A Bunch of Updates
Hello again readers,
As you've probably already guessed from the title, we have a lot of things to tell you all about. Most, if not all, of these things have already been featured on our Instagram. Normally on our Instagram however, we post frequent mini updates as and when we have new information about whatever it is that may be happening at the time, which can be really confusing. Heck, we find it hard to keep up with everything that is going on sometimes! Today on our blog, however, we will post about one entire event, from beginning to end - making it a lot easier to understand (hopefully).
Some updates have happy endings, and some don't, but we still think they all should be posted.
As you've probably already guessed from the title, we have a lot of things to tell you all about. Most, if not all, of these things have already been featured on our Instagram. Normally on our Instagram however, we post frequent mini updates as and when we have new information about whatever it is that may be happening at the time, which can be really confusing. Heck, we find it hard to keep up with everything that is going on sometimes! Today on our blog, however, we will post about one entire event, from beginning to end - making it a lot easier to understand (hopefully).
Some updates have happy endings, and some don't, but we still think they all should be posted.
Cookie's Penis Prolapse:
Yes, you read that right! We thought we would start with a more light-hearted update.
We always loved to handle Cookie at dinnertime, he was always such a friendly Chinese Hamster - he would always come out to play as soon as he knew it was time for food. This time, however, we noticed Cookie had a prolapsed penis. He went straight to the vet, and as always, our vets were very accommodating and got him booked straight in.
The vet told us that he was completely fine, it was more than likely caused due to old age, and his penile muscles were getting a bit weaker, meaning he had some difficulty retracting his penis. We were told to use a lubricant to push it back inside the foreskin - a bit of an embarrassing problem I must say. Cookie did have to be on Metacam (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) for a few days this particular time though, as his penis was a bit inflamed.
The final thing Cookie began regularly suffering with was an impacted pouch. In his final few weeks of being with us, Cookie had difficulty unpouching his food, so he also required daily pouch massages as well. Luckily the massages always resolved the problem, meaning no major treatment was required.
Unfortunately, Cookie passed away not too long after due to old age. He crossed the rainbow bridge on 14/01/18.
Hedwig's seizures:
Hedwig had an incident which knocked him almost completely off his feet. We found him absolutely freezing, and he had urinated on himself too. We put him in a pet carrier with some fleece strips on top of a heat pad to keep him warm, and got him a vets appointment. Hedwig completely bounced back like nothing ever happened within 45 minutes or so - it was very unusual.
At the vets appointment it was hard to fully understand what had actually happened, due to Hedwig being almost completely back to normal. The vet thought Hedwig could've had a UTI (urinary tract infection) and due to his tiny size (Hedwig only weighs 20g), it would've had a detrimental impact on his health. He started a course of Baytril and we hoped it would've solved the problem.
About a week or so after Hedwig finished his antibiotics, he had another episode identical to the first one (freezing cold, shaking, struggling to move, lethargy). We did the same as before, but this time we filmed it as well so we could show the vet.
At the appointment, the vet almost immediately diagnosed Hedwig with seizures. We cannot say what is the exact cause, nor can we say what kind of seizures Hedwig is having due to his tiny size. Also, with his size in mind, anti-convulsant medication would be toxic to him. As the seizures aren't very frequent meaning they don't drastically impact Hedwig's day-to-day living, it is just a case of monitoring him and ensuring he still has a good quality of life.
Since his diagnosis, Hedwig has only had one seizure that we've witnessed. He is a senior Roborovski dwarf hamster now, but he still remains the most active Robo we have in our care.
Ralph went through a very very similar thing to Hedwig. One week we noticed Ralph seemed quite dull in himself, his eyes weren't has bright and had a little porphyrin surrounding them, he also had some urine stains too, despite living in a clean tank.
We took Ralph to the vet to see what was going on. However, all we could say to the vet was "we know there is something up, but we just can't figure out what it is". We checked everything; his teeth were fine, he hadn't lost weight, normal food consumption, regular water intake, no lumps or bumps, no rattly breathing, regular heart rate - nothing showed up. Our vet thought Ralph could be harboring some kind of infection, and without sounding like every vet ever, she thought it would be best to start with a course of Baytril and see how he responds.
At the end of the course, Ralph was no better, and no worse. During the course of antibiotics however, one time when Ralph was receiving his medication, he did have a wet patch of urine around his genitals, but then it went away the following day. UTI's can make small animals quite unwell, but if it were to have been a UTI, he would've responded to the Baytril - even if it was just a small amount of improvement.
