Hamster Polyomavirus Sanitizing

[Cryptillian]

Hi everyone,

I had made a long thread through the process of losing my 14 month old Syrian hamster to cutaneous lymphoma over about little over 2 months of misdiagnosis and trying to save her. I am still awaiting for the full necropsy report to come back to see if she had hamster polyomavirus, but it could take a couple more weeks.

I am looking to see if anyone had advice for sanitizing items and enclosure for a new Syrian hamster, and sanitizing my room (I have carpet, she would occasionally go on the floor so I was worried about that too) as I have a feeling she will be positive.

I did not know until recently that lymphoma like this in young hamsters is almost always caused by this virus and that it can take up to 30 weeks (which would be around what it was from when I got her and when this started) to actually show symptoms.

Now because it is so highly contagious, resistant to most cleaning agents, and can live on surfaces for a prolonged period (sorta like parvo) based off of some studies done by labs that incidentally had infected hamsters, I am now terrified of passing this onto a new hamster.

I am prepared to simply throw out all her non-sealed wood items (the sprays, substrates, and bedding I obviously was going to anyways) and everything else will be soaked in Vikron S multiple times, the double bucaststes I have will be sprayed multiple times and scrubbed down, crevice I will use a toothbrush to get into.

It has just been such a devastating experience losing my baby, and I would love to give another Syrian hamster a home, but I want to make sure I do everything properly. Unfortunately it is very hard to find anyone with any experience on this and I want to make sure I do things properly.

And thank you to this forum for all your support through this I can’t say thank you enough

 

[Maz]

It has been a truly awful experience for you. The usual advice after illness and disease is disinfection plus leaving the cage for 3 weeks, but this is a specific circumstance. I would have thought heat/baking would kill absolutely anything, but obviously you can't do that with the cage or non-wood items (cork logs maybe) but yes I would probably throw away any natural items as they do have crevices which might be missed.

I think you're right to assume it could have been HaPV because testing for it is not supposed to be that reliable. So even if your results came back negative or positive in two weeks, there would still be uncertainty - I believe it's very difficult to reliably test for. As far as I am aware though, even after disinfection, it's advisable to wait some months. Which is hard when you want another hamster, and seems very unfair.

In the US they would say clean everything with bleach probably. That will kill anything. We don't usually advise bleach but in this situation, as long as everything is very well rinsed and aired afterwards, it may be an option. My concern with bleach is for porous things like perspex, it may still retain an odour. Virkon is the usual disinfectant.

I have never experienced it myself but I'm aware it wiped out quite a few hamstery's a number of years ago and was very distressing. Some gave up keeping hamsters after the experience.

All I can say really is the guidelines are to disinfect with Virkon and then wait some months. The National Hamster Council recommends that - although "some months" is a bit vague.

 

[Maz]

Carpet is another issue. It is likely to last a long time on carpet as well - I would suggest steam cleaning the carpet (heat again and steam) and waiting a few months also. Obviously things like clothing and bedding get washed. Anything that can be washed at 60 degrees would be good but don't go ruining delicate clothes by washing them at 60 degrees if it's not suitable.

I believe you can hire steam cleaners. We actually bought a small one a few years ago and it works very well and removes odours as well!

 

[Cryptillian]

It has been a truly awful experience for you. The usual advice after illness and disease is disinfection plus leaving the cage for 3 weeks, but this is a specific circumstance. I would have thought heat/baking would kill absolutely anything, but obviously you can't do that with the cage or non-wood items (cork logs maybe) but yes I would probably throw away any natural items as they do have crevices which might be missed.

I think you're right to assume it could have been HaPV because testing for it is not supposed to be that reliable. So even if your results came back negative or positive in two weeks, there would still be uncertainty - I believe it's very difficult to reliably test for. As far as I am aware though, even after disinfection, it's advisable to wait some months. Which is hard when you want another hamster, and seems very unfair.

In the US they would say clean everything with bleach probably. That will kill anything. We don't usually advise bleach but in this situation, as long as everything is very well rinsed and aired afterwards, it may be an option. My concern with bleach is for porous things like perspex, it may still retain an odour. Virkon is the usual disinfectant.

I have never experienced it myself but I'm aware it wiped out quite a few hamstery's a number of years ago and was very distressing. Some gave up keeping hamsters after the experience.

All I can say really is the guidelines are to disinfect with Virkon and then wait some months. The National Hamster Council recommends that - although "some months" is a bit vague.

Yeah I honestly just don’t know how long to wait because I can see anywhere from 3 months to over 6 in studies, and I know other polyomaviruses in other species can last years. I really wanted to adopt in the next month after I manage to sanitize my entire room, but by now it’s only been a few weeks, so I just don’t know. My vets can’t give me much more advice, they think my plan sounds good, but they don’t have any experience with this so they can’t say for certainty I can eliminate the risk.

