Hamster only eats soft food

[SnowRabbit]

Hi,

My Syrian hamster, Rin, hurt herself on Tuesday. She lives in a
fishtank covered with a wire mesh lid, and she managed to somehow
catch her snout in the mesh while gnawing on it (needless to say I
will be getting a new tank for her that's tall enough for her to not
be able to reach the mesh!) She bled quite a lot, so the next day she
went to the vet who said there was very slight movement in one of her
teeth and give me some Baytril to mix in with her water so that any
wounds wouldn't become infected.

The trouble is, she now seems to be having trouble eating food that's
more than a little hard. She struggles to eat yoghurt drops, and when
I gave her a bit of apple earlier today she seemed to struggle with
the skin (she got through the flesh alright though.) She sort of
nibbles it tentatively and turns it round in her paws as if she's
trying to find a soft spot. For the last few days I've been soaking
her food in hot water to make it nice and soft so she's probably
getting most of her nutrients, and she's otherwise pretty much back to
her old self. I'm a bit worried about the long term though, I know her
teeth might overgrow if she's only eating soft foods and not all her
food softens up (peanuts, for example, are still hard when they've
been soaked) so I can't be sure she's getting all her nutrients.

One other thing that worries me is that she doesn't seem to be
drinking. I think it's because the softened food has quite a bit of
water in it so she isn't bothering with the water. Not a major
problem, she's still peeing so she must be getting enough water, but
her baytril is in the water! As it stands, I've had to soak some bread
in diluted (1:10) baytril to make sure she gets some, but this isn't
ideal. Is there any way of making sure she gets her medicine? Oh, I'm
also supplementing her diet with a bit of cheese to make sure she gets
her calcium, will it harm her if I grind up some cuttlebone over her
food to add a bit more calcium? I'm thinking that if there is a
problem with her teeth calcium can only help.

I'll be keeping a close eye on her and if she doesn't start going back
to solids soon she'll be back to the vet, but is there anything I can
do in the meantime to help her? She really doesn't seem ill at all
apart from this (right now I can hear her on her wodent wheel working
off some of her energy...) Has anyone ever had a similar experience
with a hamster, if so did he/she go back to solids OK?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Matt

[Lorna]

Great to see you took your hamster to the vet straight away. Could the
loose tooth have broken off? If so, it could be part of the reason why she
is off solid food. If so, not to worry, it will grow back. To combat the
calcium issue I would buy some vitamin/mineral drops you can buy in a pet
shop to add to her food or her water.

In my opinion, most decent vets wouldn't recommend adding the antibiotic to
the water. Particularly for a sick animal, their drinking may be irregular
so you cannot be sure of the dosage they are getting. I have always
administered antibiotics to my hamsters by mouth (with a small syringe,
mixed with some ribena to make it more attractive to them), and that's how
my vet would recommend it. Soaking the bread in it is quite a good idea, as
long as you are giving her the right amount each day (only your vet can tell
you the correct daily dosage).

Hope she feels better soon.

