Hamster health in question

Question
I have three hamsters. I have had to put one to sleep today for a rectal prolaspe. My other hamster just started having a right bulging eyeball with a white film streaked with a little red (looks like blood). She is active and otherwise healthy. What do you think this is and how can I treat it? I have been flushing her eye with some normal saline solution. My third hamster is a little more than a year old and has been losing fur and stumbling around for quite a while now. He sleeps a lot and still is active and alert when awake. Is this due to old age? There seems to be no signs of acute illness.

Answer
Hi Ali

sorry to hear about your hamsters.

Regarding the one with the bulging eyeball - this definitely needs to be checked out by a vet.  I suspect they will need to give eye drops.  This type of condition can be very painful for the hamster and therefore needs treating professionally.  If she goes blind as a result of this, it is no real problem as hamsters are very shortsighted anyway and rely heavily on their sense of smell rather than eyesight.

Your other hamster that is showing signs of old age - this is young for a hamster to display these signs - I would normally expect to see this when they are older than 18 months old.  However, like humans, some hamsters age better than others.  The loss of fur could just be old age or could be mange - if so, this is easily treated with a drug your vet can give you called Ivermec.  Males do tend to sleep a lot more than females anyway, so this doesn't sound that unusual.  However, if he is stumbling around, this could be old age, or they can suffer from arthritic conditions (treated with an anti-inflammatory), or they can get tumors which affect their walking.

I would strongly advise that you get a vet appointment and take both in for a check up so they can be treated accordingly. Perhaps you can negotiate a 'single fee' for the two hamsters to try and keep the cost down.

Good luck - hope you get on OK.

Regards