Anyone have hamsters? Weird health issue...

[Pareeeee]

Came home from work yesterday to find my husband's hamster nearly dead. This was very sudden since the evening before he was super active. I picked him up and he was very cold, limp, and breathing labouriously. We were wondering if he somehow ran out of food...but my hubby feeds him every evening, plus his cheek pouches were full.

He was refusing food, dehydrated and weak. Only thing I could think of was to mix up some CGD and try to get him to swallow it. He did, and his energy slowly started to come back.

I decided to see what was going on with his cheek pouches. I carefully pushed the contents out...and they were impacted with rotten...POOP. Why!?? Anyway, I had to go to bed so I gave him a final bit of liquid food, and put a heat lamp over his cage.

This morning I expected him to be dead. No, he is a bit better and eating on his own!

If anyone here has ever owned a hamster that stored poop, how Did you stop it? Are there any explanations as to why he would do that?

[RyanReptile]

If I'm not mistaken it is quite normal for a hamster to eat its own feces, like rabbits they practice something called Coprophagy in which they eat certain pieces of feces which contain a good source of vitamin's.

[Pareeeee]

You're right, all hamsters I've owned have done that. I've never heard of one keeping poop in its cheeks though. It had gone so rotten it didn't even smell like hamster poop, and a lot had gone mushy....

[Sharlynn93]

I just lost a rat last night with the same symptoms...we put him down...now I notice a mouse having the same issues...I was wondering myself...

[Sharlynn93]

no poop in his cheeks, though...just not eating, and labored breathing..blood around his nose, etc...he was one of my favorites, too...

[Starbuck]

coprophagy is fairly normal for hamsters, though excessive amounts may indicate an imbalance in the diet.
Small animals like birds, rats, etc can be extraordinarily sensitive to aerosols and gases, it could have been something like a pesticide company spraying outside, to overheating a teflon pan in your house,a cleaning product etc.

If you see a small animal collapsed like that in the future, you can put a small (super small!!) amount of karo syrup in their mouth, often if they have been unable to eat or are collapsed due to hypoglycemic shock from some other issue, the karo sugar spike will be enough to get them up and moving again.

[Starbuck]

and when i say small i mean like 'dip the end of a toothpick in karo, and wipe it onto their lips, being careful not to poke them', and also make sure they can get warm easily (but still retreat from the hot spot).

[Pareeeee]

What on earth is karo? I've never heard of it.

I figure the fruit sugars in the gecko diet is what perked him up.

He is warm now, eating, but still breathing heavily and kinda disheveled looking.

[Sharlynn93]

karo corn syrup...you can find it in your baking aisle at the local grocery store...its pretty much straight sugar syrup...makes hard candy and lollipops! :D

[Pareeeee]

Oh we probably don't have that brand here in Canada :P

We definitely have corn syrup though.

[Zoo Nanny]

Years ago I worked with hamsters at the pet store. One of them got an infection in his cheek pouch. The vet was able to treat it with an antibiotic. His pouches were full and very swollen looking and he was lethargic. Hope your little guy gets better soon.

[BIGT FROM F.B.]

karo corn syrup...you can find it in your baking aisle at the local grocery store...its pretty much straight sugar syrup...makes hard candy and lollipops! :D

Oh, my mom has cabinets full of that stuff. Liquid sugar with nitro!!!!

[Pareeeee]

UPDATE: Sputnik is now back to his normal pudgy self. :)