Many people are convinced that small pets do not require the services of veterinarians, since they do not get sick. Such confidence is based not on the sizes or varieties of pets, but on the specifics of their content.
What can a hamster get sick if he never goes outside, not just outside his cage or terrarium? And when misfortune happens to a pet, people are simply lost, do not understand what to do, and for no reason the pet is sick.
Hamsters have health problems in the same way as all other animals. Of course, they are unlikely to be infected with enteritis or distemper, but catch a cold is enough. Most often, small pets suffer from eye diseases.
Why do hamsters develop eye diseases?
Why does a hamster's eyes fester? Finding the right answer to this question is extremely important. Without eliminating the cause of the appearance of swelling and the formation of abscesses, treating a pet does not make sense. In other words, any therapy will have only a temporary effect, the problem will certainly return.
Hamster eye diseases most often develop for the following reasons:
- unsanitary conditions;
- allergic reaction;
- trauma.
In addition, the eyes of a small pet can swell and fester due to various disorders in the internal processes of the body, due to old age. Suppurations in the eyes also appear as a symptom of a disease that is not directly related to the organs of vision.
What is meant by unsanitary conditions?
Lack of proper care is the most common reason why a hamster has a festering eye. Of course, under unsanitary conditions of keeping the animal in the first place is understood as a rare cleaning.
Paradoxical as it may seem, most often hamsters get sick from dirt, which are kept in special cages for rodents or in enclosures designed for them. Less often than others, pets living in banks, old aquariums, bird cages fall ill.
Why is this happening? The thing is in the construction of the bottom of the rodent's dwelling. In special cells, it is double, and the owners simply do not immediately notice that they need to be cleaned. Vapors from urine and feces swelling in it, fallen grains and pieces of other food corrode the cornea and cause a severe allergic reaction. In banks, aquariums and birdcages, there is no double bottom, and a person immediately notices when it is necessary to clean a pet's home.
However, quite often they ask themselves what to do if the hamster has a rotting eye, people who regularly clean in cages or cages. Since the owners do not allow dirt on the pallet, they rarely associate inflammation of the organs of vision of a small pet with unsanitary conditions. Meanwhile, people often purchase various houses, labyrinths and other cute objects for their hamsters, in which rodents are very fond of spending time and arranging pantries. But the owners often forget to wash these houses and labyrinths.
What can cause an allergic reaction? How to fix it?
Allergy is a real scourge of hamsters, most small pets are affected by it. Especially often pedigree rodents suffer from it. For example, if a Syrian hamster has festering eyes, what should be done first? Remove filler from his enclosure, do not clean the house with chemicals, use a simple laundry soap for cleaning. Particular attention should be paid to pet food. If he eats a grain mixture, it is worth giving up for a while. You should also exclude from the diet all vitamin supplements, sticks that the hamster bites, and other similar things.
Anything can cause an allergy. Finding its source is very difficult. For example, a pet may react with inflammation of the eyes to chemical additives contained in raw tap water. Can cause such a reaction and people use air fresheners, scented candles, incense. Even a bouquet of roses, standing in a vase near the cage, can cause a negative reaction, as a result of which the hamster's eyes are festering.
How to treat such an allergy? Veterinary pharmacies offer virtually nothing for rodents. Therefore, most owners of hamsters are old-fashioned. That is, they are trying to identify the allergen and eliminate it. Eyes are washed with chamomile infusion or tea. With severe swelling, you can use drops intended for people, but they should be diluted with boiled water at room temperature in a ratio of 1: 4. The resulting solution can be used not only for instillation, but also for washing the eyes.
How can a hamster injure his eyes? What to do in this case?
What should I do if the hamster has a festering eye, but there can be no talk about unsanitary conditions or allergies? Make sure that the pet is not injured.
Very often injured hamsters whose owners use sawdust, trash, dry hay as a “litter”. That is, we are talking about the most ordinary splinter, which did not hit the finger, but in the eyelid or cheek.
If only the eye is swollen, and the muzzle is devoid of edema or compaction, it is most likely that a part of the litter fell under the eyelid. Accordingly, the eye just needs to be washed. But if half of the muzzle is swollen, including the eyebrow and cheek, you should consult a veterinarian. Doing it yourself can harm the hamster.
Of course, if the foreign object that caused the swelling and suppuration is visible, then you can remove it with tweezers. This should be done carefully, it is important not to leave microparticles in the wound. After removing the splinter, you need to rinse the wound. If it is outside, on the face, then you can use an antiseptic or potassium permanganate. The treatment of the skin area with iodine will not hurt. The eye should be washed with chamomile infusion or tea.
Independent extraction of a traumatic object requires a lot of skill, patience and accuracy. If you are not sure that the splinter can be removed, you need to take the pet to the clinic. Of course, you should immediately contact your veterinarian if the injuring object is invisible.
