Unsteady hind quarters?

Hope the medication helps. It does sound like you have found a good vet
 
Maz said:
It's hard isn't it? They need the medications, but when they're old and fragile you don't want to stress them too much. It was a specific dog food for small dogs I used - a tip given to me by another experienced hamster owner. It might not be available in the US. I did look a bit like corned beef in jelly/gravy - easy to get a small pea sized amount out of the pouch. Hence suggesting corned beef if you can't get it (I think it's a british make - Country Hunter beef dog food for small breeds). I have to say it worked amazingly well with all hamsters! They would lick the plate clean and push it around and bang for more ha ha. It disguised the taste well.

I've heard of gabapentin for humans - for fibromyalgia I think. It's not strictly a pain reliever but can have a pain relief effect for conditions affecting the nervous system (I think). Interesting though - I haven't heard of a Uk vet prescribing it but I think US exotic vets have more options for pain relief. I was just told there was one other alternative to Metacam (Meloxicam) if that was contraindicated for some reason.

With the antibiotic though, it's important they get the full dose each time. Is it once or twice a day?
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I think that she did mention the nervous system, so maybe it's because it looks like some kind of spinal trauma that he's suffering based on his movement (the vet wrote that in her summary of the visit, and I was feeling the same way- either that or something affecting the inner ear, but we ruled out inner ear infection. That one hasn't come in the mail yet but was processed yesterday. 2x per day for the antibiotic and meloxicam.
 
Tulsi said:
Oh bless him. I hope you manage to get his meds into him via yummy food. I give my rabbit his meds on a teeny bit of banana which he adores!

My collie, Tass (rip) had gaperpentin to help with pain relief.
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It's funny you mention banana. When I talked to the pet pharmacist on the phone yesterday about the gabapentin, he was like, what flavoring do you want? And there were about 6 choices ranging from meats to fruit to marshallow! I went with banana.
 
So, happy update. During the few days leading up to the vet visit, Cinnamon was foraging for food but had ceased to open his food puzzle box. This is something that he never ceased to open prior to being sick. One night it was only partially cracked and then Tuesday night we knew he took food because he took it from us, but he clearly never returned to his puzzle box. Last night, I never saw him come out of his hideaway while we were awake, but he must have come up later that night and completely opened both sides of his puzzle box for food. He was still selective about what he took, but that was a good sign. Also, as you saw above I was nervous about his taking the medicines. When we were at the vet he seemed hesitant to take the probiotic and was not all in on any of them. However, last night, once he got a taste of the medicine he did reach for the syringe and was actually clamping on to it. This morning I had to gently wake him to give him his medicine, but same thing- once he realized it was the syringe he easily took it- the antibiotic (did that first since it was most important), then the probiotic (I wasn't sure about that one so I put it in the middle with a teeny lick of peanut butter on the end) and then the meloxicam last. I'm hoping that soon we'll be able to catch him moving again. I don't know if we'll discover that there is permanent damage to his movement but that he's generally improving or if it will have been an infection and he improves a lot, but at least there seem to be signs that his strength has improved and he is taking medicine easily for the time being. He also urinated again above ground, which is good because I was worried that he wasn't drinking (I'm sure he wasn't drinking as much, but at least if he's on the mend he's probably back to taking in more water).
 
Lovely that he is able to get up again and do things he enjoys. Well done with giving him his meds in such clever ways ❤️
 
Well, i still don't know what the outcome of this will be, but I feel like I'm in utter shock right now. As happy as I was to have medicine to administer, I haven't been feeling truly hopeful the last couple days. Cinnamon was definitely taking the medicine, but he wouldn't get out of his sleeping hole to do so. I would just use my voice to wake him and then hold the syringe down to him. There was evidence that he would get up once a night to come above ground, but he wasn't doing a lap fully around the cage like he usually does, and he was truly only getting up once a night the past two nights, which is very, very low for him- usually he's in and out several times a day. He did wake up this morning and come out when I fed him, even taking some food from my hand, but he's been so weak and wobbly the past 2 days that I didn't put too much stock in it. I was happy he'd come out, as it seemed a small improvement, but I was worried that he wasn't drinking enough. When I tried to get him to drink more from a syringe this morning, he pretty much rejected it (that was something I tried on my own because it seemed like he wasn't driving at all).

Later tonight I noticed that he'd burrowed a new exit out of his housing place. I was both excited because it must have taken energy to do so, which he'd previously lacked, and worried that if he'd buried deeply it might make it harder to administer medication. He had pushed out so much bedding he'd buried his food bowl and an extra water bowl in bedding.

Then the gabapentin came in the mail tonight, and when I went up to administer it, along with the other medications, I opened the top of the enclosure, and was shocked to see him up and milling about. While I was getting his medications and feeding him, he turned and went all the way over to his dig box on the other side of the cage for the first time in two days and picked out all the seeds I'd scattered that he wanted. He still had a few lilts, but none of the major tip-overs that were happening 2 days ago. Honestly, I'm still in shock over how well he seemed tonight relative to the past few days. I'm still holding my breath a little bit, but I am excited. I still gave him the gabapentin even though I'm thinking now that his illness must have been due to some infection and the antibiotics are working. Maybe I'll call the vet tomorrow to ask if they think I should continue to administer the gabapentin for the next 2 weeks as had been the original recommendation. I think it is just some sort of anti inflammatory or pain medication, so it probably won't hurt to have it, like the meloxicam, but I'll check. Of course I'll continue with the meloxicam, antibiotic and probiotic for the next 2 weeks.

