Female syrian’s escaping behavior causing repeated injuries and infections. I need help.

[Cryptillian]

Summary: My 1 year old female Syrian hamster is obsessed with escaping and subsequently injuring herself as well as chewing and scratching at her scabs not allowing them to heal and causing multiple infections despite being on gabapentin. What can I do to help her? She’s in a 15.5sq ft enclosure and has everything she could dream of.

I am from the US in case that is important context. I originally met my 1 year old female Syrian hamster at the shelter just to look at hamsters, I was planning on adopting a month later when I had everything I need. My first impression of her was she was the only one awake, obsessively chewing on the bars. She gladly climbed on me, gave me a little nip but she was only a month old. Fast forward she was the last one left out of maybe 15-20 hamsters, I guess she’s a problem child. I think nothing of it. Well I was sorely unprepared.

Rupee is fed a food from Etsy, has a 12in wheel, multiple big sand baths, dog boxes with different textures, chews, toys, hides, deep bedding, sprays I get from Ukraine, ceramic hides, like you name it I’ve got it and tried it. I spend like 200$ a month on this hamster. I put treats in toys every day for her to get into and she loves that but sometimes even from 7pm to 10am she is digging and chewing at a corner. Now she is now able to get out but it’s only made her more frantic to pacing and trying to climb the walls. I feel awful. I know female Syrian hamsters can be like this but my boyfriend had one and it was never this bad.

Rupee has an extreme obsession with escaping. I don’t know if it’s in part to growing up for 2 months in a tiny wire cage (shelter had no resources for hamsters) but her first cage with me was about 1000 sq inches. She gets around a hour, sometimes more, of time out with me. Her favorite activity is burrowing in a pile of blankets.

She escaped her first cage so I upgraded her to a double pawhut. She escaped 3 times then from that, the last time she managed to chew around a screw holding wire mesh to the corner where she liked to bite to remove it, and squeezed herself to the wood again and make another hole while I was away on vacation (family watching her) which then she burrowed into my rug and destroyed over 6 sq ft of carpet, she ripped up some clothes and made a nest on my bed. She never left my room and when I came home she actually climbed up my bed from a blanket draping off of it and stared at me while I was trying to sleep which is how I found her. Actually every time she escaped and I would come home, she would walk right up to me and want to be picked up.

I asked in another group what to use for an escape proof cage, then I bought two bucastate 3.0 enclosures (which have worked perfectly). In the meantime I had to put her in a small spare fish tank until it arrived (1 week) with her essentials. She managed to get a small injury on her leg on the last day during that week. I thought nothing of it, it scabbed over fine. That’s when after two weeks I noticed it didn’t seem to heal, stayed the same. A week later the scab would triple in size over 4 days while I was away dog sitting. I would find several more small injuries, like small scratches or bumps, all over her that I didn’t notice before, and she would then get a small abscess that burst the day I found it, which I cleaned at home and brought her to the exotic vet (where I work) in the morning. There was no sign of irritation or infection luckily because I cleaned it up so well, but we started antibiotics and pain meds.

Unfortunately she moved from her leg to her stomach and other areas, picking every little scratch no matter how small. So we got her on gabapentin to curb the behavior. I was going on vacation again but my sister has some experience with helping me with old/sick pets and looked after her. She actually healed very well, no reoccurrence in infection, but did get some more small injuries, all of which healed/are healing perfectly already cause she didn’t touch them.

I came home from vacation and Rupee’s escaping behavior was exploding, she was more frantic than ever. I am worried somehow I am a trigger for her having because my sister said she did not act like that while I was away, but it’s hard to tell because she wasn’t with her all day/night. She managed to figure out how to ninja crawl up certain walls so I had to remove and move some things. She was injuring herself more again. She’s calmed down now that I’ve been home a few days, but the two areas on her stomach she had previously bothered were almost healed, scabs almost off, she started removing the scabs prematurely herself before she was healed which opened her skin to infection. I have cleaned everything again and removed whatever scab I could that was hanging by cutting it, but I am so upset and don’t know what to do.

