Question for hamster owners
My hamster, Sasquatch, had a respiratory infection last winter and my veterinarian gave her amoxicillin for her sniffling and sneezing. She recovered just fine. A few days ago she got another cold, only this one seemed a little worse because she was breathing loudly and her nose was making a squeaking noise like she could barely get any air through. I had to take her to a different veterinarian because mine was out of the office due to an illness. This new veterinarian gave her an antibiotic called Baytril and she seemed to be improving up until last night. I noticed when I was giving her her medicine her stomach was pretty bloated. I figured she was constipated so I gave her some fresh vegetables to see if they would help her have a bowel movement. She wouldn’t eat them though and as the night progressed she started acting lathargic and when I opened her cage she wouldn’t even lift her head up. I planned on taking her to the veterinarian first thing this morning, but when I woke up this morning she was dead. My question is, can a hamster die of constipation that quickly or was something else the cause? I looked up the side effects of Baytril but I couldn’t find anything. I wanted to call the vet and ask but I’ve been crying all day and I know I couldn’t get through explaining everything without breaking down, so I figured I’d see if anyone has any ideas in this forum. Thank you for any reply. -Kyli
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Dear Kyli~
I have no answers for you – I am sorry. . .but I just wanted to let you know how very sorry I am about what happened to sasquatch. I hope you find the answers you are looking for. Lori
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Baytril is what they use in most rodents when they get respitory infections. with hamsters and many other animals , they don’t show any sign of illness until its almost to late. and from the sounds of what you said it was pretty bad, and could have had phnemonia. More than likey the animal was all ready to far gone and the baytril just wasnt strong enough .
Sorry for you loss though.
Rachel