I had also been using a vitamin/electrolyte water additive (designed for hamsters), which we normally don't use often, but I may get more for daily use until he appears to be drinking more regularly. It's called Liv Well or something.

I'll try to get video tomorrow or soon. Still in (happy) shock!1000013291.jpg
 
That must be such a relief to find he is coming round after the meds. It's hard to know if it's the antibiotics or the pain relief that are having the effect :-) Maybe both - if it was a tooth infection eg. Either way, it's good it's working. Personally I don't like adding anything to their water. It can put them off drinking - but if he's ok with it then it may help. For extra vitamins and minerals, you can give a pinch of hemp seeds daily. I put them on a separate little dish and they get licked up. Shelled hemp seeds might be better in case he has toothache. Hamsters seem to like them, they taste nutty and are supposed to contain most vitamins and minerals.
 
Just catching up and great to read Cinnamon is looking and acting more like himself. Your vet sounds very good. It’s so difficult as they grow older and start to slow down from their regular activity levels.
 
How is Cinnamon doing today? Back to his usual self? :-) He's lucky to have such a committed Hamster parent :-)
 
Maz said:
How is Cinnamon doing today? Back to his usual self? :-) He's lucky to have such a committed Hamster parent :-)
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So...I came in here to do an update and realized that I hadn't seen this post! This is definitely a time where my husband and I have talked about what it means to be a good hamster parent. :(

So after that last post we started the gabapentin. We didn't see him as active again after that, and his outings seemed to get less frequent, less food. At first, I thought maybe the gabapentin was to blame, and we even went off it for a day (maybe I should have tried 2 days) to see if there was any change, but we didn't see a change, so I started using it again. It can cause drowsiness, but it's supposed to be like meloxicam for nerve pain and anxiety, so I figured if the change in Cinnamon was just due to a progressing condition, I may as well keep him on what might be a layered pain mitigator.

I had gone off fresh foods (like hamster "salad" items) due to doctor's notes about foods to avoid/ foods that might cause excessive gas while on the medication, but as he started eating less in the past 10 days I started putting bits of fresh food out again- bits of blueberry, sugar snap pea, cooked carrot or meat. In the past six days or so he started only eating those foods.

About 3 days ago he started only coming out to get food once a day, and in the last 36 hours he hasn't come out at all. He was still taking his medicine until this morning when my husband couldn't get him to take it.

It's been really hard. Seeing his condition deteriorate and knowing that he must be suffering (even if mitigated by how we are caring for him) has led to some tears throughout the process. I'm breaking up a little while typing this.

We were supposed to go to the vet for a follow-up visit today. I called yesterday to cancel- by yesterday morning it seemed like he was nearing the end. I can't imagine anything they could do to help him, other than put him to sleep formally, but at this point taking him out and driving him 30 minutes to the vet for that doesn't make sense to me- even though I am questioning myself constantly about whether I should have done that sooner, whether I should have reacted faster, etc. I know all those questions and doubts are natural, but they still come.

I wish I knew if he'd had a stroke, or what triggered his sudden spinal/ nerve issue.

We're glad that we've been able to gently care for him in his final days, even though it's been really heavy over the past week as well.
 
I just checked on him and surprisingly, he seems to have moved from a higher up sleeping chamber to a lower one. He's gone back and forth between those for days, but the past 2 days he stayed in the higher one and we thought he would pass there. He was curled up and breathing gently. I'll see if he wants to take medication tonight. Has anyone else here had a similar experience with an ill hamster slowly passing?
 
I am so sorry to hear Cinnamon isn't doing well. It's a difficult time as sometimes they can suddenly rally round a bit. Is he still on the Metacam as well? It could well be that the gabapentin is making him very drowsy. But you say you didn't notice much difference when you stopped it? These are hard decisions - I think I might have tried stopping the gabapentin actually and see if he improved again. He seemed to be doing well on the metacam and antibiotic.
 
clacombe said:
I just checked on him and surprisingly, he seems to have moved from a higher up sleeping chamber to a lower one. He's gone back and forth between those for days, but the past 2 days he stayed in the higher one and we thought he would pass there. He was curled up and breathing gently. I'll see if he wants to take medication tonight. Has anyone else here had a similar experience with an ill hamster slowly passing?
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He's still organising himself then. It's a very uncertain time. Sometimes they can take a very long time to die and that's when you have to make that tough decision to take them to be helped on their way, to minimise the suffering. But do you think he's just very sleepy on the gabapentin. It can cause drowsiness and nausea in humans. Is he just on Metacam and Gabapentin now? Assume the antibiotic is finished? I would be inclined to just give him the Metacam for the next few days and see how he is.

Reading back, he seemed to be doing well until he started the gabapentin - but it may be coincidence. Or it may be making him very drowsy and off his food.
 
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