I have tried a cone, but she finds ways to remove the ones I make, she cannot use her wheel in them, and I don’t know what other options we have. I will have to bring her back to work and see what they think but I feel like I’ve failed her because it just seems like she so unhappy and stressed. She only looks happy when she’s out with me in the blankets.

I just want to know if there is anything I can do better for her to help her heal. It’s been maybe 1 1/2 - 2 months now since this whole fiasco began and I can’t find any information on how to help her, coworkers don’t have any better ideas, I really need help. I love her and I’m worried this is going to cause a more serious health issue if she doesn’t stop.

 

[Maz]

She only looks happy when she’s out with me in the blankets.

That's a positive. I am so sorry to hear this. Some female syrians are known for being very maverick! The key thing I noticed was you've only had her a couple of months, and she was a baby when you got her, so she is still very young, superactive and it sounds like once she's escaped before, she hasn't really settled. It's still possible, but it's managing things meanwhile. Pawhuts, unfortunately, are easily chewed out of. She is lucky now that she has two Bucatstate's (joined together I'm guessing)? The injuries are concerning though. It sounds like the first one occured when she was in the small tank while moving cages - could she have injured herself on something? Or has she just been scratching with stress?

If she is continuing to get scratches that get infected with nothing that could cause injuries, has she been checked to see if she has mites? That causes them to have raw, sore skin where they scratch. Vets can do a skin scraping and look under a microscope to see if she has demodex mites.

I think the issue at the moment is that she has had some big changes. After escaping a few times and then an enclosure change. Even though the enclosure change was necessary it is still stressful for them to have a complete change of enclosure. Even an enclosure in a different room can cause stress.

It's interesting that she was ok when left with someone. I had a super active syrian who was the same - if we went on holiday and the petsitter came in, he hardly came out at all. They know when something is different. As soon as a got back he was pestering to be out.

So she has a bond with you She loves you. She will also pick up on your stress and that could affect her behaviour as well. But at the moment it sounds like she is trying to train you! So it's a bit of a battle and there's a need to find something that works.

Is there anything else that could be causing her cage stress? Eg does she get cleaned out regularly? Clean outs really stress them and make them want to escape. There's a cage cleaning tips guide on the home page - I'll link it below. Apologies if you already know all that, but it's best not to move things around in the cage. Some people do that to prevent boredom but it can actually make them worse. There also might be two or three key things that help her enjoy her enclosure more. Do you have a photo of her set up? We might be able to suggest something that would help.

Ultimately though she is a super active girl who wants to be OUT! A lot. It will probably be when she sees you. Creating some kind of routine might help. So for example my superactive male would go frantic to be out as soon as he saw me (or my OH but he was worse if it was me). If I left the room or turned the lights out he would stop and just start pootling around his cage and using his wheel.

So it's attention-seeking behaviour. They know you're the person who manages everything and lets them out.

It sounds like you have a routine of having her out of the cage regularly. Is that at the same time each day? Is it in a playpen or does she free roam in a room? What time does she wake up in the evening? What room is her enclosure in? A living room? Your bedroom? If it's the living room, I'd suggest you maybe a) feed a bit later (say 9pm). Assuming she doesn't wake up until feeding time - they come out for the fresh veg particularly b) then let her out to free roam until you're going to bed. Then turn the lights out and go to another room. That has always worked for me - turning the lights out and leaving the room.

An active hamster can take over your evenings!

If her enclosure is in your bedroom that is trickier. Because she knows you're there all the time.

Is there a particular fresh human treat she likes? Eg porridge or scrambled egg? A routine of offering a bit of that on a teaspoon at a certain time of day each day could give her something to focus on at a particular time and distract her.

I would get her checked for mites though as the injuries sound concerning. You probably already know that it's normal for them to have demodex mites living on them. But at times of stress, their immune system is down and mites can proliferate, causing scratching and soreness. It might be the short period of being in the small tank and the cage change stress that triggered a mite issue possibly.

