Saffron

[Socks' Mum]

Gorgeous photos, what a sweet little lady!

 

[Jain]

Heya! Long time no see life has been busy, I hope you and your hamsters have all been well.
Saffron has grown into a little old lady, and will be 2 in January! She is as shy as ever, however has recently developed the habit of squeaking and grumbling away to herself most nights between 2 and 3am.. I assume she's dreaming about days gone by where she was able to latch onto my hands with great enthusiasm luckily her hair loss issues have resolved and apart from a slightly sticky eye that won't resolve, shes entered old age relatively healthy!

From the rotund little furball, she has become a slender little pensioner but still enjoying her food and treats bless her.

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She is still adorable her ears are beautiful

 

[Hank]

So is so cute, lovely to hear how she is doing

 

[Eriathwen]

Little miss Saffron will be going to the vet soon, I hadn't seen her for a while again which is usually no concern. However I have moved her cage due to taking down the guinea pig enclosure that she lived on previously, which means she is suddenly more active rearranging her nests to more preferred locations.
She has obviously experienced yet another bout of hair loss, and while it's growing back nicely and her skin still looks healthy and clear.. she does look rather awful bless her, especially as her sticky eye is still sticky, although she can open it now at least. Her attitude has also got a lot worse in that now (and by some miracle given her small size and decent age) she is launching herself into the air in an attempt to bite me.

In one of her last appointments my vet said the balding may be cyclical due to a tumour somewhere, and I'm concerned she may be suffering from a brain tumour, or something that is causing her hormonal aggression or pain.

She turned 2 years old at the start of the month, she will very soon (next week) be 25 months old, which isn't bad, I have a feeling we may be looking at medicating palliatively, or euthanasia depending on how my vet feels about the situation. But as long as I leave her alone she seems happy enough. She still runs on her wheel, eats her food and treats, although she is frustratingly adverse to eating the higher calorie foods I'm trying to get into her!

Anyway, here's the grumpy lady herself. Telling me to go away, as well as having a nice little nap in her bedding.

 

[Socks' Mum]

It sounds like little Saffron doesn't have much longer to live, poor girl. At least she is in good hands and gets excellent care

 

[Tulsi]

Just caught up with this thread. What a lovely lovely hamster. She is quite a character!!!

I hope she remains comfortable for as long as possible and that her vet appointment goes well.

 

[Maz]

She looks quite distinguished in her old age, despite the fur loss. I hope the vet helps with answers. Palliative care is so difficult to achieve with hamsters, but I know you've managed it before. A tumour is another thing though. My robo Pip had back end fur loss similar to this around age 2. He was started on metacam and passed away a week later.

 

[Eriathwen]

It really is a shame for her, but equally I'm struggling to see how it can be something serious, shes had the hairloss for over a year, 14 months in fact.. over half her lifespan! It's just very odd, I would have thought she would no longer be alive, or would look so much worse if it were parasites, cancer or something insidious. But who knows, maybe she's just extremely resilient!

I did manage to convince her to come out for a little concoction of porridge oats, brewers yeast, chopped mixed nuts and what seemed like an incredibly small amount of spirulina powder which was apparently still enough to turn it green with a few small pieces of fruit on top. She ate a few mouthfuls before having a quick wash and toddling back off to her little nook for another nap.

 

[Maz]

It sounds like she enjoyed that Yes that is a long time to have the fur loss so it's more likely to be something hormonal perhaps. The main thing, as I'm sure you know, is to look for signs of pain, which they hide so well. Slitty eyes and a drawn look can be a sign of pain. Is she on anything like metacam? I guess that would be the next thing to try unless the vet thinks there is an issue with quality of life.

