R
Redochucks
Hello fellow hamster owners. I have recently adopted a Syrian hamster from a certified exotic animal adoption center with a good vet. She is 6 months old and was treated from parasites. The first day of being back home she seemed alright. However, at the beginning of day two I noticed a lot of strange noises coming from her. I was told it's just her adaption period and just to wait. On Monday it seemed her health had gotten worse and I began to severely panic, I contacted the center I adopted her from and our family vet. Was told by both that if it is only sneezing (the sneezing sometimes feels like hiccups) then she is fine, that I needed to take out any allergen bedding and items and to wait for a week to see what happens. If she would have some white stuff forming around her eyes or nose then I would need to rush her to a vet. It's been a week now, she has no loss of appetite, she's still very active and curious, but the sneezing hasn't gone anywhere. Some days it feels a bit worse, some days it feels like it is about to go away. I've now moved her back into her original bigger enclosure (she was living in a bin cage for the week that is a tiny bit smaller than her big acrylic enclosure) she has Boxo comfort bedding, Verse Laga Nature food, some apple tree sticks, wooden, plastic, hay and ceramic houses, some cardboard, her plastic big wheel, rocks and a dust free sand bath. In the bin cage she had some dust free bedding, her sand bath, a cardboard box, ceramic house, rocks, her wheel and a plastic house. I have no idea what could be happening and have been worried often that it could be a possible respiratory infection, however she has showed no signs of getting worse and has remained in a the same sneezing state, is it possible it's some allergy to something that could be not the bedding, or sticks?
If she seems well enough in herself. It's possible she has caught a cold! They can catch colds and flu from humans. It'll give you time to see if the change of diet makes a different or not as well.
(She is currently in her slightly smaller quarantine cage). I put in a handful of her bedding into the quarantine cage to see if she will have any reaction to it as well, however if she doesn't then I will be moving her back into her main cage and will try to see if she may have any allergies to other seeds not just the ones in her food to make sure I don't accidentally give her any (such as pumpkin seeds, sora, etc.). I want to thank everyone here again for the help and hopefully I will be able to post an introduction to my little hammy Acorn soon! 