Topaç sneezed and squeaked :(

[Pastacat]

Yesterday, I fell asleep with the window open again and today I heard him sneeze when he was awake once and squeaked in his sleep twice when he was asleep in his hide. It was two short squeaks. At first, I thought one of my birds did the noise, but I looked up 'hamster respiratory infection noise' on YouTube and it was the exact same noise. I am debating whether to bring him to the vet tomorrow morning or wait for a day to see the squeaking happens again/monitor him for symptoms. He's awake currently and is not squeaking(he's foraging for seeds), but maybe he's simply hiding his respiratory infection, if that's possible. What do the people here recommend?

 

[Maz]

Hmm tricky. They can have the occasional sneeze and it not be a respiratory infection. Squeaking can be for other reasons. Does his breathing sound ok generally. If he seems up and foraging as usual you could monitor him but then if it is a respiratory infection it could get worse, so it might be an idea to take him to the vets tomorrow and get him checked. They can check his chest/breathing.

However some infections are viral so antibiotics wouldn't work and they just have to get better on their own then. Hamsters can catch colds and flu from us. On the other hand he could develop a bacterial chest infection for other reasons. So yes best to get him checked over.

 

[Pastacat]

Hmm tricky. They can have the occasional sneeze and it not be a respiratory infection. Squeaking can be for other reasons. Does his breathing sound ok generally. If he seems up and foraging as usual you could monitor him but then if it is a respiratory infection it could get worse, so it might be an idea to take him to the vets tomorrow and get him checked. They can check his chest/breathing.

However some infections are viral so antibiotics wouldn't work and they just have to get better on their own then. Hamsters can catch colds and flu from us. On the other hand he could develop a bacterial chest infection for other reasons. So yes best to get him checked over.

Alright, I will most likely bring him to the vet tomorrow.

 

[Pastacat]

Update: I brought him to the vet. She gave me antibiotics and vitamins. She gave the first dose of the antibiotic to show me how to do it and it looked like Topaç's eye was gonna pop out It did not look easy at all. Also told me that I can mix it with some fruit puree or very little amount of honey, but to also add water, if I remember correctly. I will give the vitamin today.

 

[Maz]

Ok so is it enfroflaxin antibiotic? And did she show you how to give it by syringe? And the right amount? Usually it's a tiny amount about 0.02mls or similar. Which is about a large drop. It tastes very bad. You could try sucking a tiny bit of runny honey up in the syringe after the meds so it doesn't taste so bad, and hopefully he will then just lick it from the syringe when you offer it. They can get quite stressed if you have to pick them up and admininster it each time.

How is the vitamin to be administered? Just asking as many of us have been in this situation and there are ways of making it easier

 

[Pastacat]

Ok so is it enfroflaxin antibiotic? And did she show you how to give it by syringe? And the right amount? Usually it's a tiny amount about 0.02mls or similar. Which is about a large drop. It tastes very bad. You could try sucking a tiny bit of runny honey up in the syringe after the meds so it doesn't taste so bad, and hopefully he will then just lick it from the syringe when you offer it. They can get quite stressed if you have to pick them up and admininster it each time.

How is the vitamin to be administered? Just asking as many of us have been in this situation and there are ways of making it easier

Yes, it's enfroflaxin. How she did is basically she grabbed him with a cloth, scruffed him like a cat would hold its baby and dripped the medicine into his mouth. I'm not familiar with how medicine is usually dosed, but she said the first black band of the insulin syringe should be on the '0.1' when sucking the medicine out of the larger syringe into the insulin syringe and it should be on '0.2' after sucking water into it. It is probably about the amount you said, as it's a pretty tiny syringe. It looks like it is about a drop of water.

The vitamin is also administred the same way. She also said that I could add it into his water, but it would be better if I manually administered it through the syringe.

About the honey, how much honey should be used and how can I suck it into the syringe?

 

[Maz]

Are you sure it's an insulin syringe? It should be a 1ml syringe. ie have 10 markings on. Each marking is 1/10th ml. Within each marking are 10 smaller markings which are 0.01ml. What you have showing on the photo is 0.1 ml which looks rather a lot. 0.02 would be two of the tiny markings within that - ie the first 10 small markings. But yes it should be about a drop.

I'm sorry she scruffed him to squirt it as hamsters don't like that, and yes it does make their eyes bulge and can actually damage their eyes if it's not done correctly. So we usually advise no scruffing these days. If you try sucking up a bit of honey after the meds (tiny amount - maybe another 0.01ml then he might just accept licking it from the syringe if you offer him the syringe and you can squirt it at the same time.

Some hamsters will just bat the syringe away and not do that. What I do is put the meds in a pea sized amount of something strongly flavoured (needs to be meaty ideally) but the meaty dog food I get is probably only available in the uk. It's a bit like corned beef in jelly. Some people have had success with prawn crackers. Drop the meds onto a tiny bit of prawn cracker and the hamster eats it - not foolproof.

Others have injected the med in the middle of a tiny cube of fruit - eg nectarine - and the hamster eats it.

Hopefully he will just take it from the syringe with runny honey!

The vitamins don't really need giving by syringe IMO - you could probably drop those on a bit of baby food. It's only the baytril that tastes nasty.

