- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 33
Hi, I have a 2 year and 2 month old hamster named Jumpy. He's never had any health issues before, but since around December 24th he's been acting weird, and I can't tell if he's just old or if he's ill.
His breaths look exaggerated (his chest moves a lot), he walks slow and stumbles easily, he doesn't get startled the same way as before (if you touched him while sleeping, he jumped, and now he just looks at you), he usually can't open one of his eyes (sometimes both) because of blemishes in the eyes (this has happened to him a lot all his life, but never this often)(thankfully I can clean them with just a gauze with warm water), his ears are constantly flat as if he had just woken up, he sleeps 24/7 and I have to manually give him water and food with a syringe with no needle or else he won't (he barely eats and I don't see him drink water). He doesn't complain when I feed him like that though, and he doesn't vomit afterwards, but I don't see him cleaning himself and he doesn't bother to make a proper nest (he just keeps the toilet paper as it is). And no, he doesn't have wet tail, he hasn't lost weight, and he doesn't sneeze. I don't think he has mucus from his nose either.
I hope it's not relevant, but a couple of weeks before he started looking ill I found mold in the jar where he hid his food. Both the jar and the cage have been fully cleaned multiple times since then, including as soon as I found out (I threw out all his food, bedding, and nest, and cleaned the things I kept). We also gave him a couple of weeks ago a bit of turkey since I saw vets recommending it as a source of protein, but just a day later I checked if he had eaten it and I saw that it had started to rot so I deep-cleaned everything again. I know it's stressful for hamsters to deep clean the entire cage, but I couldn't risk him getting something even more serious than whatever he is dealing with now.
Also, he poops normally in his nest (he's always done that) and he gets up to pee somewhere else (but as I said, he's slow and stumbles a bit).
Before this, he didn't really like being held, but now he falls asleep in my arms when I wrap him around in a towel to give him food/water (so he doesn't get messy or wet). When he first started showing symptoms I took him out of his cage at night for a bit as normal and let him run around in my bed, but all he did was slowly walk toward hidden or warm places and curl up in a ball.
Is this normal?? My brother's hamster is 2 years and around 6 months old and he isn't like that as far as I know.
Here's a picture of him in November vs a couple of days ago now in January:
This is his cage at the moment. As you can see, it's very clean, since he doesn't go out of his nest much. His nest is the giant pile of toilet paper, and I make sure it's clean. I put the cage next to the radiator since he started showing symptoms so he's warm and so far I believe he enjoys it. I see him seeking warmth and sleeping there (ie: the towel).
The cage used to have a "second floor" he could climb to, but there's no use for it anymore for obvious reasons.
Someone please help me out here. I can't take him to the vet without my parents help since I'd have to go walking and he'd freeze on the way there, but they don't want to take him to it because the few times we've taken a hamster to the vet they never know what to do with them or just directly put them down even if it's because of a minor injury
I really need some help. He's my best friend, I love him so much.
His breaths look exaggerated (his chest moves a lot), he walks slow and stumbles easily, he doesn't get startled the same way as before (if you touched him while sleeping, he jumped, and now he just looks at you), he usually can't open one of his eyes (sometimes both) because of blemishes in the eyes (this has happened to him a lot all his life, but never this often)(thankfully I can clean them with just a gauze with warm water), his ears are constantly flat as if he had just woken up, he sleeps 24/7 and I have to manually give him water and food with a syringe with no needle or else he won't (he barely eats and I don't see him drink water). He doesn't complain when I feed him like that though, and he doesn't vomit afterwards, but I don't see him cleaning himself and he doesn't bother to make a proper nest (he just keeps the toilet paper as it is). And no, he doesn't have wet tail, he hasn't lost weight, and he doesn't sneeze. I don't think he has mucus from his nose either.
I hope it's not relevant, but a couple of weeks before he started looking ill I found mold in the jar where he hid his food. Both the jar and the cage have been fully cleaned multiple times since then, including as soon as I found out (I threw out all his food, bedding, and nest, and cleaned the things I kept). We also gave him a couple of weeks ago a bit of turkey since I saw vets recommending it as a source of protein, but just a day later I checked if he had eaten it and I saw that it had started to rot so I deep-cleaned everything again. I know it's stressful for hamsters to deep clean the entire cage, but I couldn't risk him getting something even more serious than whatever he is dealing with now.
Also, he poops normally in his nest (he's always done that) and he gets up to pee somewhere else (but as I said, he's slow and stumbles a bit).
Before this, he didn't really like being held, but now he falls asleep in my arms when I wrap him around in a towel to give him food/water (so he doesn't get messy or wet). When he first started showing symptoms I took him out of his cage at night for a bit as normal and let him run around in my bed, but all he did was slowly walk toward hidden or warm places and curl up in a ball.
Is this normal?? My brother's hamster is 2 years and around 6 months old and he isn't like that as far as I know.
Here's a picture of him in November vs a couple of days ago now in January:
This is his cage at the moment. As you can see, it's very clean, since he doesn't go out of his nest much. His nest is the giant pile of toilet paper, and I make sure it's clean. I put the cage next to the radiator since he started showing symptoms so he's warm and so far I believe he enjoys it. I see him seeking warmth and sleeping there (ie: the towel).
The cage used to have a "second floor" he could climb to, but there's no use for it anymore for obvious reasons.
Someone please help me out here. I can't take him to the vet without my parents help since I'd have to go walking and he'd freeze on the way there, but they don't want to take him to it because the few times we've taken a hamster to the vet they never know what to do with them or just directly put them down even if it's because of a minor injury
I really need some help. He's my best friend, I love him so much.
Last edited: