What Was Wrong With My Hamster?

Question

My hamster had been really wobbly for the past 4 days or so and wouldn't open one of its eyes. She was getting worse so i tried keeping her warm and checking on her regularly and she seemed to be getting better until yesterday when she could hardly walk at all. She was also breathing very deeply over the past few days as well. Then this morning i checked on her and she was unfortunately dead. I was devestated but what i don't understand is that her nose was bleeding and she had blood coming from her mouth while she was dead and she was really floppy. Could somebody please help me understand what went wrong as she was always such a lively and healthy hamster. Thx

Answer 1

My Hamster died this morning too, and interestingly enough was really wobbly too. He would be in his cage ("standing up") then woblle around - we think it was some kind of fit. We did take him to the vets on monday, and they suggested antibiotics, even though Harvey was in a very bad state.

We were meant to go back to the vets today to see how the antibiotics were doing but sadly he died :(

According to the vets it could be anything from liver failure, bacterial disease, infection....

Im very sorry for your loss and know exactly how you feel. My hamster was perfectly (what i thought) fine the day before he started to become ill.

I dont know what caused the mouth bleeding however, when my dog died of internal bleeding, afterwards some kind of bloody stuff was coming out of his nose - i think its just the body shutting down.

Take care,,

xx

Answer 2

I am so sorry that your hamster has passed away. You didn't say what age your hamster was.

It sounds to me like she had a stroke & there was little you could have done to help her so please don't think you did anything wrong.

You could take her to your vet & they could do a post mortem just to be certain.

If you plan on getting another hamster later when you feel ready to then it might be a good idea to check with the vet as to the cause of death because if it wasn't a stroke & was something contagious it might not be a good idea to use the same cage even after using an animal safe disenfectant to clean it.

I have always bought new cages after the death of a rodent as it is best to err on the side of caution as some things can be passed to a new pet so quickly & easily.

I hope you do go on to have another hamster as they are such lovely pets to have even though they have such a short lifespan compared to other animals like cats & dogs. xox

Answer 3

you could make a horror film out of that if you changed it to being a humen. im very sorry about what happend and tell the story to a vet it is terrible and now i fear for my hamster but he is healthy i think . :-( :-( :-( :-(

Answer 4

i'm very sorry about your loss. you r lucky it was sickness that killed your hammy:( i recently went up north on vaca on the 4th and my very close friend would go to my house to feed it and go home and 1 day it wasn't there.  the whole fam. of my friend looked and looked. no signs on him. when i got home 2 or 3 days later. we looked and put food out he never at from them. i FINALY went to the base ment. the door was closed and i didn't think he could squeeze under when we looked we found him in the water tank thing in our basement. he fell through the hole and couldn't get out. i just recently got a new one 4 days ago and yesterday it fell and maybe broke his leg he was very wobbly too. but none of the other stuff. when people get old they get sick same with hamsters. how old was he if he was 2 or more it probably explains it......so sorry!!

Answer 5

Hi  have you told the vet about your hamster?

that don't sound normal with the bleeding, do you know if she had something stuck in her pouches or managed to come into contact with something poisonous.

When my hamsters died they all had rapid breathing (first thing to notice when there on there way out :( )

when something dies they go floppy when they stop breathing, and afterwards they start to curl up and stiffen.

You did what you could for your hamster, talk to the vet and they might help you and advise you about your hamster and any other hammys you might get.

The blood thing isn't normal though.