Hamster skin infection..... any chance of a happy ending?

[OohMrDarcy]

My gorgeous syrian hamster has developed a skin infection, been going on a few weeks - started around scent gland area looking like a scab so after some googling I left it thinking it was normal

then another one appeared on her tummy.... did more googling and from recommendations ordered some bephar anti parasite spot on and applied 2 doses a week apart..... no change

so this morning we went for our first ever trip to the vets..., he said it looked nasty, has prescribed 2 weeks of liquid antibiotics, but has hinted it might not work, and even suggested skin cancer possibilities

has anyone had anything like this and had hammy live to tell the tale?

[Iwillorderthefood]

Oh I am sorry, we had one with this and he died. His was skin cancer though.

[TheFairyCaravan]

Oh no!

We had one with a scabby tumour on his leg. We took him to the vets who said it was a cancer, but as it was causing no bother to leave well alone. He lived happily for another six months before we had to have him PTS.

[OohMrDarcy]

oh dear, was hoping for positive stories

Fingers crossed it does work for her.... please send healing vibes!

Amazing how much I am listening out and feel relieved when I hear her have a deink!

[TheFairyCaravan]

MrDarcy I'll keep sending healing vibes.

My eldest hamster is 2yrs 4 months and I am dreading the day he dies. He is such a lovely little thing, really happy, loves being handled, sleeps on us, snuggles in. He adores DS1, who is leaving for 7 weeks on Monday, I am hoping he is still here when he comes home next. Everytime We hear him have a drink, you can hear the collective sigh of relief and he is in fine fettle at the moment!

[OohMrDarcy]

Thanks, last night she seemed on top top form rearranging all the stuff in her cage.... I want to hope that antibiotics are kicking in already, but I know thats wishful thinking...... fingersvare crossed

[OohMrDarcy]

She's still here, I'm not sure if that is good or not.... I've seen a little less of her - guess the scab on her tum is sore.... I think I was hoping I'd see some miraculous improvement before now

[OohMrDarcy]

Had to have her put to sleep this morning

Another one of these scabs had developed by her eye and she became quieter in herself over the last 2/3 days, then last night she fell and couldn't stand back up so tried to ring the original vet this morning... after an hour they still weren't answering so rang another local one who were brilliant. I had her down there within 30 mins and the vet was amazing ( clearly knew a fair bit about small animals, he had hammys himself) and knew straight away what her issue was - it was a hamster form of vasculitis - so all her veins etc had been dying off slowly he agreed that it was the right thing to do and put her to sleep. He gave her an anasthetic first as he thought because of the part on her tummy (would have been massively sore he said) it might cause more pain than normal so he sent her to sleep before the injection....

Rest in peace Cookie

[phantomnamechanger]

Aw. sorry to hear this, RIP cookie