When we took Ralph back to the vet for another check over, and made sure to mention the random wet patch. After a lot of discussion, we came to the conclusion that Ralph must be having short and infrequent seizures, which may be the cause of this sudden change in behavior. We know gerbils are prone to seizures, and Ralph's scruffy appearance reminded us of a gerbil we had in the past called Brandi, who also suffered seizures - although her seizures were more severe, and were the reason behind her death.
As we mentioned during Hedwig's section; the anti-convulsant medication would be far too toxic for an animal of Ralph's size, and with a broad selection of medications for an equally vast range of seizures, it would be near impossible to determine which medication Ralph needs.
Ralph has deteriorated slightly since his diagnosis due to old age, and now having seizures as well. Despite everything, he still remains a happy gerbil who enjoys doing all the things a gerbil should do.
Now, to give you a bit of background information about Eowyn; she was very temperamental. Eowyn was more or less completely blind, her vision was awful - even for a hamster. She was also horrifically abused, and the combination of the two left her with permanent behavioral issues. Eowyn could give you a cracking bite that would throb for days on end!
With that in mind, giving her a thorough assessment when she was already feeling under the weather was not easy. When the vet put the stethoscope on her, she nearly bit it in half! Our vet could visibly see the problem, and was 99% sure it was a respiratory infection - possibly a tumour. The vet believed the most sensible place to start was with a course of Baytril and some Metacam. Thankfully, Eowyn perked up pretty quickly and was back to her normal self by the end of the course.
Unfortunately, Eowyn later developed a sudden and severe illness which left her in a pretty bad way. We took her to the vet once again, and they could immediately see Eowyn was battling an internal illness - most likely to have been cancer. Eowyn didn't put up any fight when being handled - she was practically lifeless. Sadly, cancer takes over these little critters very quickly. So, we decided it was within Eowyn's best interest to have her put to sleep to put an end to her suffering. We weren't expecting Eowyn to pass away, but we weren't shocked to hear it was cancer - her sister passed of the same thing.
Eowyn crossed the rainbow bridge on 17/04/18
We quickly took Max to see the vet, and they confirmed there was definitely a significantly sized internal mass. Though we couldn't say for sure what organs were being affected, the fact that Max was also drinking excessively suggested his adrenal gland was probably involved in some way or another.
We then had a dilemma, although Max wasn't drastically suffering at the time, we tend to find with Roborovski's that there isn't sometimes is only day between them being fine, to them being in a horrific state. Us and the vet came to the conclusion that it would be better to put Max to sleep a day too early, than a day too late. After all, their quality of life should come before anything.
Max crossed the rainbow bridge on 04/05/18.
At the vets appointment it was hard to fully understand what had actually happened, due to Hedwig being almost completely back to normal. The vet thought Hedwig could've had a UTI (urinary tract infection) and due to his tiny size (Hedwig only weighs 20g), it would've had a detrimental impact on his health. He started a course of Baytril and we hoped it would've solved the problem.
About a week or so after Hedwig finished his antibiotics, he had another episode identical to the first one (freezing cold, shaking, struggling to move, lethargy). We did the same as before, but this time we filmed it as well so we could show the vet.
At the appointment, the vet almost immediately diagnosed Hedwig with seizures. We cannot say what is the exact cause, nor can we say what kind of seizures Hedwig is having due to his tiny size. Also, with his size in mind, anti-convulsant medication would be toxic to him. As the seizures aren't very frequent meaning they don't drastically impact Hedwig's day-to-day living, it is just a case of monitoring him and ensuring he still has a good quality of life.
Since his diagnosis, Hedwig has only had one seizure that we've witnessed. He is a senior Roborovski dwarf hamster now, but he still remains the most active Robo we have in our care.
Hedgehog's Double Infection:
We have mentioned on our blog before about Hedgehog having issues surrounding his heart. Due to his heart problems (a slow heart-rate), he suffered with a build up of fluid which often caused complications with his breathing, all because his heart wasn't pumping as well as it should've been - he had to be given Frusol (diuretic) daily to help ease the symptoms. Just the same as Hedwig, due to Hedgehog being so tiny, we couldn't say for sure what the exact cause was. It was just a case of trying to improve Hedegehog's quality of life with the condition he had.
Unfortunately, our already fragile Hedgehog got hit with a double infection - a UTI and a LRI (lower respiratory infection). The result was catastrophic. Hedgehog was almost lifeless, he was barely alive. Hedgehog was even smaller than his brother Hedwig, and weighed in at only 19g on average. The vet confirmed that he definitely needed antibiotics in order to tackle the infections, but due to Hedgehog already being on a diuretic, and then antibiotics on top of that, we didn't think Hedgehog's kidneys could cope with adding in an anti-inflammatory as well. Like we've already mentioned multiple times, with Roborovoski's being so incredibly small, they're often limited in regards to certain treatments.