Symptom of what diseases are suppurating eyes? What to do in this situation?
Hamsters suffer from many ailments. Diseases of the eyes, the treatment of which does not give any result, as a rule, are not at all pathologies of the organs of vision. That is, this disorder acts as a symptom, and therefore does not respond to local treatment.
Most often, signs of conjunctivitis are accompanied by:
- pneumonia;
- bronchitis;
- tuberculosis;
- viral and fungal infections;
- hormonal disorders;
- a sharp weakening of the body's immunity.
Immunity in an animal can be weakened for many reasons. A monotonous and meager diet devoid of vitamins may be to blame. Immunity may decrease due to a past illness.
Hormonal disorders are characteristic of obese animals suffering from obesity. And viral, fungal infections and colds of hamsters infect their owners.
What to do if a hamster has a festering eye due to another disease? Of course, you need to go to the veterinarian and diagnose the pathology. After the picture of the pet’s health status becomes clear, it is necessary to begin treatment of existing ailments. Eyes at this time should simply be washed, avoiding the accumulation and stagnation of pus in them.
Can my eyes fester due to old age?
Age-related problems often manifest themselves in the form of eye pathologies not only in humans, but also in hamsters. It is not difficult to distinguish such eye diseases from everyone else. Edema is never significant, and spots, opacities usually appear on the eyeball.
What to do if a hamster has a festering eye due to old age? Unfortunately, you can only take care of the pet, rinse your eyelids and focus on its diet for foods that are good for the organs of vision and easily digestible. For example, blueberries, apples, carrots. There is no cure for old age for both humans and hamsters.
What eye diseases do hamsters suffer from?
Of course, there are real eye diseases that rodents are prone to. This is not an allergic reaction, not the manifestation of any internal pathologies, not the effects of trauma and not a sign of age-related changes, but the usual ailments of the organs of vision that require diagnosis and special local therapy.
Hamsters suffer from such eye diseases:
- conjunctivitis;
- blepharitis;
- symptom of “crawled out eye”.
In fact, the symptom of the “crawled out eye” is not a disease, this pathology is a consequence of advanced conjunctivitis or serious injury. However, since this condition requires serious treatment, veterinarians rank it as an eye disease, although it is called a symptom.
Conjunctivitis
Both of these diseases are extremely dangerous and require timely treatment. Of course, to make a diagnosis and prescribe therapy, you should contact the clinic. However, if this is not possible, then it is possible to recognize diseases and cope with them yourself.
The main signs of developing conjunctivitis are:
- yellow or green pus with a specific odor that accumulates in the corners of the eyes and causes them to stick;
- inflamed condition of the eyelids, marked swelling or swelling;
- hair loss around the organs of vision;
- temperature, general weakness, apathy and lack of appetite.
The hamster constantly keeps his eyes as if slightly squinted or does not open them at all. The animal is so lethargic that it can simply lie down, not reacting to either light, braking, or tasty food.
For treatment, you need to use eye drops "Albucid". It takes three times a day to bury the medicine. It takes from three days to a couple of weeks to recover. The timing depends on the neglect of the disease, and on the general state of health, on the age of the hamster.
Blepharitis
Blepharitis is a complication of advanced conjunctivitis. With this pathology, the inflammatory process completely captures the eyelids, because of which they become poisonous red. The fur begins to crawl out across the face. The animal suffers from severe itching, the hamster constantly rubs sore eyes. Also, the eyelids swell greatly, sometimes acquiring a bluish tint.
The treatment of this disease is similar to conjunctivitis therapy. However, only drops are not enough. In addition to them, tetracycline ointment should be used. It is treated with eyelids outside 2-3 times a day.
Of course, before dropping medicine into the eyes, they must be washed, remove accumulated pus. This can be done with infusion of chamomile or tea.
The symptom of "crawled out eyes"
Often, owners of eye disease in hamsters often notice very late, and their treatment for this reason is not always simple. It is to such conditions that require a visit to a veterinary clinic that the symptom of “crawled out eye” also refers.
You can not confuse this pathology with any other disease. One eye of the hamster seems to roll out, as if something were pushing it out from the inside. The eye "crawls out" most often due to a serious bruise, for example, that occurred when a person fell from a height. Also, this symptom may appear due to the presence of a latent eye infection that has developed on the inside of the organ of vision.
It is impossible to cope with this problem at home, since the pet needs the help of a surgeon. However, in most cases, the eye has to be removed.
The development of ophthalmic diseases in hamsters is much easier to prevent than to cure. The main preventive measure is to maintain cleanliness in the animal’s cell. You also need to properly compile a pet's diet, not to use as a filler what can injure a hamster, and, of course, not to drop it.