I think you'll get there How long has she been in the Bucatstate now? It can take them a good two weeks to adjust and settle to a new enclosure, even if the layout is identical to before and you moved everything over without cleaning anything and even if you moved all the old bedding over. During that two weeks it's best not to clean anything or change anything. And even after that, just spot clean the pee (if you know where it is!). If you don't know where it is, and can't smell anything, don't worry - she will probably chuck out a pile of soiled bedding for you to take away.

I'll wait to hear where her enclosure is before suggesting anything else

Also @Hamster Haven may have some tips as she also has a super active female syrian!

 

[Socks' Mum]

Welcome to the forum I think it is so sweet that she came out to find you after escaping, and even stared at you to wake you up. I hope her injuries heal up and there is a way to satisfy her restlessness.

 

[Cryptillian]

Some female syrians are known for being very maverick!

Yep! Don’t I know it now

Forgive me this may be long, I super appreciate your response! There have been new developments since I posted.

I’ve had her for about 11 months, I got her at 2 months old. I visited the shelter the month before to be sure I wanted a hamster and then spent a month preparing before I ended up adopting her lol!

She was born in the shelter from an out of control breeding situation where somebody kept two Syrians together, the babies had babies, etc. They were kept together in a very small wire cage, bad diet, no wheel because the shelter did not have the resources for hamsters and were struggling to place them. So she’s probably a genetic mess… her mom was only about 8 weeks old when she was born as far as I was told. I don’t know if this could have anything to do with her situation.

She’s now been in the bucastates in my bedroom (And yes they are pushed together!) for about 1/2-2 months now? Because she was only in the glass tank for a few days while they shipped, and this started one of the last days she was in the tank. I tried not to change anything for a while after that because she gets stressed even when I add new things too quick, so for the first few weeks I didn’t buy new sprays. I live with my parents right now so my room is the only place she can go unfortunately, but I usually am quiet she’s just always listening out for me.

Typically because she likes to make burrows I did a “burrow clean out” every 2-3 months where I remove all the soiled bedding from underneath and add fresh bedding. I’d try to mix it all up with old bedding so it still smells like her. She’s good about peeing and even pooping in or next to her sand baths, and she’s begun to burrow shallower under houses for sleeping so it’s easier to spot clean now.

For out time I either let her run around a bathroom that’s safe for her or she loves to burrow in my blankets on my bed or on the floor, I just pile them up and she sometimes does it for over an hour before getting bored. I don’t have a play pen but been considering setting something up.

She likes a whole lot of treats, favorites are insects and apples, she does like boiled egg, pretty much any veg I give her she will eat. She gets romaine lettuce a few times a week, I found a lot of mixed info on how often I can give her veg.

Thankfully I’ve had nocturnal pets for years so I’m used to having the lights out at night, I only turn them on really if I am hanging out with her because otherwise I won’t be able to see her! If I get out of bed or make any sound she immediately perks up trying to hear where I am and goes to the glass closest to where she thinks I am. I wonder maybe if adding something to the glass to block it at night would be better for her?

Ok, medical side:

I found the first injury while she was still in the glass tank I had her in, however I did let her have supervised time in one half of the pawhut that I was able to secure just so she could have some time in her familiar space with her wheel. It’s possible she tried to squeeze behind a house I had in the tank or hurt herself trying to escape the second half of the pawhut, but I didn’t notice the injury when I’d put her back that day and it wasn’t easy to miss.

A couple days after I posted this Rupee had a bad smell to her and I found lesions INSIDE her ears with yellow pus after having my sister help me look since she was being so wiggly. So she’s back on antibiotics, which are working, but she is not fully over it yet. Originally her vet thought of Cushing’s disease but Rupee has no other symptoms. Only symptoms she has in general are maybe sudden weight gain (which I managed by cutting down food a little and she was stable at her normal weight after that), increased frantic behavior, and then these lesions. No excessive drinking/peeing, no lethargy, she has been running around like nothing is wrong. The only thing I’ve noticed and not sure about, but normally she went into heat regularly, I knew because of the burnt smell, her behavior with sticking her tail up etc, during all this she has not gone through it once?

