What to do if a hamster's eyes fester, how to treat? Eye diseases in hamsters

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Many people are convinced that small pets don't need veterinary services because they don't get sick. Such confidence is based not at all on the size or varieties of pets, but on the specifics of their content.

How can a hamster get sick if he never goes out not only outside, but also outside his cage or terrarium? And when misfortune happens to a pet, people are simply lost, they don’t understand what to do, for no reason the pet gets sick.

Hamsters have he alth problems just like any other animal. Of course, they are unlikely to be able to catch enteritis or distemper, but to catch a cold is quite. Most often, small pets suffer from eye diseases.

Why do hamsters develop eye diseases?

Why does a hamster's eyes fester? Finding the right answer to this question is extremely important. Without eliminating the cause of the appearance of swelling and the formation of abscesses, it does not make sense to treat a pet. In other words, any therapy will have only a temporary effect, the problem will definitelywill return.

Eye diseases in hamsters most often develop for the following reasons:

• unsanitary conditions;
• allergic reaction;
• injury.

In addition, the eyes of a small pet can swell and fester due to various disorders in the internal processes of the body, due to old age. Also, suppuration in the eyes appears as a symptom indicating a disease that is not directly related to the organs of vision.

What is meant by unsanitary conditions?

Lack of proper care is the most common reason why a hamster's eyes fester. Of course, under unsanitary conditions of keeping an animal, first of all, rare cleaning is understood.

Paradoxical as it may seem, but most often hamsters get sick from dirt, which are kept in special cages for rodents or in enclosures intended for them. Pets living in banks, old aquariums, bird cages get sick less often than others.

Why is this happening? It's all about the design of the bottom of the rodent dwelling. In special cages, it is double, and the owners simply do not immediately notice that they need to clean up. Vapors from urine and faeces swelling in it, fallen grains and pieces of other food corrode the cornea and cause a severe allergic reaction. In jars, aquariums and bird cages, there is no double bottom, and a person immediately notices when it is necessary to clean the pet's home.

However, quite often the question iswhat to do if the hamster's eye fester, people who regularly clean in aviaries or cages. Since the owners do not allow dirt on the pallet, they rarely associate inflammation of the eyes of a small pet with unsanitary conditions. Meanwhile, people often purchase various houses, mazes and other cute items for their hamsters, in which rodents love to spend time and arrange pantries. But their owners often forget to wash these houses and labyrinths.

What can cause an allergic reaction? How to fix it?

Allergy is a real scourge of hamsters, it affects most small pets. Especially often thoroughbred rodents suffer from it. For example, if a Syrian hamster has festering eyes, what should be done first? Remove the filler from his enclosure, do not clean the house with chemicals, use simple laundry soap for cleaning. Particular attention should be paid to the nutrition of the pet. If he eats a grain mixture, it should be abandoned for a while. You should also exclude all vitamin supplements, sticks that the hamster gnaws, and other similar things from the diet.

Allergies can cause anything. Finding its source is very difficult. For example, a pet may react with eye inflammation to chemical additives contained in raw tap water. Can cause such a reaction and people use air fresheners, scented candles, incense. Even a bouquet of roses standing in a vase near the cage can cause a negative reaction due towhich fester in the eyes of a hamster.

How to treat such an allergy? Veterinary pharmacies offer practically nothing for rodents. Therefore, most hamster owners act the old fashioned way. That is, they try to identify the allergen and eliminate it. Eyes are washed with infusion of chamomile or tea. With severe swelling, you can use drops intended for people, but they should be diluted with boiled water at room temperature in a ratio of 1:4. The resulting solution can be used not only for instillation, but also for washing the eyes.

How can a hamster hurt his eyes? What to do in this case?

What to do if a hamster's eyes fester, but there can be no talk of unsanitary conditions or allergies? Make sure your pet is not injured.

Very often injured hamsters, whose owners use sawdust, dust, dry hay as "litter". That is, we are talking about the most common splinter that did not hit the finger, but the eyelid or cheek.

If only the eye is swollen, and the muzzle is devoid of swelling or compaction, it is most likely that a piece of litter has fallen under the eyelid. Accordingly, the eye should simply be rinsed. But if half of the muzzle is swollen, including the eyebrow and cheek, you should contact your veterinarian. Independent actions can harm the hamster.

Of course, if the foreign object that caused the swelling and suppuration is visible, then you can remove it with tweezers. This should be done carefully, it is important not to leave microparticles in the wound. After extractionsplinters need to wash the wound. If it is outside, on the muzzle, then you can use an antiseptic or potassium permanganate. Treatment of the skin area with iodine will not hurt either. The eye should be washed with chamomile infusion or tea.

