unkempt hair

Question
hey. i have i think a teddy bear hamster. he is a male with brown white and
black hair. he is a few moths old now. i am worried because for a couple of
weeks now because his hair around his near his tail recently grows longer
than the rest of his hair. it got sort of poofy and i'm pretty sure its not
shedding. i read about wet-tail to find that unkempt hair was a symptom. i
don't notice anything else such as diarrhea (idk how i would even tell if he did
have it). I also read that with wet tail they usually die within a day or two of
symptoms (so it makes me want to rule it out). do you have any idea what
could be wrong with him? i would take him to the vet but i supposed i would
give this a try (my parents wouldn't want to bring him anyway cuz they say
"its pointless cuz the rat only cost 6 bucks". but i would do anything to see
him get better. thanks for your help.

-tom

Answer
I dont think you have a teddy bear per se, but a long hair syrian. I've owned both, and bears don't really have a hair issue like long hairs do. My long hair was named cappuchino BECAUSE of the fact that the hair on his butt was long and like whipped cream. The only reason wet tail describes unkempt hair is because when the hamster has diarrhea it sticks to the hair and matts it up. If your hamster had wet tail, you would definatly notice the large ammounts of diarrhea in it's hair and on his butt. What I'm getting at is that long "butt hair" is not an issue at all, and is just how a variety of hamster tends to grow it. If you'd like, you can brush it out with an unused toothbrush, they love this.