 

[Pastacat]

Are you sure it's an insulin syringe? It should be a 1ml syringe. ie have 10 markings on. Each marking is 1/10th ml. Within each marking are 10 smaller markings which are 0.01ml. What you have showing on the photo is 0.1 ml which looks rather a lot. 0.02 would be two of the tiny markings within that - ie the first 10 small markings. But yes it should be about a drop.

I'm sorry she scruffed him to squirt it as hamsters don't like that, and yes it does make their eyes bulge and can actually damage their eyes if it's not done correctly. So we usually advise no scruffing these days. If you try sucking up a bit of honey after the meds (tiny amount - maybe another 0.01ml then he might just accept licking it from the syringe if you offer him the syringe and you can squirt it at the same time.

Some hamsters will just bat the syringe away and not do that. What I do is put the meds in a pea sized amount of something strongly flavoured (needs to be meaty ideally) but the meaty dog food I get is probably only available in the uk. It's a bit like corned beef in jelly. Some people have had success with prawn crackers. Drop the meds onto a tiny bit of prawn cracker and the hamster eats it - not foolproof.

Others have injected the med in the middle of a tiny cube of fruit - eg nectarine - and the hamster eats it.

Hopefully he will just take it from the syringe with runny honey!

The vitamins don't really need giving by syringe IMO - you could probably drop those on a bit of baby food. It's only the baytril that tastes nasty.

It does have 10 markings as well as 0.1, 0.2, etc. I'm pretty sure the vet said to give 0.1 and to dilute it with water.

Would banana mush work as well for the antibiotic or vitamins? I saw this one on YouTube. The stores are about to close at this hour, so I can't really go out to buy baby food.

 

[Maz]

0.1 would be far too big a dose if it's neat baytril and not already diluted I thought you said she said 0.02? And it was only a drop. It's always a good idea to double check the dose with the vet.

 

[Pastacat]

0.1 would be far too big a dose if it's neat baytril and not already diluted I thought you said she said 0.02? And it was only a drop. It's always a good idea to double check the dose with the vet.

Well, I thought 0.1 would only be a drop, but after looking at the syringe again, I am not so sure. I will ask the vet tomorrow when they are open, but I am pretty sure she meant 'when the first black band is at 0.1/10'. She did say that she put a little bit more in the syringe in case he spits out the meds, but I thought she meant the larger syringe that she gave the meds in to me.

Also, I put the vitamins in the banana mush, but Topaç didn't eat it. He sniffed it for a while and just went to his food bowl

 

[Maz]

Sometimes you have a larger syringe to draw it up into and put the end of the smaller syringe into that to draw up the dose - if it's easier than trying to draw it up straight from a bottle. Then anything left in the larger syringe gets squirted back into the bottle. It's just to make it easier to draw up the small amount.

Syrians usually get about 0.02mls of baytril, if it's undiluted already. Which it usually is. The exact dose is worked out by their weight. For a smaller hamster it might be 0.01. For a large hamster it might be 0.03. Average is about 0.02 usually. Which is the second tiny mark on the 1ml syringe.

I'm not sure what the vet means about sucking water up into the syringe as well - unless she's thinking it will dilute the taste.

Does it say the dose on the bottle? Sometimes they stick a label on the bottle with the hamster's prescription - eg 0.02ml every 24 hours or something.

0.1 would be 10 times as much as 0.01!

 

[Pastacat]

Sometimes you have a larger syringe to draw it up into and put the end of the smaller syringe into that to draw up the dose - if it's easier than trying to draw it up straight from a bottle. Then anything left in the larger syringe gets squirted back into the bottle. It's just to make it easier to draw up the small amount.

Syrians usually get about 0.02mls of baytril, if it's undiluted already. Which it usually is. The exact dose is worked out by their weight. For a smaller hamster it might be 0.01. For a large hamster it might be 0.03. Average is about 0.02 usually. Which is the second tiny mark on the 1ml syringe.

I'm not sure what the vet means about sucking water up into the syringe as well - unless she's thinking it will dilute the taste.

Does it say the dose on the bottle? Sometimes they stick a label on the bottle with the hamster's prescription - eg 0.02ml every 24 hours or something.

0.1 would be 10 times as much as 0.01!

The label on the botte just says '10', so it's about 0.1.

 

[Maz]

Hi. I think it would be best to phone the vet and ask a) is the antibiotic already diluted or not and b) ask if the dosage is 0.01ml or 0.1ml. (or 0.02ml which you mentioned before). It might be that she meant 0.02 of medicine and then add water until it's up to 0.1ml

 

[Hamster Haven]

Once you clarify the dose, definitely try out some of the ideas shared about feeding your hammy the syringe. I only had to pick my hamster up once or twice during our last antibiotic treatment to "force" her to take it, and even then, I didn't have to scruff her, just holding her so she couldn't wriggle away and putting the syringe near her mouth was sufficient. Sometimes I would get her when she was semi-sleeping, and putting the syringe near her mouth put her on auto-pilot to try to take some of it- so adding a bit of honey or some taste incentive could work without being too forceful but I know every hammy reacts differently!