The hamster has a swollen belly, causes, recommendations, treatment

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10.20.2018 Rodent breeders must understand: when a hamster’s belly is swollen, it must be urgently shown to a veterinarian, as this is not an optimistic symptom. If such an opportunity does not present itself, you need to help him yourself and for this you need to know the main reasons that provoke an enlargement of the abdominal cavity. There may be several reasons.

Flatulence

This term means nothing more than bloating of the intestines due to increased gas production. A symptom of flatulence is severe pain. The motility of the digestive system is disrupted. Flatulence for a hamster is a rather dangerous condition that can result in the death of the animal. The reason that a hamster's stomach is swollen may be poisoning or eating junk food. For example, cabbage should not be given to hamsters, since it provokes fermentation processes in the intestines.

The rodent's belly is hard, inflated, like a drum. The hamster behaves restlessly, he is clearly disturbed by painful sensations, and he does not eat.

First aid for the animal is drinking chamomile decoction, espumizan solution (0.2 ml), and dill water. Drugs such as enterosgel or smecta also help. You can do a light abdominal massage.

If your hamster has a swollen belly and a wet tail, this could be a sign of diarrhea. If the stool is foul-smelling, the disease is called “wet tail.” Urgently isolate the animal (the disease is very contagious!), disinfect the cage and show the animal to a specialist.

Surgical intervention

If a tumor is detected in your pet, you must take a risk and agree to surgical removal. The formations in rodents grow rapidly, the skin cannot withstand it and bursts, forming a fetid, non-healing ulcer. The tumor mass prevents the animal from moving; sometimes the hamsters themselves try to chew off the foreign tissue and die from blood loss. If a limb is affected by cancer, amputation is the best option. If the tumor is on the body, it must be removed while it is still small, otherwise it will be difficult for the surgeon to close the skin defect after removal.

The use of inhalation anesthesia in recent years has increased the survival rate of rodents after surgery. The doctor must have experience working with rodents and ensure that the tiny organism does not become hypothermic during anesthesia. A starvation diet before surgery is not prescribed, and is even harmful.

Removing the tumor itself will not cure the hamster; it will remain sick and may die from tumor metastases to other organs (lungs, liver). But it can improve the quality of life.

If internal organs are affected by cancer, one can only guess about this by the symptoms or asymmetry of the abdomen. In this case, the operation does not make sense and the operation comes down to euthanasia on the surgical table.

Pregnancy

An enlarged abdomen in females often indicates pregnancy. If the pregnancy is multiple, the female “gets better” so much that she becomes like a small pear. At the same time, she feels great, and even eats “not for two,” but for “several.”

If the female has not had contact with the male, the uterus (and at the same time the abdomen) may enlarge due to purulent inflammation. Pus with an extremely unpleasant odor is released from the loop. The belly may also become enlarged due to an ovarian cyst.

Digestive problems

A hamster's belly may bloat due to digestive problems. You may have given him a product that is contraindicated for him. For example, cabbage. First, you can try giving him dill water - a couple of drops. As in the case of infants, it will reduce gas formation in the rodent’s stomach, and its health will improve. Poisoning can also be accompanied by a bloated stomach.

You need to feed your hamster with caution. You must know all the foods that are good for him and avoid those that are harmful to him. The diet should be balanced - only in this case there will be no problems with digestion.

Hydrocele of the abdominal cavity

It is accompanied by a moderate increase in the abdomen; the tummy feels soft to the touch. Dropsy (ascites) is not a disease in itself. This is a manifestation of cancer problems, heart and kidney diseases.

Dropsy can be detected by ultrasound or puncture. What to do if your hamster has a swollen belly? Of course, show it to the vet. But the prognosis is unfavorable: if the underlying disease is accompanied by dropsy, then it cannot be cured.

Fluid accumulation (ascites)

If the abdomen is moderately and symmetrically swollen and soft, ascites can be suspected. Dropsy of the abdominal cavity is not an independent disease, but a symptom. Accumulation of fluid in the abdomen occurs with cirrhosis or liver cancer, heart problems, and kidney failure. Ascites is accompanied by severe depression and shortness of breath. The diagnosis is easily confirmed by abdominal puncture or ultrasound.

Even if it is possible to identify the underlying disease that caused dropsy, treatment at this stage no longer exists.

Neoplasm

Malignant internal tumors can also cause an increase in abdominal volume. A sign of cancer is asymmetric swelling. A tumor can be determined using an ultrasound examination.

The main cause of bloating in hamsters is digestive disorders. For young animals, this is most often due to eating the wrong foods or poisoning, for older animals – neoplasms. As a rule, the prognosis is unfavorable, and the animal quickly dies. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to disease prevention.

