Elderly Russian Dwarf hamster

[thesurreyyouth]

Little lady is coming up 2.6 and has really slowed up, sleeping most of the time interspersed with random wake ups during the day when she wanders round her cage.
Her back legs are losing strength and she struggles to climb up the tube to get to the upper platform where her water bottle is. I’ve put a water bowl on the ground section but she still climbs. Can anyone offer some advice on how to keep her happy & healthy?

If anyone is around with ideas of how to help her I would be very grateful

Can you move her into a smaller cage, on one level. Make her a lovely cosy bed and keep her warm.

My hamster had an inoperable tumour and we did the above to make her last few months more comfortable for her.

Thank you for replying. Last month we lost her sister as tumours were popping up all over her despite having daily steroids. I could remove the tube to stop her having access to the top level. It’s almost like she has dementia, she scrabbles so hard to get up the tube, wanders around then turns round and goes back down. Then a couple of minutes later she repeats it until returning to bed.
I give her blueberries dipped in yogurt, cucumber and kiwi. I made her a little porridge but she turned her nose up and didn’t touch it. She eats the biscuits, seeds and nuts from her mix but always leaves the grains.

It's such a shame. We had to have our girl put to sleep because she was in such a state, she also acted like she had dementia and didn't seem to really know what was going on. She would sleep most of the time, then come out and go to her bowl but not eat, try to bury herself in her toilet etc Heartbreaking. She was only 6 months old but the tumour was cancerous so we assumed it had spread to her brain.

Just do as your doing and spoil her to bits x

When my last hamster was struggling I put him in a small cage as I didn’t like him climbing up the platforms. They are such sweet little creatures.