Very worried

Question
Shawntiah,

I am very worried about my hamster, we bought her 5 months ago when she was still very young and now she has developed wet tail.  We have taken her to the vet and was given some anti biotics for her to take.  We have given her anti biotics for about a week now and she still seems to be suffering.  Is there anything we can do to assist in her recovery, I have read into this and wet tail is mainly caused by stress.  Since we care for her so much we tend to try to clean her house quite frequently as we feel we want her to live more cleanly.  Is it better to leave her alone?

Another case which is causing us anxiety is that we found a swelling on her stomach, we took her to the vet and the vet claims its a tumour.  But obviosuly I think that, that is an assumption.  If this is a tumour then would it mean she only have limited time to live?  I have read that tumours can be benign on hamsters.  Looking optimistically, can wet tail contribute to the swelling of the stomach?  I.e. hamster feeling bloated?

Answer
hello, wow it seems that your hamster has a serious case of wettail here. The swelling on her stomach can be a cause of the wettail. Sometimes their bottoms or stomach will get really big because of the wettail. Have you tried giving her water in a dropper. This helps keep them from getting so dehydrated. Does your hamster have any vitamin drops? Vitamin drops can really help out a hamster and giving a hamster regular granola also helps. The granola is a home remedy that is used to help prevent wettail, but it could help him get better faster too. Also, how often do you clean your hamsters cage out? It's fine that you clean it out often to keep it clean but sometimes it can be good to keep some of the bedding in there to provide a familiar smell. The bedding that I keep in my hamsters cage is the bedding that he makes a nest with. I keep the nest bedding in his cage for two weeks. He sleeps in a corner of his cage so I leave that corner of the cage alone and just clean out the rest. I hope I have helped you and good luck with everything.