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The last days of the hamster | Women's magazine online - EVA.RU | Animals

Almost 2.5 years. He has become quite old. He used to quickly run around the cage at night, but now he can barely walk. They rented him a second floor and put the house on the ground floor. Today I looked and he was lying in the feeder with his paws up, twitching his paws, I thought, well, that’s it, it’s over. It turned out he climbed into the feeder, turned over on his back, but didn’t have the strength to get up. Sorry to the point of tears. But apparently the time has come ((((Where do they go after death? Can they be buried?
As I understand you (((Last year, 2 dzhungarikas left us for the rainbow one after another. They lived for three and a half years. I loved them so much, cute little fur balls. They are aging rapidly, withering away just before our eyes. It seems that recently there was a round a lump, and today you look - the back has become a sharp hump, you don’t have enough strength to climb the bars... If this is important to you, of course, bury it. In a beautiful little box, in the country, in the park, in the yard.
When I was a very young child, there lived Djungarians (they lived for about 1.7 - 1.9 years). It’s so strange, but I noticed (suddenly they stopped biting) that in the end (maybe 2 weeks) they had no teeth at all (or ground off, or fell out) and I used it to grate the carrots on the finest grater.
Exactly, thanks for telling me, his teeth were broken off, only small ones remained (((they made him porridge. And that’s probably why his stomach is swollen, it’s become bigger than usual lately, probably because he can’t chew food, but he swallows.
author, I started a similar topic not so long ago. “The hamster is going bald.” About the funeral. We took a box, put clean bedding inside, sawdust, a lot... We put Khoma on top. Near him were all his “cookies”, which he loved very much, about 5 of them remained. We sealed the box with tape. They wrote the year and month of birth and the gift of death, and the name. They took us to a forest not far from us. We dug a hole near one tree. Buried. They cried, of course...Hold on. Comfort yourself with the thought that he had a good time with you.
You have such a long life. How do you get used to them, they seem tiny, but still.
Tell me, are hamsters always biting? I remember when I was a child there was a very angry hamster, that’s why I never got one again
I had dzungarians (both boys and girls).. they lived in a rectangular aquarium (each has their own)... and when I reached out my hand to take him in my hand - at that moment he bit (once), and then did not bite again ( they don’t sit still, they constantly run somewhere).I.e. at the very first moment when you take it, it bites you, but when you take it, that’s all - it doesn’t bite anymore. Damn, but they bit sooo painfully. I once saw when they were yawning that it turned out that they also had molars... where do they fit? Other breeds don’t seem to bite..
And we lost our Margosha (((She was such a redhead, tame and not biting. In a week, a tumor grew on her neck, we didn’t have normal rodent doctors, no one knew how to operate (((But she was cheerful until recently , ate well, and then one evening she didn’t meet us from work (((We also put her in a box, in sawdust, and buried her in the park. I will never have any more hamsters. I feel so sorry for them, they live so little ((( Hold on!
Thanks for the answer, no, I didn’t have a dzhungarik, but a smooth-haired big one, I don’t know what it’s called, but it was very angry(
Thank you. our dad said we'll do it
ours bit, yes. It really doesn't hurt very much. Moreover, the teeth were long.
It is very painful and pathetic to look at him. He hardly walks, he rather crawls. Today we pulled him out of his cage and laid him on the floor. He’s also limping, it’s clear that something happened to his front leg, he doesn’t step on it at all (((I don’t know, maybe he can take him to the doctor? Will he look at the old hamster? Shouldn’t he get an x-ray? And will he make it there alive? He eats almost nothing. He never ate porridge, today I finely grated a carrot, stuck it there with his nose, turned away, didn’t eat ((((how cheerful he was, how he rushed around the cage like a hurricane. He climbed on the roof, learned, first he kept falling, then he quickly clung on with all four paws like a monkey and moved quickly. At night he spun the wheel and rattled the bedding, they sent him to the toilet because it was impossible to sleep. Once we left for several days, we arrived, he was hanging on the corner of the cage, shaking it and practically screams “Ah! we’ve arrived!!! how could you leave me here alone???” )))) what a pity... I’ve already buried a cat and a dog, now I’m a hamster...
Those. You sit and watch how bad he is, and at the same time you think about taking him to the doctor or not?
If he doesn't eat, he doesn't have the strength to walk.
and what, does the doctor have a cure for old age? You see, if he were younger, of course they would have taken him away a long time ago, if suddenly there were problems. And now, I’m afraid to disturb him again, I’m afraid that we won’t get him to the doctor, thereby shortening his last days. And will the doctor look at the old hamster? And I, by the way, asked, is it worth it?
He most likely doesn't drink yet.
I had 2 hamsters as a child, both lived a long time (one 3 years, the other 2.5). They died of old age. Yes, according to the description, it’s about the same as yours, everything seemed to be cheerful and full of strength, and then overnight it seemed as if the strength began to disappear, he began to walk less, and then just crawl, his belly began to swell (the doctor said that dropsy had begun, because the internal organs began to fail, and this death throes lasted for 2-3, not long... They buried both of them, put a soft cloth in a box so that the hamster would be “comfortable”, and in a forest park under a tree they dug a hole and buried it. And the neighbors threw theirs straight into the garbage chute. Everyone has a different attitude towards animals... How is your hamster alive?
died today((((he was still crawling in the morning, yes, exactly as you say, he didn’t walk, he was just crawling. Then he lay there, still breathing, after a few minutes I looked and he was no longer breathing, I touched him, that’s all... They took him, by the way, On Friday, we finally went to the vet, they looked, they did an ultrasound, they said there was gas and a little fluid in the tummy, possibly from old age, the paw was fine - all the bones were intact, not swollen. They prescribed him espumizan and ascorbic acid. It seemed to be even better after espumizan, his stomach was deflated. But... nothing helped. They buried him today, put bedding and food on him. The children cried... It’s a pity for the very fluffy little ball...
I sympathize... You were very good hosts. He felt good with you.
We recently had 2 dzhungarikas die at once... on the same day. It was 1.5 years old. Why - who knows... they weren’t buried... I cried so much, my husband took them somewhere, I didn’t even ask, well, I’m not a child anymore. No more mice, hamsters... there is a return from the dog, And here... and then still suffer

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