My young hamster died and it's my fault

[Tillylils]

Hi,
we had to have my 5 month old hamster pts this morning and I feel so guilty.
We got him 2 months ago and for the first few weeks he was fine. Then he started sneezing. I took him to the vet who said he had pneumonia and gave him baytril. She recommended another vet in a nearby town who specialises in small animals so I took him there. He prescribed a higher dose of baytril to be given once a day and metacam to be given twice a day. Because I'm an idiot, I got confused and gave him the baytril twice a day. He was also on a nebuliser and had a probiotic in his water to counteract the antibiotics.
Over 2 weeks he was making slow progress and he had a follow up appointment on Saturday morning.
on Saturday morning we noticed his abdomen was swollen so I mentioned this to the vet. He took an xray and the swelling was gas. He gave him emeprid to make him go to toilet which he said he had to otherwise he would suffocate.
We spent the weekend giving him painkillers, trying to get him to eat and massaging his abdomen but he just deteriorated and was pts this morning.
I feel so guilty as I think the baytril caused this and I can't forgive myself for my stupidity costing that sweet boy his life.

[MollyHuaCha]

Poor little hamster, poor you. If it's any consolation, their natural life span is very short compared to cats and dogs...

[Tillylils]

Thank you, he was only 5 months old, poor baby

[CottonSock]

Many wouldn't have gone through the cost of all that treatment. l think you did good (dont shoot me)

[Veterinari]

Please don't blame yourself OP. I'm a vet with postgraduate training in exotic pets and bay trail would not cause those signs - it's a very safe antibiotic - your hamster was clearly suffering from a more complex disease process than initially thought

[Tillylils]

CottonSock thank you for your kind words.

Vetinari thank you, you don't know how much that means to me. We only had him for a short time but I became very attached to him and I would hate to think I caused him to suffer.

[Ginmakesitallok]

I know how you feel. Our last wee one died while we were away for the weekend. She'd been drinking more than usual, so I suspected something wasn't quite right. Thought I'd leave it for a few days until after our weekend away and when we came back she had died. Kids were distraught. It was awful.

[FinnFamilyMoomintroll]

Oh poor you, I don't know anything about the meds but it sounds like he was a very ill boy and you did your best for him. I have a hammy myself and I would be devastated if anything happened to him so I know how sad you must be but please don't beat yourself up about it

[RebelRogue]

Op if it helps.. i poisoned my fish,through sheer stupidity. I had good intentions,but no knowledge and only googled after i messed up. I cried and felt horrible for days and had a massive meltdown when leaving the hospital with DD because "I couldn't even keep fish alive".

[trentin]

We had a hamster that only lived a 6 months. She was really difficult to handle, got an eye infection so ended up staying at the vets for 5 nights to have eye drops administered but just got worse. When we finally had her PTS it turned out that she had a huge growth in her tummy, nothing to do with her eyes. It was really sad but I realised that she had probably been ill since we got her which explained her agressive behaviour.

DD was devastated but we got a new hamster who lived for ages and even when he could hardly walk showed no signs of popping his clogs. He looked so old, thin and manky that DD was scared of feeding him in case she found him dead so I agreed to look after him in his final days. He lived for another 6 months with nothing more than the normal nuts/ seeds and a few spinach leaves to keep him going.

So my point is - don't blame yourself. I think sometimes its luck of the draw when you take on a pet. You sound as if you did everything you could. But it is sad - they are dear little things and I shed many tears over both of them.