I have seen her pick at her scabs and itch them, but she is not itching very much, I notice it maybe 2-3 times a week, more so I see her biting at her scabs. Right now she’s on a strong dose of Gabapentin to see if it would help with the behavior which it did, and for 3 days nothing got worse which I thought was good, but it got worse the past two days (explained later)

She now has even more lesions and her leg scab has started to grow again despite almost being completely healed. Her stomach scabs are very big. She still has been acting normal, and so it’s made it hard to know what’s right, when do I need to let go because I am worried she’s in pain all over.

She was negative for mites. Initially I was not comfortable treating for mites if she was negative because of the stress cleaning everything would add to her, but I felt out of options and her Drs treat for mites even with a negative test if they can’t find another reason for skin issues as a precaution. I did ask if it would be ok to do treatment without taking out and changing everything but was told it wouldn’t be. I know I’ve seen some people say that’s more outdated since I’ve been doing research on mite treatment, but I just wanted to follow their advice.

Unfortunately cleaning everything out has severely stressed Rupee and she scratched her ears a bunch, causing one to bleed and since I cleaned everything on Monday she has lost 10 grams which is not normal at all, I’ve never seen her drop that quick, I’ve been weighing her everyday. She is still eating, I gave her treats and she ate them pretty readily, but clearly she’s stressed.

So I am convinced this has been behavioral now, and if not this is not helping, and I feel horrible. She is pacing, making vocalizations, wall climbing, frantic etc. I know her when she’s stressed and she’s been freaking out. She does this thing where she suddenly aggressively digs at the ground when she’s frustrated or wants to be put back home and she’s been doing it over and over.

Touching base with her Dr in the morning because I don’t know if I want to continue with this and I think I’ll try to return her cage to somewhat normal.

On Thursday we were going to see if prednisolone would do anything for her. Thursday because she needs to be off meloxicam for 3 days before starting. I don’t know exactly what or why we are trying but I was told this is basically our last ditch effort to see if anything changes, and I just felt like we had to try something.

I made her an appointment with a vet who only treats small mammals a couple hours away for a second opinion cause he obviously sees hamsters and works with a lot of rescues I follow online, I hope he can give me some insight.

Her Drs, which are my coworkers, (I’m a TA) are amazing and have taken time out of their personal day to try to figure this out. I’ve been posting all over the place and had no luck. I don’t know if this specialist will know anything either but I just figured it would be worth a try.

Any more advice appreciated on this because I feel so lost. Sorry if I repeated myself or for typos I’ve been all over the place. I can share photos of her scabs, but I will have to make sure it’s allowed, they are not pretty obviously don’t want to upset anyone.

 

[Maz]

I'm so sorry she's having all this. So it did all seem to start with the cage change and the first injury and maybe if the first wound got infected, it got into her bloodstream and started coming out in other places. But she had antibiotics so that should be resolved.

It's hard to know by the sound of it, whether its stress causing the health issues or vice versa - or both even.

Cushings can cause things like these recurring sores and scabs, as you probably know.

I think you maybe need to be careful and a second opinion with an exotic vet sounds like the way to go. Because if it is Cushings, then steroids can make it worse. So you need a diagnosis really. Which is not easy to achieve always.

What part of the country are you in? Sometimes it just needs the right vet. For now, my advice would be to keep her comfortable and pain-free if possible - the gabapentin and metacam are helping with that presumably. And maybe hold off on starting steroids just yet.

There are some vets that can actually test for cushings by taking a blood sample from the ear - but most vets say it's not possible - so it does need a specialised exotic vet. If that test does indicate Cushings then there are two causes - adrenal glands or pituitary glands. Depending which it is, then a vet can give Vetoryl (which is for dogs so again only specialised vets will prescribe it).

