Hamster surgery

[Mummyoftwo91]

My 13 week old little Hamster is having surgery to remove his right eye on Tuesday, is there anything I can do after wards to help him recover? Certain types of bedding I should avoid? Thank you

The good news is that hamsters have rubbish eyesight anyway (nocturnal, burrowing creatures...) so get on fine afterwards.

What does you current set up look like - could you show us a picture? That would give us a good idea. For my hamsters, I use Fitch, which is similar to Carefresh but far, far cheaper www.fitchrecycling.co.uk/fitch-pet-store/rabbit-guinea-pig-hamster/bedding/fitch-pet-bedding-single-bale-20kg.html

On a more general note - I don't know if you already know this - but all hamsters should have a cage that is a minimum of 80x50cm unbroken floorspace woodgreen.org.uk/pet_advice/557_hamster_accommodation (e.g. Zooplus Alaska / Barney cage)

What has caused him to need to have his eye removed?

Sorry last link didn't work www.woodgreen.org.uk/pet_advice/557_hamster_accommodation

The vet reckons he has scratched it very badly, and it's completely destroyed and needing to be removed! Poor thing we have only had him 3 weeks he's only 13 weeks old. Atm he has a mixture of shavings and paper, the inside his actual little bed he has the fluffy stuff not sure what it's called. I'm not sure which is best for him after the operation or just in general

The vet has told me to bring him in for surgery with his cage lined with newspaper?

Ouch at scratching his eyeball that badly! Do you know how he managed to do it?

I'm afraid fluffy bedding is very dangerous (though it won't have caused this particular injury). If they swallow it it can cause a fatal gut blockage as it won't break down, it can get impacted in their pouches, and it can get wrapped tightly around limbs and lead to injuries so severe they need an amputation. This is the case for all fluffy type bedding, including the stuff that's labelled as being "safe". It's really not worth the risk - there's a bit more info here www.hamsteradvice.com/ban-fluffy-bedding.html

Most people use some torn up clean loo roll, which they like, is safe and is very cheap.

When you say a mixture of woodshavings and paper - what sort of paper? To be honest I do like Fitch, and it's got a lot of fans!

Follow the vet's advice about the newspaper - I'm no vet, but my guess is that it will be to stop the bedding sticking to the wound

There are some good hamster facebook groups for this sort of thing - "Hamsters UK" is a decent one for instance

PS hamster do look quite cute wearing the cone of shame www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/vet-hamster-cone-of-shame

Thank you!

update, little Oreo is on the mend and doing fine! Doesn't even seem to care he only has one eye!

Aww I'm glad to see he's on the mend!

Glad he's OK.
We had a Russian dwarf hamster that had to have an eye removed after a fight with his brother.
He lived for 2 years after - perfectly happy with only 1 eye and was one of the friendliest hammers I've ever had.