Syrian Hamster Help

Question
Hi
We had to take our 5 month old Syrian Hamster to the emergency vets last night as she was squealing very loudly when she walked and becoming very agitated. The vet has given us pain killers but she is unable to tell if it is a fracture or just a sprain in her hind leg/ Please can you give me any advise on the best way to keep her comfortable and enable her to heal.. have you had many cases of this? I'm very worried as I don't want her to suffer.

Thanks
Laura

Answer
Hi Laura

I'm sorry to hear about your hamster.

I've had several with broken bones and they have all healed well. Assuming it is a straightforward fracture then it should be fine but sometimes the vet has to intervene if there are complications or if circulation is affected in which case surgery might be needed.

The main thing is to make the cage hamster friendly - if you can remove any platforms and the wheel as you want your hamster to rest - it takes around 4 weeks for a break to heal.

Worst case is if the vet has to amputate but I've had a few with only 3 legs and they have been fine. In the wild they wouldn't survive but in captivity they're fine - you just have to modify their cage so they can get around it easily,

I hope your hamster is ok.

Regards
Sheila