Cushings is basically an over-production of cortisol/steroids in the system, whether from the adrenal glands or the pituitary gland, which is why giving steroids could make it worse rather than better.

@Coco61 had a hamster who was diagnosed with Cushings via a blood test and treated with Vetoryl and could maybe give more information about that.

Cortisol is a hormone as well so if her heats have stopped that also seems related. Or it could be some other hormonal issue.

I think I would give this a bit of time and try and find the right person to see. What region are you in?

A final thought - what bedding is she on? You've maybe mentioned that before and assume you've ruled out bedding allergy? As that can also cause things like this. Also which hamster mix is she on - there have been suspected cases of dietary allergy with some hamsters.

Aside from the medical things, I think it sounds like she is super active and wants to be out all the time. She will know you're there at night so will be demanding attention! And that is causing you stress, which she may pick up (I'm guessing!).

Do you have a nightcam? I'm just wondering if it would be possible for you to sleep in a different room for a few nights and leave a nightcam on (you can watch on your phone in bed or watch the video next day). You might find she acts perfectly normally all night! A bit of wheel running, foraging etc.

I think I would try and separate the issues into two separate ones: The medical aspect and her general behaviour. Although they may be connected, they can also be dealt with separately IMO.

It must be a real worry for you.

 

[Cryptillian]

What part of the country are you in?

I’m in New Hampshire, I was going to get her seen at Southern Maine Hospital for Small Mammals I think it’s called. I know they do more diagnostics on small mammals than we typically do at our clinic which is why I felt it was a good choice.

She’s on carefresh and always has been. She eats Chubby Hamster Cheeks senior Syrian mix and never had an issue with it. I get sprays from a seller on Etsy I can’t remember atm but I checked everything was safe before giving them to her, I’ve been getting sprays from there for like 6+ months and always introduced new things a little at a time.

I will say someone gave me a full bag of bedding they didn’t need several months ago and I didn’t realize until I poured it out and smelled it but it had baking soda I think it was. I did remove it right away and clean out that whole side of her cage, went out to go pick up carefresh bedding to replace it. She sneezed a bit but was back to normal the next day. Don’t know why any company would sell that and smack a photo of a hamster on the front but I learned my lesson not to take random bedding without reading into it. I forgot to mention that, but again it was a long while ago and since then she’s had a full cage change with the bucastate so I don’t think it could be that?

I had a night cam I will have to find and set up for her, I can try sleeping in the living room maybe for a few nights.

I think I might call the vet in Maine and see if they have an opening today. I just don’t feel good about all this and you are right I worry about the pred making things worse too. I would like to get tests done on her before she takes something new if I can.

 

[Maz]

Actually - just to add - if it could be Cushings then she shouldn’t be on Metacam either. That is also supposed to be contraindicated with Cushings - I remember being very upset being told our first hamster couldn’t have Metacam because the vet suspected Cushings. He was very old and I wasn’t sure it even was Cushings. Since then I’ve had a new exotic vet who says there are other pain medications they can have if they can’t have Metacam. Basically metacam accelerates Cushings as well. Gapentin is presumably a good alternative.

 

[Maz]

Sorry I didn't realise you were in the US. It could be hard to find an exotic vet that can test for Cushings - I only know of one or two in the Uk.

Actually there are cases of hamsters being allergic to Carefresh! It's wood pulp based bedding - I have never heard of a hamster being allergic to Kaytee Clean and Cosy though - that is nearer to pure paper than Carefresh I believe. Although obviously changing all her bedding is not going to make her happy - but it's usually the first thing we suggest, to rule out a skin allergy.