 

[Eriathwen]

Luckily she's only squinty after first waking up, for the most part she's pretty OK, although her balance can be a little bit iffy, she moves in little bursts and starts, so she could well be getting a little stiff and arthritic. She isnt currently on metacam, for the life of me I cant remember the dose Orsa and Pasha were on or I would have already popped her on it to see, but I dont want to guess incorrectly.. working out such a tiny dose is a bit of a stretch for my maths skills. But I'd imagine the vet will have her put on that anyway, if she will let me get it into her with any luck I'll be able to hide it in food as she probably won't just take it like the last girls did! She was a bit of a nightmare even with the banana flavoured antibiotics she got last year.

 

[Maz]

Beautiful photos as always Eriathwen It would be great to have an update on the piggies.

 

[Eriathwen]

Thankyou!
I actually haven't rescued any new piggies for about 18 months, my little population is aging so I'm concentrating on them for now. We have gone from 25 down to 17 unfortunately and most of my piggies with multiple chronic health issues have passed away, apart from one of the little blind and deaf brothers.

Half of them are 5+ years old now, we've still had our fair share of drama though, one of the girls who were spayed a year ago had a hole open up where one of the incisions were, we can only really assume that there was an abscess from the fact that incision didn't heal well after the surgery.
Then one of the younger piggies got a urinary blockage in the early hours of the morning which luckily I was able to clear, by the time she saw the vet she was OK again, but it was incredibly scary.

Everyone else is *touch wood* doing ok, all things considered. We have a lump to be investigated soon and some dental work and an eye check for the blind/deaf boy but we aren't at the vet on an almost daily basis anymore. My own health hasn't been wonderful for the last few months so I am letting the herd go down to 6-10 before I start taking in any more. And I'll probably be only taking on ones with health issues, but we will see. I'm not sure what I'd do if I only had healthy critters especially in such a small number.

 

[Eriathwen]

So, I'm on a mission to get some weight back onto Saffron. I've made a list of everything I've tried, and everything I haven't, so hopefully in the list of not tried I'll find something she will like.

I managed to weigh her earlier and much to my surprise she allowed me to handle her and give her a quick check over. So I have been able to properly confirm that her skin is incredibly soft and healthy in spite of the hair loss. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of her as I've broken a finger and couldn't safely hold her and my phone at the same time.

But she is a little 35g bless her. Back in November 2023 she was 61g, so that's quite a drop, although she is a senior so, some loss is expected. But I'd like to see her a little chubbier.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Socks loves sprouted sunflower seeds

 

[Maz]

Oh my goodness, a broken finger doesn't sound very nice to deal with! I hope it's on the mend very soon. I'm not sure what's on your list, but my go to's for weight gain were a pinch of hemp seeds daily and a pinch of ground nuts daily. But that is for Syrians. I'm not sure if that much nut protein would be good for a dwarf hamster or not but I can't see it would be a problem. Specifically pecan nuts which are supposed to have the highest calories of other nuts. Do you think she would eat a piece of pecan nut rather than having to crush it? Sunflower seeds also do help weight gain.

 

[Eriathwen]

Yeah, its a lot less painful since I strapped it up, but now its annoying to try to yse the whole hand.
She does seem quite fond of nuts, she will eat most types I've tried her with but she ignored the pecans that was quite some time ago though, so it's worth trying again.

I think I'm going to try her on a bit of scrambled quail egg again, and some different baby foods. I got gerbils again a few weeks back, so anything she won't eat won't be wasted now, they will eat anything you give them

I hadn't actually thought to try sprouted seeds, she loves her veggies so that might go down well.

 

[Socks' Mum]

I hope your finger gets better soon, ouch
Your posts are so good, we learn a lot from them I hope the little lady eats with a better appetite

 

[ilguy]

I love her face when shes in-between grooming What about adding a few extra mealworms each day? Also sour cream might be a good occasional treat to help with the weight loss if she likes it

 

[Eriathwen]

Well! Since Friday she has gained 3g, and is sat at 38g. Hopefully she carries on at that rate.. shes had extra mealworms, some nuts and she finally found a baby food she likes, chicken and sweet squash. So that's promising!

 

[Socks' Mum]

Chicken and sweet squash, must remember it. Good to hear she is eating better and improving in condition