Hello all,

Just thought I would give you a quick update.

I have just returned form the vets, and he doesn't think it's mites - he said
that Rufus's skin was not inflamed, or scaly or anything, and he did a test for
the most common mite, and no joy there either. He gave Rufus a proper check,
bless little hammy was so well behaved throughout it all.

But he wasn't really himself still, very lathargic.

The vet gave Rufus some treatment for mites, just in case, and also a course of
anti-biotics, again just in case.

But the conclusion is, that it's probably skin cancer, and there isn't anything
that can be done. So all I can do is keep an eye on him, and hope that he perks
up again, and if he doesn't then obviously the kindest thing will be to have him
put to sleep.

Not the outcome I wanted, but will just have to see how it goes.

Thanks again everyone, your help and advice has been hugely appreciated.

Kat x


p.s. Thanks for that Jess, I went to a vet just round the corner from me in the
end, but I will bare that in find for any future occasions.

--- In thehammyhut@yahoogroups.com, kittykat1985 <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice. I've been looking around
on the internet but I'm now even more conflicted about what to do.
>
> I have two Syrian hamsters, one called Rufus who was the runt of the litter,
and one of his brothers called Gus, [seperate cages of course!], who are about a
year and four months old.
>
> I noticed this evening whilst playing with him that Rufus has some bald
patches, the skin looks ok, not flakey or anything, but was warmer than areas
without the bald patches, and also in one place it looked like there were two
little red dots. Although Rufus is not a 'staying still' kind of hamster so I',
not sure if maybe it was more of a scratch. I couldn't see any mites, but I
know they're not always visible.
>
> Rufus wasn't bothered about me handling him, or blowing his fur, as this was
the best way I could get a look at his skin. He's perfectly happy, racing
around in his ball, crashing into Gus as per usual.
>
> Recently he also had some eye secretion, to the point that his eye was closed
after he'd been sleeping, but we had recently purchased some different to usual
bedding, and the eye seemed to clear up no problems after reverting back to the
normal bedding. Again, during this time his character was the same, it didn't
appear to be bothering him.
>
> I wonder if the two things are related? Also what do people think I should
do? Of course if Rufus appeared to be in any distress I would take him straight
to the vet, but as he's happy, I'm a little more hesitant. This has happened
very quickly as both hamsters are handled and taken out of their cages every
day, they are cleaned out once a week, well fed [dry foods, and little bits of
fresh veg, and a little treat now and again]. Neither I nor my partner had
noticed any hair loss on Rufus until this evening.
>
> Any advice, or any idea of what exactly it might be would be hugely
appreciated. I'm just going round in circles trying to decide if it was mites,
old age, an allergy or something more serious.
>
> Thanks for taking the time to read this, let me know if there's any other info
needed.
>
> Kat
>