Hedgehog had his dose of antibiotics and his diuretics at night. Tragically, by the morning Hedgehog had passed away. It broke our hearts.
We had been giving Hedgehog medication daily for months, losing someone so tiny really had a huge impact on us.
Hedgehog crossed the rainbow bridge on 10/01/18.
Ralph's Seizures:
We took Ralph to the vet to see what was going on. However, all we could say to the vet was "we know there is something up, but we just can't figure out what it is". We checked everything; his teeth were fine, he hadn't lost weight, normal food consumption, regular water intake, no lumps or bumps, no rattly breathing, regular heart rate - nothing showed up. Our vet thought Ralph could be harboring some kind of infection, and without sounding like every vet ever, she thought it would be best to start with a course of Baytril and see how he responds.
At the end of the course, Ralph was no better, and no worse. During the course of antibiotics however, one time when Ralph was receiving his medication, he did have a wet patch of urine around his genitals, but then it went away the following day. UTI's can make small animals quite unwell, but if it were to have been a UTI, he would've responded to the Baytril - even if it was just a small amount of improvement.
When we took Ralph back to the vet for another check over, and made sure to mention the random wet patch. After a lot of discussion, we came to the conclusion that Ralph must be having short and infrequent seizures, which may be the cause of this sudden change in behavior. We know gerbils are prone to seizures, and Ralph's scruffy appearance reminded us of a gerbil we had in the past called Brandi, who also suffered seizures - although her seizures were more severe, and were the reason behind her death.
As we mentioned during Hedwig's section; the anti-convulsant medication would be far too toxic for an animal of Ralph's size, and with a broad selection of medications for an equally vast range of seizures, it would be near impossible to determine which medication Ralph needs.
Ralph has deteriorated slightly since his diagnosis due to old age, and now having seizures as well. Despite everything, he still remains a happy gerbil who enjoys doing all the things a gerbil should do.
Eowyn's respiratory infection:
One evening we noticed Eowyn was very hunched up in the corner of her cage - she was having a lot of difficulty breathing. We got her an appointment at the vets - luckily our vet had a last minute slot that evening for an assessment.Now, to give you a bit of background information about Eowyn; she was very temperamental. Eowyn was more or less completely blind, her vision was awful - even for a hamster. She was also horrifically abused, and the combination of the two left her with permanent behavioral issues. Eowyn could give you a cracking bite that would throb for days on end!
With that in mind, giving her a thorough assessment when she was already feeling under the weather was not easy. When the vet put the stethoscope on her, she nearly bit it in half! Our vet could visibly see the problem, and was 99% sure it was a respiratory infection - possibly a tumour. The vet believed the most sensible place to start was with a course of Baytril and some Metacam. Thankfully, Eowyn perked up pretty quickly and was back to her normal self by the end of the course.
Unfortunately, Eowyn later developed a sudden and severe illness which left her in a pretty bad way. We took her to the vet once again, and they could immediately see Eowyn was battling an internal illness - most likely to have been cancer. Eowyn didn't put up any fight when being handled - she was practically lifeless. Sadly, cancer takes over these little critters very quickly. So, we decided it was within Eowyn's best interest to have her put to sleep to put an end to her suffering. We weren't expecting Eowyn to pass away, but we weren't shocked to hear it was cancer - her sister passed of the same thing.
Eowyn crossed the rainbow bridge on 17/04/18
Max's tumour:
Sadly, one day we noticed one of our elder resident Roborovski, Max, had an internal tumour - about the size of a grape. Max wasn't showing any major signs of discomfort, but it still warranted a visit to the vet.We quickly took Max to see the vet, and they confirmed there was definitely a significantly sized internal mass. Though we couldn't say for sure what organs were being affected, the fact that Max was also drinking excessively suggested his adrenal gland was probably involved in some way or another.
We then had a dilemma, although Max wasn't drastically suffering at the time, we tend to find with Roborovski's that there isn't sometimes is only day between them being fine, to them being in a horrific state. Us and the vet came to the conclusion that it would be better to put Max to sleep a day too early, than a day too late. After all, their quality of life should come before anything.
Max crossed the rainbow bridge on 04/05/18.
We have a couple more updates that we want to post about, but some of them would be better with a separate and more in depth post.
You can keep up with all of our residents on our Instagram.
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