hamster illness

Question
We have a golden male hamster that we bought about 2 months ago from a pet store.  Shortly after we got him, I noticed a little red sore on the bottom of one of his back feet.  Now, he has a red sore on the bottom of both of his back feet.  One looks like it has pus in it.  Also, he has a red sore spot on his mouth below his nose.  He is still eating and running on his wheel.  I have tried every possible site to try to figure out what is going on with him.  It sounds kind of like foot and mouth disease in animals, but I'm not sure because I haven't seen a site showing it occurring in hamsters.  Please help us so we can help him, Elvis.

Answer
Hi Jennifer

It is difficult to know what is going on here, but the fact that there appears to be pus in one of these sores needs to be investigated by a vet and treated accordingly.

One thing springs to mind about these symptoms, however.  There is a condition that hamsters can get called polyomavirus infection.  The symptoms of this are small red lumps that can appear pretty much anywhere on the hamster's body, but in particular on the face, feet, neck and trunk.  A hamster could have just one or two, but they can also appear rapidly over the course of a few days/weeks.  This virus is a contagious form of lymphoid cancer (contagious to other hamsters).  I had a hamster with this and as fast as my vet removed the lumps, they appeared elsewhere.  He did however go onto live a full life and died aged 2, which wasn't bad considering he had three anaesthetic in a 6 month period - he didn't seem to be at all bothered by these lumps.  His first lump was close to his eye, then another appeared on his chin and others around his neck.  If it is this, then you need to let the pet store know this fact as their entire colony/stock could be affected and they will need to let their supplier know too.   

You may find it isn't this, as I'm not a vet, but purely going on my own past experience of similar symptoms, and therefore I strongly advise you get a veterinary opinion sooner rather than later.  If diagnosed in the very early stages, I understand that there are homeopathic treatments available for this - but you'd need to find a homeopathic vet.

Good luck with this. Please let me know how you get on.

Regards