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Original poster

Advice needed regarding sick hamster dying

23 replies

froffy · 27/09/2005 15:34

Ok I feel awful even asking the question.

We have had a hamster for over a year and he has now got wet-tail, advice on internet says that it will die in about a day if it doesn't have vets help.

The thing is we are skint at the moment and its going to cost £30 for the vet to even look at it and then more on top for work that needs to be donw. Vet says might even die anyway.

the thing is what would you do? I am toying with the idea of leaving it, then when I think like that I feel totally awful, ds thought it had died this morning as it was lifeless. Advice needed thanks

OP posts:

Mum2girls · 27/09/2005 15:36

go to the rspca? you are only expected to offer a small donation.

Original poster

froffy · 27/09/2005 15:37

nearest one is 15 miles away and I dont have a car or access to one until tomorrow afternoon, it might be too late by then.

OP posts:

flamebat · 27/09/2005 15:38

I think I would let it die.

I had to with my rat - we spent £45 getting him treated for breathing problems, various anitbiotics given to him etc, and then he died a week later. As much as it hurt for him to go, I was left feeling like we'd made him suffer out for an extra week for selfish reasons, and spent all that money.

madmarchhare · 27/09/2005 15:39

Sorry, this isnt helpful at all but at least youre not going to do what I did with the hamster.

I found him curled up, still warm in his house, but not moving at all. So I called the vets and they advised to wrap him in a towel with hot water bottle as he might be hibernating and th heat would jolt him back into action.

48 hours later I realised that I had in fact been keeping a dead hamster warm.

FWIW, I would leave it.

Roobie · 27/09/2005 15:44

Poor little thing . I agree with the others that it would be best to let it die ..... at over a year old he is in his twilight years anyway and you would probably be doing the creature a disservice by trying to keep him alive.

Original poster

froffy · 27/09/2005 15:52

Thanks, that is what I had pretty much decided to do, I just felt awful. Knowing people agree have made me feel much better thanks.

OP posts:

flamebat · 27/09/2005 15:54

I'm a terrible person for laughing at MMH's story.

suzywong · 27/09/2005 16:04

I agree, let it die
and do you know how many new hamsters you could get for thirty quid?

Original poster

froffy · 27/09/2005 16:13

ok getting a little freaked. I took the hamster out and stoked it and told him I am sorry, i had his water bottle and made him drink something, put him back, just gone out there now and he is bounding around his cage like nothings wrong. Even though I only changed his bedding about a week ago I did it again and he has really purked up.

OP posts:

madmarchhare · 27/09/2005 16:14

Flamebat - laugh away, it gets better. At the time where we lived didnt have a garden so we decided to bury in in the park.

So one evening after work we set off up to the park with relevent equipment (and dead hamster in hand carved lovely wooden box). On the way out of the park we suddenly realised how dodgy we looked. By this time it was dark and we were shuffling about in the bushes with a spade.

To add, we were up there the other day and they were making alterations in the area where it was burried (just light digging at this point). I was very tempted to go and have a look but we had friends kids with us and thought it probably wasnt appropriate.

madmarchhare · 27/09/2005 16:15

What is wet-tail then?

Toothache · 27/09/2005 16:16

Froffy - I was told by my vet to give my dying rat lots of water to drink from a syringe..... and Calpol!!! He had a fever, bless. Anyway... the Vet told me to do this to keep him comfortable until he died. He seemed to make a remarkable recovery, but deteriorated rapidly a few days later. He died.

But I felt much better about the fact I made sure he was hydrated and clean and warm... and the Calpol probably helped with the pain. I just diluted a tiny drop in the water I was giving him.

Original poster

froffy · 27/09/2005 16:17

wet-tail is diarear (lousy spelling) causes by stress, we have had a few mice recently perhaps that was what it was.

Perhaps he actually sat in some wet patch.

OP posts:

flamebat · 27/09/2005 16:19

MMH - we had the same with said rat!!! Went to bury it in the forest and had all these dog walkers looking at us like they were remembering our faces ready for crimewatch!!!

madmarchhare · 27/09/2005 16:23

Oh good, not just us that are loopy then? . Friends couldnt understand why we didnt just put it in the bin.

flamebat · 27/09/2005 16:24

Awww no - and I didn't even have a child at the time... he was my first pet since I left home, and I was very attached.

LIZS · 27/09/2005 16:54

How odd he's revived a bit. Sorry but if it happens again, its chances are really slim anyway, hamsters are not very robust. I had 12 hamsters at one time and they all died one by one if not of wet tail, of enteritis (I think , it was a long time ago...). One had an abcess and was successfully operated on but it died of shock shortly afterwards from the anasthetic. Do you have a PDSA closer , they might see you for a small donation too.

madmarchhare · 27/09/2005 17:19

nope, didnt have kids either Flamebat.

RainbowWalker · 27/09/2005 17:30

If it's any help, we had a hamster with the same condition which I left for the same reasons...thinking it might get better or die of natural causes (was 18months old)after a couple of weeks he just got more and more poorly and his teeth got really fang like because he wasn't eating - eventually after about three weeks I took him to the vets and they suggested the best thing to do was to put him to sleep. I'd already told the children this was likely to be what we'd be told but they were still totally distraught about him dying. Their only solace was that he hadn't suffered anymore (which is what I guess would have happened had I just left it and left it...)

It alleviated my guilty feelings a bit in the end that they saw it like that, but I was doing my head in with worry that it was my "cruelty" of just leaving him that had let it drag on and on.

Mad isn't it the things we worry ourselves over??

Tanzie · 27/09/2005 18:24

When my cousin's hamster died, my aunt buried it in the garden and told the poor little soul that hammie would go to heaven. Next morning, early, he burst into parents' bedroom clutching dead hamster and wailing "You said he'd go to heaven but he's still in the garden!"

madmarchhare · 27/09/2005 18:36

OMG, thats horrid, but very funny .

flamebat · 28/09/2005 09:15

How's he doing now?

sophie1706 · 28/08/2016 16:43

Can anyone help, any ideas, our little hamster has been losing hair on both sides of her hind quarters, which has gradually got worse in the last week. She is very shaking when she walks and doesn't seem to have much control over her back legs. She is not really pooing, is still going to the corner to pee then going back to bed. She is sleeping most of the day and night which is unlike her. She is eating but only when i give her the food and drinking with syringe she just seems so sleepy. Called the vet out to see her as we took her one time in the car and she hated it so much, didn't want to put her through more. The vet said maybe hormones as well as old age she is about 17 months old. Any ideas anyone its truly breaking my heart watching her :(

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