiotics were definitely the right thing there. She sounds to be enjoying her enclosure.

Yes, I think she's still happy in her enclosure- probably more happy than months ago when her energy was overflowing. I'm nervous that the vet will still recommend spaying, which is not only risky but very expensive in the U.S., BUT at least there has been definite improvement and there may be other options- like monitoring and going back on antibiotics if it happens again (I've read that once hamsters get pyometra, it's likely to recur if not spayed).

 

[Maz]

Yes that can be an issue - that it can recur unless they're spayed. Difficult decisions. Spaying usually resolves it - and is usually successful - sometimes it doesn't completely resolve things ongoing. I have heard that surgery in the Us is extremely expensive. It's not cheap in the Uk either - I think I paid about £160 last time and that was about 6 or 7 years ago. Plus post-op meds and a check up appointment, which were extra, but it included anaesthetic and vet time and surgery.

 

[Hamster Haven]

I should have uploaded both of these as regular videos but I accidentally uploaded them as shorts, although it's still fine because she is centered the whole time.
The first video is from a day before we went to the vet. It's hard to see her face (I might have one part toward the middle or end) because she's deep in foraging. The lump on the right is just a full cheek pouch, but I do think her skin being stretched highlights the thinness of her fur. You can also see the scab that was on her back (I couldn't tell it was a scab and was wondering if a wood shaving had come off something and gotten stuck. I was very confused, but it was a scab and the vet removed it) and the line of missing fur that will later fill in.

The second video was from earlier this week.

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[Hamster Haven]

Yes that can be an issue - that it can recur unless they're spayed. Difficult decisions. Spaying usually resolves it - and is usually successful - sometimes it doesn't completely resolve things ongoing. I have heard that surgery in the Us is extremely expensive. It's not cheap in the Uk either - I think I paid about £160 last time and that was about 6 or 7 years ago. Plus post-op meds and a check up appointment, which were extra, but it included anaesthetic and vet time and surgery.

You're right that 160 pounds is expensive...but I would so pay that without a second thought! I'm going to get an estimate on Monday, but my fear is that spaying here is closer to 700 pounds! Although that may include the anesthesia. It probably doesn't include the meds, but again, I'll get all the details Monday. So few vets do it for hamsters here that I have to go to an emergency exotic vet for it. Will keep everyone updated.

 

[Maz]

Yes she definitely seems a bit bloated on that first video and looks much happier and healthier on the second one.

£700 is eye watering and outrageous! I think they try antibiotics a couple of times before deciding a spay is the solution though.

Are there any pet insurance plans in the US? There are in the U.K. but they’re not really worth the paper they’re written on. Usually about £15 a month but if you read the small print, so much is excluded that only an op would be covered and probably my cheaper to save £15 a month.

 

[Maz]

I just googled why vet bills are so high in the US and it came up with

1). Vets graduate with heavy student loan debt
2). Private equity and corporations have bought up Independent practices (that is happening in the U.K. now as well … and costs for consultations have doubled).
3). High operating costs and advanced equipment.

 

[Hamster Haven]

Yes she definitely seems a bit bloated on that first video and looks much happier and healthier on the second one.

£700 is eye watering and outrageous! I think they try antibiotics a couple of times before deciding a spay is the solution though.

Are there any pet insurance plans in the US? There are in the U.K. but they’re not really worth the paper they’re written on. Usually about £15 a month but if you read the small print, so much is excluded that only an op would be covered and probably my cheaper to save £15 a month.

Yes- I've found the same with the US for pet insurance plans. I've researched them, especially having rabbits now, and more often than not I see people drawing conclusions that it's better to just set aside money monthly to have it there for a big vet bill rather than pay for the insurance.

Yeah, the cost is why I'm hesitant to jump on the surgery, but maybe they'll also end up saying that we can try to monitor it and go with antibiotics once or twice more if I see symptoms.

Sort of in line with what you found, I think the US has also just been way behind with exotic pet ownership, so there are way less vets even trained for exotics. I'm lucky enough (to compared to those in rural areas) to have a few options within a 30-45 minute radius, but on my way there I'll easily pass 4+ vets that don't have sufficiently trained vets for animals other than cats and dogs (they'll do a basic exam on a rabbit sometimes, but there's no specialized knowledge). I did hear something positive recently, which is that thanks to the increase in percentage of households owning rabbits now compared to pre-Covid, veterinary students are being encouraged more to get the exotic training, so hopefully that will lead to more options for conscientious hamster and rabbit owners!

 

[Maz]

I have to travel an hour to an exotic vet and it’s not a good journey - loads of roundabouts on the way. They are very good though and it’s a lovely smallish practice with a separate quiet waiting area for small furries. That does include cats though but at least they don’t bark!

 

[Hamster Haven]

I have to travel an hour to an exotic vet and it’s not a good journey - loads of roundabouts on the way. They are very good though and it’s a lovely smallish practice with a separate quiet waiting area for small furries. That does include cats though but at least they don’t bark!

That sounds lovely! I don't love my drives either. Even though they're short, they're through busier thoroughfares with many traffic lights, and it just makes everything feel busier. They are both pretty small, although one (the closer one, of course), does allow dogs, but there are two separate waiting area, so if I happen to overlap with a dog it's easy to sit in the opposite space. The farther one has a nicer ambience...but that extra bit of distance through busy traffic makes it feel more tedious! And then my the shelter director who is currently trying to bond my buns had some reservations about that one vs. the other, so I don't mind 5-10 minutes shorter distance But at least I do have decent access to exotic vets. I've heard of lots of people in the US and Canada who are over any hour away from them. Tough with these animals with such specific needs!

 

[Socks' Mum]

It is a very worrying trend, corporate financing. They have tapped into pet owners' wish to do everything they can for their pet

 

[Maz]

Your closer practice sounds nice . And yes some people in the US seem to be hours from an exotic vet.

 

[Maz]

It is a very worrying trend, corporate financing. They have tapped into pet owners' wish to do everything they can for their pet

Our small local vet practice went that way - and it feels so impersonal now - not even their own website any more but a generic one. It kind of feels like the vets sold out - less responsibility - more security - customers pay higher fees . OH knew someone who was quoted three times as much for a dog op as an independent vet.

 

[Hamster Haven]

Vet visit update:
Doctor agreed that she was looking much better. There was still a little discharge but much less and less obvious at first, so she swabbed it and they will let me know the results. I chose not to wait around because the vet was behind when I arrived and we'd already been there an hour and half.

Due to the small amount of discharge, the vet decided to do 2 more weeks of antibiotics and meloxicam, and we may end up on some combo of drugs indefinitely if we are "maintaining" a sensitive uterus rather than spaying, but we'll return in 2 weeks.

Okay had lost 20g of weight, but we agreed that under the circumstances we think that her weight 2 weeks ago was due to a lot of inflammation. I had not been in the habit of weighing her regularly, even though I know that can be helpful, and I thought she was looking rather large prior to diagnosing the illness, but at the time I thought she just ended up being larger than I'd expected. Now I think it was the inflammation, so at this point I'm not worried about the weight loss, as I think it's actually a sign of a return to a healthier state. I'll try to get some video of her later this week.

Not excited about going back to syringe-feeding her 2x a day, but happy that she's stable for now

 

[Socks' Mum]

Good that she is stable. I hope the meds keep Oaky stable and that she doesn't need an op