I am leaning towards that I don’t I trust baking or soaking will penetrate the wood enough so I’ve already decided it’s not worth bothering as it’s very possible pee could’ve gotten in the wood at some point especially in the hides she slept in. If I had to replace the two Bucastates, wheel, plastic/glass items etc, that would be in total over 900$ USD of supplies I’d be losing (already planning to throw out 300$). I just dont think I have the heart to start completely all over, I went all out with her and could’ve never expected having to replace it when a lot of things are brand new too.

Just a difficult thing to decide for me because I couldn’t forgive myself if it happened again. I thought about getting guinea pigs again instead (I had them for 9 years and I got my hamster after losing my last seniors), but I would still love a hamster again. If this virus could potentially live years on surfaces I just don’t know how long I’d have to let everything sit in storage.

 

[Maz]

I think the usual reckoning is "some months", not years. It's hard to imagine but I'd have thought a thorough disinfection of a tank style cage would be enough and then a few weeks - but - it can be difficult to ensure the entire thing is fully disinfected, without submerging it all in a tank of disinfectant. So a new cage would be a solution. And yes that would be expensive.

Maybe you could get one new Bucatstate. Put the other two away somewhere after disinfecting them (garage or shed or loft maybe), well out of the way. In a year or so you could use them again and sell the new one. I know that's still expensive as you wouldn't get as much for one second hand.

Get a male syrian or a dwarf - one bucatstate should be plenty of space for them. And keep it fairly simple rather than spending a fortune. Eg 9" of bedding, use some cardboard items for tunnels and houses, one cork log, one platform etc. And plenty of sprays.

It might also be best to do any out of cage time in a different room to the one the cage is in (I think it's your bedroom isn't it) for a few months.

I think if it was me and I really wanted to get another hamster, I would get another cage. It doesn't have to be the biggest in the world - just adequate and meeting guidelines (eg 100 x 50). I think you're in the US aren't you? So there are only really tank style options.

But if you got a dwarf hamster you could make a bin cage quite cheaply with a 200 quart bin maybe?

 

[Tulsi]

I hope you find some solution for your hamster's cage. I lost my lovely Kulfi to this terrible disease just recently. I have thrown away most of his things (all natural tunnels and bridges).

Would F10 be something that could kill off the virus? I am going to look into this just in case.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Tulsi]

Can it pass on to other animals eg dogs?

 

[Maz]

It is not supposed to be able to be passed to other pets, no. It's specific to hamsters. Hamsters can have lymphoma without it being caused by polyomavirus. As there were no signs of polyomavirus in Kulfi (or Cryptillian's hamster), it could just be Lymphoma.

The main difference between Virkon and F10 is F10 is supposed to be safer for rodents, and Virkon is mainly for farm animals and poultry, but they work in different ways apparently. I think the reason it's recommended to wait "some months" with polyomavirus is that it can be resistant even to disinfectants. Apparently it's resistant to bleach/chlorinated substances as well. Which is maybe why Virkon tends to be recommended.

@Tulsi I don't think Kulfi's Lymphoma was caused by Polyomavirus because you had had him so long that any signs of that would have shown first. But I couldn't say for sure and maybe the vet can't either. It CAN induce Lymphoma, but Lymphoma can also occur on its own as well I think.

Sadly it sounds a case of discarding everything, or disinfecting a cage as usual and then leaving it in store for a very long time and using a new cage.

 

[Cryptillian]

I will be sure to update with the full necropsy results when they are sent to my clinic, I work there so I am able to check for the email everyday I work the next two weeks in case it comes sooner than expected.

I had Rupee for 9-10 months before I noticed symptoms, it’s possible the skins stuff could’ve started sooner because I only noticed when the first lesion began to grown on her leg, but it definitely was quite a while from when I adopted her. It’s just I can’t rule that out as a precaution because I know it’s still possible and I’m pretty traumatized from the whole ordeal.

To be fair her genetic background was also very very poor, 3 generations inbred from previous owner, who knows before that most likely the original hamster were from the pet store/mill.

Also yes, I had heard from a breeder who had lymphoma in some hamsters at various ages where it was purely genetic. As horrible as it sounds to say I hope it was just genetic for her especially considering all the hamsters (around 20 hamsters) who came from the same place/situation went home to people or were in fosters where other hamsters could’ve been exposed

 

[Maz]

I know it has been traumatic for you. I was going to ask where she came from but you've just explained. Would it be worth trying to follow up and see if any of her "relatives" or siblings have had the same thing? Although that maybe still wouldn't tell you if it was genetic or not - as it's so infectious.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Thank you for sharing this sad but very important discussion with us

 

[Maz]

Thankfully it seems polyomavirus has become increasingly rare, particularly in the Uk I think, so I think you have been very unlucky and the source of the hamster was perhaps the issue. Just to reassure others. There was a big outbreak, mainly that ran through hamsteries in the Uk - some years ago, before the Covid pandemic. As with all outbreaks, it died off eventually, but it was fairly devastating at the time.