Hi everyone,
I have a question about my hamster. He is a Syrian, he’s about 1 and a half years old. Up until the day before yesterday I didn’t have any problems with him, but yesterday I noticed him acting different. He was breathing extremely fast, he seemed like he wanted to sleep cuz his eyes were shut all the time (but it was different from any other time before), and he didnt move too much and when he did his walk was kinda wobbly. I’m wondering what’s wrong with him… He seems a little better today but he’s still breathing kinda fast. He also hasn’t touched his food for the whole day yesterday and only munched on some mango at night, but very little. It’s totally unlike him. I was wondering that maybe he’s too hot, but the temp. in my room is most of the time between 70-80, so i don’t think he should be too hot…
I read a little bit about different illnesses that hamsters might have, such as a wet tail, but my hamster doesn’t have that. I also didn’t see any cysts or lumps on his body. I’m a little worried that he might have a respiratory problem. I read that the stain that forms on the plastic bottom of the cage from his pee can start emitting dangerous vapors later on, there is one on his cage but I try to keep he cage as clean as possible, even take out some pee on daily bases and when I have time.
As a side note, I did notice that he doesn’t drink a lot of water since some time, but he seems to poop normal. I figured that maybe he gets his water from fresh fruit like mango, lettuce, cucumbers or apples. He does have dry food in his cage at all times as well. Also one thing that bothers me is that when I first got him, he used to exercise A LOT on his wheel. He’d spin so fast that it’d be hard for me to see him But since I got him a new wheel (bigger one), it was about a year ago, he stopped using it that often. I do see him running on it from time to time but not as often as before. He used to drink more water too.
I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with my hamster… I don’t think he’s ready to die yet :/ I’ve always tried taking good care of him and he’s not THAT old! I was thinking to put him in an aquarium for now since I have one just laying around at home, so that he doesn’t have to breathe in the vapors from that stain (if there are any) Also, I would love to take him to a vet, just to make sure there’s nothing wrong with him, but I really do not have the money for that I’m scared that if I go, I’ll have to pay like 100 bucks for a visit :/ which I don’t have. Any idea what should I do? I live in NY. Maybe there’s a pet store that would take a look at him and tell me more?
Thank you in advance for all the helpful answers.