Just arriving home from vacation, I found Claire, my daughter's hamster acting weird. (she was properly cared for during the week along with our 4 other hamsters by my mother). Upon closer inspection, I found clumps of pus under her neck. I thought she may have cut herself somehow while we were away. I raced her to the vet yesterday ($65.00 later), he told me to clean her up daily and gave me a week's worth of antibiotic. I cleaned her up just minutes ago with warm water and noticed she now has some open pus lesions on her tummy-most of the hair is gone too. She smells awful (I am just about gagging) but is eating and drinking alot of water. She is 19 months old and my husband thinks the blue needle is the way to go. Anyone had this happen before and how long will it take for the antibiotics to kick in. Unfortunately, the vet has seen hamsters in the past but is not a small animal vet. Thanks!
Answers:
Did the vet do anything while you're at the office, or did he just prescribe you antibiotics?
Sounds like your daughter's hamster might have either gotten into a fight or got a few cuts that didn't heal properly, and the wounds got infected. You'll need to find a vet who can drain the abscesses lesions and properly clean the wounds. If the lesions are already open, then you need to clean up the wounds with a hydrogen peroxide solution (half peroxide, half water), and then apply a topical antibiotic ointment as well as the oral antibiotics, which the vet can supply you with.
Something to try if you don't have access to a vet who knows how to look after small animals:
One of my hamsters when I lived in China had some very serious skin infections which resulted in severe hair loss, and no vet in the city I was in would treat small animals. So I cleaned her up every day with the peroxide solution, and then applied Neosporin to infected areas. It took about a whole week of cleaning twice a day, but she eventually recovered.
Good luck!
give it warm apple juice
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