Self-extraction of a traumatic object requires great skill, patience and accuracy. If there is no certainty that the splinter can be removed, you need to take the pet to the clinic. Of course, you should immediately contact your veterinarian even if the traumatic object is invisible.

Suppurating eyes are a symptom of what diseases? What to do in this situation?

Hamsters suffer from many ailments. Eye diseases, the treatment of which does not give any result, as a rule, are not at all a pathology of the organs of vision. That is, this disorder acts as a symptom, and therefore does not respond to local treatment.

Most often, signs of conjunctivitis are accompanied by:

• pneumonia;
• bronchitis;
• tuberculosis;
• viral and fungal infections;
• hormonal disorders;
• a sharp weakening of the body's immunity.

An animal's immunity can be weakened for many reasons. A monotonous and meager diet, devoid of vitamins, may be to blame for this. Immunity may also decrease due to the disease.

Hormonal disorders are characteristic of obese animals suffering from obesity. And viral, fungal infections and colds of hamsters are infected by their owners.

What to do if the hamsterfestering eye due to another disease? Of course, you need to contact the veterinarian and diagnose the pathology. After the picture of the pet’s he alth status becomes clear, you need to start treating existing ailments. The eyes at this time should simply be washed, avoiding the accumulation and stagnation of pus in them.

Can eyes fester due to old age?

Age-related problems often manifest themselves in the form of eye pathologies not only in humans, but also in hamsters. It is not difficult to distinguish such eye ailments from all others. Swelling is never significant, and the eyeball usually has spots, opacities.

What to do if a hamster's eyes fester due to old age? Unfortunately, you can only take care of your pet, wash your eyelids and focus in his diet on foods that are good for the organs of vision and are easily digestible. For example, blueberries, apples, carrots. There is no cure for old age for both humans and hamsters.

What eye diseases do hamsters suffer from?

Of course, there are real eye diseases that rodents are prone to. These are not allergic reactions, not manifestations of any internal pathologies, not the consequences of injury and not a sign of age-related changes, but common ailments of the organs of vision that require diagnosis and special local therapy.

Hamsters suffer from these eye diseases:

• conjunctivitis;
• blepharitis;
• protruding eye symptom.

In fact, the symptom of a “popped eye” is not a disease, this pathology- a consequence of neglected conjunctivitis or a serious injury. However, since this condition requires serious treatment, veterinarians classify it as an eye disease, although they call it a symptom.

Conjunctivitis

Both of these diseases are extremely dangerous and require timely treatment. Of course, to make a diagnosis and prescribe therapy, you should contact the clinic. However, if this is not possible, then you can recognize the diseases and cope with them on your own.

The main signs of developing conjunctivitis are:

• yellow or green pus with a specific odor that accumulates in the corners of the eyes and causes them to stick;
• inflamed condition of the eyelids, noticeable swelling or swelling;
• hair loss around the eyes;
• temperature, general weakness, apathy and lack of appetite.

Hamster constantly keeps his eyes as if slightly narrowed or does not open them at all. The animal is so lethargic that it can simply lie down, not reacting to light, braking, or tasty food.

For treatment, you need to use Albucid eye drops. Bury the medicine requires three times a day. Recovery takes from three days to a couple of weeks. The terms depend both on the neglect of the disease and on the general state of he alth, on the age of the hamster.

Blepharitis

Blepharitis is a complication of advanced conjunctivitis. With this pathology, the inflammatory process completely captures the eyelids, which is why they become poisonous red. Fur is starting to come out all over.muzzle. The animal is tormented by severe itching, the hamster constantly rubs sore eyes. Also, the eyelids are very swollen, sometimes becoming bluish.

The treatment of this disease is similar to the treatment of conjunctivitis. However, drops alone are not enough. In addition to them, tetracycline ointment should be used. She treats the eyelids from the outside 2-3 times a day.

Of course, before dropping the medicine into the eyes, they must be washed, to remove the accumulated pus. You can do this with chamomile infusion or tea.

Pop-eye symptom

Often the owners of eye disease in hamsters are often noticed very late, and their treatment for this reason is not always simple. It is to such conditions that require a visit to a veterinary clinic that the symptom of a “popped eye” applies.

This pathology cannot be confused with any other disease. One eye of the hamster seems to roll out, as if something is pushing it out from the inside. The eye “pops out” most often due to a serious bruise, for example, that occurred when falling from a height of human growth. Also, this symptom may appear due to the presence of a latent eye infection that has developed on the inside of the organ of vision.

It is impossible to cope with this problem at home, because the pet needs the help of a surgeon. However, in most cases, the eye must be removed.

The development of ophthalmic diseases in hamsters is much easier to prevent than to cure. The main preventive measure is to maintain cleanliness in the animal's cage. Also needcorrectly compose the pet’s diet, do not use anything that can injure the hamster as a filler, and, of course, do not drop it.