About two years ago one of my hamsters got very very
sick, I think it may have
caught a draft or something along those lines. I had no idea what to do with it, because my
dad asked a vet friend and they said they usually don't treat hamsters because they're too
fickle and too small for most
medication. So.. I thought she was going to
die.. but..
My dad grew up on a farm with
chickens and all the standard
farm animals, which of course got sick from time to time. They used a
tetracycline based drug to treat chickens with
lung-type infections, which is what I assumed my hamster had. As a last-ditch effort to try and help this poor thing, we bought a pouch of tetracycline stuff (which could have treated a whole barn full of chickens and I can't be sure what it was called), and a little syringe
minus the needle. We mixed the tiniest bit of medicine with some
water and got the hamster to
drink just a bit of it..
It worked.
Was this a fluke? I don't know, for sure.. but
she was dying and I figured I might as well
try everything I could. We used it a couple other times to treat the sick little
critters and it seemed to help each time..
Remember, this is really
experimental, and its always good to consult a vet
first if you possibly can. Also, if you do decide to try it, make damn sure you use a very
tiny amount.. read the instructions as to the
dosage for larger animals and gauge how much you give the
hamster on that.
I'm only noding this in case any one else ends up in
a similar situation.. it's just an
idea, something to try
if all else fails. :)