crusty hamster

[Pablosmummy]

Ok so I know this isnt about a cage but I'll ask here anyway as all the hamster sites I've found seem..well a bit childish to be honest

Anyway, My 9 month old male syrian seems to have a little crusty patch next to one of his glands on his side. I've had many hamsters before and have never had this so was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? I've obsessively checked him over for any other marks and he's acting completely normally, eating food and running around. It doesnt look like fleas/mites and he was treated 6 weeks ago with a treatment which lasts 3 months so I'm guessing its not that.

Its not red, just a little dry crusty patch.
Thanks

 

[aqh88]

all the hamster sites I've found seem..well a bit childish to be honest

Yea I had that problem too and even if it isn't children the adults tend to speak with very poor english or tons of abbreviations and chat speak making it impossible to understand anyone without taking at least 10mins to translate each post.

Really you'd be best off finding a vet that can treat hamsters. There could be an infection of all sorts or even cancer. Or it could just be dirty and in bad need of cleaning. Hard to tell online.

What did you use that is suppose to get rid of pests for 3months? I know nothing safe that can treat a hamster for 3 months. All safe medications have a 1month or less lifespan. There is various crap at the petstores that claim to treat small pets but I wouldn't touch those with a 10' pole. Most are quite dangerous and there are actually lawsuits out there on how many pets some of them have killed. Hartz being a major example.

 

[Pablosmummy]

Ooh I didnt know that they spot on treatments were dangerous. What else would you use on a hamster?

The crusty patch seems to have cleared up now so I dont know what it was. I'll keep watch to see if it comes back, if it does then straight to the vet.

 

[aqh88]

Generally hamsters should not need any preventive treatments since they don't go outside or around other animals or mosquitos that could transmit parasites to them. You should only treat them after you see signs of an infestation. If they do get a parasite like mites, lice, or fleas you can use the same medications as guinea pigs but the dose is different. I don't remember it off the top of my head. Safe medications would be ivermectin which is applied weekly until mites or lice are gone, advantage which is applied monthly and treats lice or fleas(not mites), and revolution which is applied monthly and treats all of the above. Advantage and revolution you have to get from a vet. Ivermectin can be found at feed stores but you need to be able to weigh the animal and measure an accurate dose to use it. Just throwing some on will result in an overdose and possibly death. That's part of the problem with those treatments from petstores. The dose is not accurate and you could end up killing them by overdose. The medications also aren't usually as safe. I would not use any of those medications sold at petstores for any of my animals(including dogs and cats) aside from the few stores that sell things like ivermectin and I buy a couple mosquitos sprays for my dog but only the herb based ones like Natural Defense.

Take a look at HartzVictims.org for a major example.

 

[Snow_Piggy]

What hamster sites have you been to? Most of them are kind of bad and have out-dated information but I know of a good website I am not sure if I am aloud to post links here so I will send you a PM if you want it. If the crusty patch comes back I would suggest seeing a vet.

 

[Pablosmummy]

We treated him as he was scratching quite a bit and as soon as we did, he stopped so I'm guessing it worked and luckily it seems to have had no adverse affects on him.

We used the beaphar spot on treatment which has ivermectin in and is done according to weight. We use the guinea pig version for our piggies aswell as many people here in UK have recommended it