wet tail illness in hamsters

Question
Im ms.Jodie from Gaylord's preschool and our class pet is very sick.  we have looked at your website and think she might have the wet tail ilness.  there are some differences, she doesnt look wet in the back, doesnt seem to have diarrhea, and she is a miniture hamster.

Q1- are miniture and dwarf hamsters the same thing?

Q2- the symptoms just started today, but we feel she might be very close to death.  could it be from something else? she just came to us from an old home and is about two years old.

thank you  

Answer
Hi Ms Jodie,

i would strongly advise you to take her to the vets as she sounds very sick and probably needs a course of antibiotics!!!!

hamsters generally live to be about 2 and a half years old although mine have all lived to be nearly 3, so even though death is a possibility i think its unlikely at this stage.

i would imagine her problems are stress related and wet tail is an illness caused by stress.
Once a hamster is infected with Wet Tail it takes 7 days for the symptoms to appear so if she does have the disease she is obviously in the early stages.
Wet Tail is a stress-related illness and the disease is triggered by any kind of stress. Often the cause of stress may not be easily identified ie a new hamster in a pet shop may develop wet tail from the stress caused by removing it from its mother and then rehoming it.if you got her recently she may be under stress from her changing environment. if she has come from a private home it is likely that for most of her life she has had a quiet existance.now she has been rehomed in a school with lots of different people and sounds and smells. it most probably is that thats causing her a great deal of stress.
Given that any change in environment is stressful to a hamster and therefore increases its chances of falling ill with Wet Tail it is sensible to isolate any new hamster for at least 7 days.it might be wise to put her in a dark, quiet room for a while or take her home to recouperate.
if it is Wet Tail then it is easily treated with antibiotics which you can get from the vet.a rehydration treatment along with the antibiotics greatly increases the chances of survival when treating Wet Tail, as hamsters get very dehydrated if they do have the disease and with the warm weather we've had the last few days it would make it worse.

also think about where your hamster lives. is the cage big enough? is there plenty of dried food and fresh water available for her? is the position of her home too hot-check for radiators and windows that could focus the sun on her house and make it too warm? if so, move her to a shadier spot? think of the noise level of the classroom and what you could do to lower the noise level. do you have a rota on who takes her home at the weekend.lots of owners and new sounds and smells is very stressful and confusing for a little hamster.

to be honest, i think its a really bad idea to have any pet in the classroom

hope this helps and hope your little hammy is feeling better soon...

thanks for your question, jewel.

in answer to your dwarf/minature question.they both mean the same thing.