Lorna

Post by SnowRabbit
Hi,
My Syrian hamster, Rin, hurt herself on Tuesday. She lives in a
fishtank covered with a wire mesh lid, and she managed to somehow
catch her snout in the mesh while gnawing on it (needless to say I
will be getting a new tank for her that's tall enough for her to not
be able to reach the mesh!) She bled quite a lot, so the next day she
went to the vet who said there was very slight movement in one of her
teeth and give me some Baytril to mix in with her water so that any
wounds wouldn't become infected.
The trouble is, she now seems to be having trouble eating food that's
more than a little hard. She struggles to eat yoghurt drops, and when
I gave her a bit of apple earlier today she seemed to struggle with
the skin (she got through the flesh alright though.) She sort of
nibbles it tentatively and turns it round in her paws as if she's
trying to find a soft spot. For the last few days I've been soaking
her food in hot water to make it nice and soft so she's probably
getting most of her nutrients, and she's otherwise pretty much back to
her old self. I'm a bit worried about the long term though, I know her
teeth might overgrow if she's only eating soft foods and not all her
food softens up (peanuts, for example, are still hard when they've
been soaked) so I can't be sure she's getting all her nutrients.
One other thing that worries me is that she doesn't seem to be
drinking. I think it's because the softened food has quite a bit of
water in it so she isn't bothering with the water. Not a major
problem, she's still peeing so she must be getting enough water, but
her baytril is in the water! As it stands, I've had to soak some bread
in diluted (1:10) baytril to make sure she gets some, but this isn't
ideal. Is there any way of making sure she gets her medicine? Oh, I'm
also supplementing her diet with a bit of cheese to make sure she gets
her calcium, will it harm her if I grind up some cuttlebone over her
food to add a bit more calcium? I'm thinking that if there is a
problem with her teeth calcium can only help.
I'll be keeping a close eye on her and if she doesn't start going back
to solids soon she'll be back to the vet, but is there anything I can
do in the meantime to help her? She really doesn't seem ill at all
apart from this (right now I can hear her on her wodent wheel working
off some of her energy...) Has anyone ever had a similar experience
with a hamster, if so did he/she go back to solids OK?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Matt

[SnowRabbit]

Post by Lorna
Great to see you took your hamster to the vet straight away. Could the
loose tooth have broken off? If so, it could be part of the reason why she
is off solid food. If so, not to worry, it will grow back. To combat the
calcium issue I would buy some vitamin/mineral drops you can buy in a pet
shop to add to her food or her water.
In my opinion, most decent vets wouldn't recommend adding the antibiotic to
the water. Particularly for a sick animal, their drinking may be irregular
so you cannot be sure of the dosage they are getting. I have always
administered antibiotics to my hamsters by mouth (with a small syringe,
mixed with some ribena to make it more attractive to them), and that's how
my vet would recommend it. Soaking the bread in it is quite a good idea, as
long as you are giving her the right amount each day (only your vet can tell
you the correct daily dosage).
Hope she feels better soon.
Lorna

Thanks for the advice. The tooth is definitely still there (she yawned
earlier so I could see it clearly!) and I think she might be getting
better. I saw her eating a peanut about an hour after posting the
message and she had a yohurt drop this morning. I also put in a
raviolo a couple of days ago so I could see if she started eating hard
foods, she didn't touch it to start with but now it's been moved to
the other side of the tank and seems to have been nibbled. (I can't
tell for certain, it's buried but right against the side of the tank
so I can see part of it, but there's a brown lump sleeping right above
it!) I'll start mixing some unsoftened food in the mix in a day or so,
try to ease her back into it.

I'll have to speak to the vet about the dosage. How much water do
hamsters normally drink in a day? The bread's soaked in 2ml of water
(plus 0.2ml baytril.) For the time being I can use that as a
guideline.

Thanks again for the advice - I'm off now to get her a new tank :)

Matt

[Honeypopo4]

You might want to contact a vet right away to make sure about the dosage. I
maybe overreacting, but when my Syrian hamser Popo got an infection, she got
0.05 ml baytril twice a day (orally, directly from a small syringe, sometimes
put a bit of apple juice to ease the bitterness).
My other hamster got overdosed and died last year (different antibiotics), and
also I recently read a post (in a different group) about a hamster got
overdosed with baytril and her paw and tail got shriveled. (The vet mistakenly
prescribed 0.5 ml baytril instead of 0.05 ml)

About the soft food, Romeo recently had a surgery and could not eat normal
hamster mix food so I gave him yogurt, tofu, babyfood and soft bread. I was
concerned about his teeth getting too long but they seemed ok. He started
eating normal food soon within 4 days or so.
I thought I would mention about my hamsters.
Best of luck to Rin,
Ako & Romeo on antibiotics with infected wound