 

[Coco61]

Hello there. Maz has mentioned me because I did have a Syrian hamster diagnosed with Cushings some years ago now. The only symptom he had was a fur loss on his lower back that was not around the scent glands. There were no behaviour worries or other injuries.
Cushings is hard to diagnose with certainty in such a small animal. My specialist vet was able to take a blood sample for analysis but it is hard to do from such tiny blood vessels. It was expensive though.
Once diagnosed it needed daily medication for a long time - sorry I forget how long for. In order to make that easy on my lovely boy and myself, I developed a routine. I bought some pouches of baby food suitable for a hamster ( more detail on flavours if you need this) and because a pouch could only be open for 2 days, I squeezed it into an ice cube tray. I could then remove one cube a day and vary the flavour. Once defrosted the medicine could be dropped in on a tiny spoon. Or I used a tiny amount of oatmeal porridge. I gave it as he came out hungry for his evening snack/ meal. He lapped it up happily and once he was used to it, I could leave it in a bowl right outside his nest area and he always ate it.
It was easy once the routine was established and he was cured in the end.
Hope this helps a bit but perhaps Cushings is not the problem.

 

[Cryptillian]

Sorry I didn't realise you were in the US. It could be hard to find an exotic vet that can test for Cushings - I only know of one or two in the Uk.

Actually there are cases of hamsters being allergic to Carefresh! It's wood pulp based bedding - I have never heard of a hamster being allergic to Kaytee Clean and Cosy though - that is nearer to pure paper than Carefresh I believe. Although obviously changing all her bedding is not going to make her happy - but it's usually the first thing we suggest, to rule out a skin allergy.

All good! I ended up just going with my gut and drove her to the specialist.

We did a skin scrape to double check for mites, and the Dr found a single dead tropical rat mite. He has treated them before and said everything her Dr prescribed sounds perfect and it’s actually normal for them to get worse the first few days of the mite treatment with these! It’s always possible it’s something else like cancer but he said he was hopeful it was mites.

Biggest evidence despite the fact there was only one is she has little bumps sometimes that progress into scabs, sometimes don’t, and I didn’t know that was a symptom specifically with that kind of mite.

I feel super reassured, but no idea how she got them and surprised she is not itching more. The only thing I could think of is the tank I put her in when this started came from the basement where we have had a rat/mouse issue in the past? I did disinfect it before using it for her but that’s just my thought? Or maybe I brought them home from work at the vet possibly? He said it’s probable she’s which is making them much worse on top of everything

I will update on if she gets better, I am more hopeful now.

 

[Cryptillian]

Actually correction it might’ve been a different rat mite I totally just looked up “rat mite” and thought it was the first one that came up but I saw they don’t burrow, I will check her records later to see what the species was whoops.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Glad you have identified the issue and can treat your hammy

 

[Maz]

That sounds good the vet identified something. Did they give any treatment while she was there? Sometimes I think they can give an injection for the first dose. But that’s for Demodex mites - maybe different for rat mites.

 

[Coco61]

Very pleased for you and shows you were right to go with your instincts.
Look forward to hearing how she improves now

 

[Cryptillian]

That sounds good the vet identified something. Did they give any treatment while she was there? Sometimes I think they can give an injection for the first dose. But that’s for Demodex mites - maybe different for rat mites.

Her regular Dr already prescribed revolution which we started Monday and prednisolone (started tonight) for her despite a negative tape test as a precaution and I went over all her meds with the specialist and he said everything we were already planning on trying is perfect!

These mites don’t live on the host, they feed and then live in the environment, so it makes sense now why we didn’t find them before and why we only found one dead one.

I was starting to worry she had lymphoma (which if mite treatment doesn’t work despite everything, it could be, but she does not have any tumors we can feel) or something that would ruin her quality of life enough she’d need to be pts so I didn’t want to stress her more continuing mite treatment if these would be her last days. She regained 4 grams today though so I feel hopeful.

 

[Maz]

Does that mean you’ll need to do a full cage clean again? If they live in the environment? If you do need to, it could be an idea to try different bedding as well - you can get boxo paper bedding in bulk from Walmart or mix it with some kaytee maybe?

Poor you and poor hammy - I hope this all settles down now and things improve.