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Help!!!!

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Sandyspage

Hi my name is Sandy I have an older Robo who not tame cannot hold (is a rescue) Blinky has started to itch and scratch and make sores. I suspect mites, though not sure how. I have been told Mango bird spray (not sure that is safe for one so small) but I cannot hold him or touch him he is suffering bad and there is no vet that will look at him becasue he is not able to be picked up and excamined. His very large wooden home with an attached dig box is cleaned regulary he is on hemp gets vitamins fresh veggies fruit homemade food mix with all he needs and was healthly til a few months ago he needs help or this boy is not going to make Blinky is smaller than a golf ball. If anyone can help I have researched Robos care but never had this type before and sadly he was never taught to trust and I cannot find any product for a robo and mites.

Any advice? Thanks all Take Care
 
Hello Sandy and welcome. I'm sorry to hear about Blinky, poor little fella.
I am not an expert by any means, but there are some very knowledgeable members here that I'm sure will be able to offer some advice for you soon.

When we took out little ham to the vet with a suspected skin problem and they gave us Xeno spot 50 (ivermectin), which should treat most parasite problems. I think this is quite widely available as it can also be used as a preventative treatment (although I'm not sure that's recommended for hamsters). We have a Syrian however and with Blinky being so small I'm not sure if this would be suitable or not but it might be worth looking at.

As mentioned there are lots of knowledgeable people here, hopefully someone will come back to you soon.
 
Hi Sandy & welcome to the forum.
I’m really sorry to hear Blinky is unwell,.
The medication that Steve mentioned is the usual treatment for mites but it’s generally advised not to use it without a vet confirming that the problem is due to mites first.
It definitely wouldn’t be safe to use any kind of spray.
Would it be possible to put him in a large carrier with just a bit of bedding in the bottom so the vet could at least observe him & you could discuss it with them?
Maz has used a plastic box to take her robo to the vet in the past, I’m sure she can advise you about that.
I know it can be very difficult with small hams that aren’t hand tamed but if you can find an exotic vet who is used to treating hamsters they usually are able to still examine & treat them.
 
Yes I have a photo of it somewhere on here - I'll have a look! I've had two robos and neither were tame enough to be handled. What I used to do was put a snooze cube inside a guinea pig sized pet carrier. I'll link the snooze cube as well, but something similar would do. I'd have bedding in the bottom of the pet carrier and the snooze cube on top. They used to sit inside the snooze cube in the pet carrier, as it's nice and dark and cosy. I'd take a plastic storage box with me (not particularly tall but that's ok for a robo) with hemp mat in the bottom and I'd take a few bits in a carrier bag (a flying saucer, a tunnel and some food). When at the vets I'd put the storage box on the vet table, with the hemp mat in the bottom, put the saucer and tunnel in it and a little pile of food. Then lift the snooze cube out of the pet carrier (with my hand over the door) and put it down in the storage bin. The hamster would emerge from the snooze cube and investigage the bin, run on the saucer and nibble at the food and the vet could get a good look at the hamster in there, and also manage to pick the hamster up from there, holding them over the bin in case they wriggled free.

The vet was a bit surprised the first time I did this (I did it to avoid stress for the hamster and avoid the risk of them being dropped or running off the table!) but was fine with it.

As elusive says, you shouldn't try any treatment without a vet checking them over. It might not be mites and the treatment can be quite toxic if not given in the correct dose or the correct product or the weight of the hamster not known - especially for a tiny robo. A vet can do a skin scraping to see if it's mites (they need to look at the scraping under a microscope as they're not visible to the human eye).

It's possible also that your robo has an allergy to the bedding which can also cause this kind of thing. What bedding does he have? They can be allergic to any type of wood bedding, even hardwood.
 
There's just a bit of cucumber on the photo but I put a little pile of food in as well. I've done this twice with two different robos. If you can't handle him to get him into the pet carrier, you'll need to scoop him up into a mug. And might need to remove some of the cage contents to do that. But I've usually tried just letting them walk into the mug first. By putting the mug on its side after removing some of the bedding - then if they walk in to investigate, pop your hand over the end quickly to lift them out in the mug and transfer them to the pet carrier.

With our last robo I also had this! Which lived in his cage. He was too fast to pick up in a tube he would shoot out as soon as he saw my hand move an inch. This worked really well as he didn't have time to get from the pod to the end of the tube before I put my hand over - and he really liked the pod! It had some bedding in and the centre part removed. I used to use it to transfer him from his cage to his playpen. When he wanted to go back he'd go back in the pod.

Pip pod.webp


It's one of these


Plus one of these with the top tunnel part capped off.

 
However, assuming you don't have a ferplast lab, 3 way tunnel, pet carrier or snooze cube, another option might be to get one of these instead of a pet carrier. It's a ridiculously tiny cage but easy to get the hamster in and out of at the vets and would work as a large-ish pet carrier you could just take with you.

It would be best to remove the external tubes though and cap them off or it could be hard to get the robo out at the vets. It could be set up with a couple of inches of bedding and a little house and tunnel. And some food and cucumber inside.

Ferplast Combi 1

Ferplast combi 1.jpg
 
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I've just noticed how expensive that Combi 1 is! £44! My pet carrier isn't much smaller and only cost £12! (It's usually £15 - price is lower at the moment).

So if you need a pet carrier, this one is good. You could maybe manage with just the pet carrier and a little house inside and the vet pick the hamster up from the pet carrier and pop him back down in it again. But you could take a storage bin as well perhaps. A larger area to hold the hamster over if he wriggles free.

Ferplast Aladino
 
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