Sick dwarf hampster

Question
Santa brought my son 2 female dwarf hamsters. We have connecting cages and they move back and forth between the two cages. There is water and food in both cages. Last night one of them was constantly "grooming" herself, or trying to spit something out - we don't know. She also has lumps on her neck by the ears and a wet underbelly. She is drinking water voraciously though. She squeals in pain when you touch her between the ears. Any ideas?

Answer
It is typical for dwarf hamsters to groom themselves a lot.  They do this with the front paws.  They tend to get a little greasy looking so you could provide them with some chinchilla sand to bathe in and get their fur looking nice again.  The lumps you saw were probably due to the hamster stuffing her cheeks.  They have pouches that run laterally and they'll use those to bring food to store and hide.

Her wet underbelly could be caused by wettail.  This is basically a bacterial infection that causes serious diarrhea.  You'll need to get Dritail from your local pet store and treat her until it goes away.  If you check her tonight and she's dry, she may have just gotten a little wet from the water bottle or something else in the cage.  Wettail will not go away on its own and is fatal.

When she squeals, it may not be due to pain but just to a lack of handling.  It's common for hamsters to make a loud noise and even try to box or roll over on their backs.  They are very near-sighted and it takes awhile for them to get used to handling by humans.

Good luck and let me know if I can be of any more help
~Lauren