Sudden Hamster Dearh

Question
Hi Shawntiah. I bought a hamster for my daughter about 2 weeks ago. The little guy was fine when we brought him home, although the pet store lady dropped him when she took him out of his cage. Anyway, We cleaned his cage out last Sunday and he was fine. Now he is about to be buried in our back yard. At the end, it seemed as though he had diarrhea, and he was very lethargic. Any idea what was going on? Could this have been a diet thing or was it more than likely some sort of infection? It all happened so quickly. I want to get her another one, but, obviously, I would like a different end result. Thanks Much.

Answer
He died because of a bacterial infection. The diarrhea and lethargy that you described are signs of wettail. Wettail is basically something that a lot of hamsters get when they are stressed out as well as other reasons. Wettail is another name for diarrhea since it's tail is basically wet. Generally I advise people to leave the hamster alone for at least a week before playing with him. You can talk to him and go up to the cage but let him get adjusted to the cage. Also, many hamsters around this time tend to get very sick because it's coming upon the holidays and more and more kids are going to the pet store and banging and yelling at the cages causing the poor things to get really stressed. Around Christmas there are always a lot of hamsters that get sick because of all the stress from the holidays. My advice is when you go to the pet store pick up some vitamin drops for hamsters to help him stay healthy through his rough time. Also, check every hamster that's in the cage and if one of them is sick do not get any from that cage. Ask the person there how long have the hamsters been out. If it's only been a day or so then they usually haven't endured much stress. When hamsters stay at a pet store longer than a week their chances of getting sick increase, especially in big pet stores. I hope I have helped you out and don't give up on taking care of that perfect pet. I have a dwarf hamster and from what i've read dwarf hamsters don't get wettail. I have seen one dwarf hamster with diarrhea and I realized why it was so stressed. The poor thing was being poked and attacked by the parent's child. A dwarf hamster in my experience are hardier than the bigger sized hamsters. Choobles will be a year soon and he's still going strong and fat. With his vitamin drops and lots of food and treats, i've never had a problem with him.