Milk Disiese

[ZeKe]

I need information on Milk Disiese aside from what I found @The Complete Hamster Siter. Thanks, I think I just lost a whole litter in a day to it. I can explain if anyone is interested

[Sarah]

pls explain. would try my best to prevent tragedies for occuring..

[ZeKe]

First of all, anyone who is going to breed hamsters should certainly keep a diary of everything that goes on. I wish I had in this case.

I had 6 babies Monday, on their 15th day of life. Their eyes should have opened on the 13th, but they didn't. The mother and babies were doing a great job aside from this immaturity of development.

Monday night 1 baby was found dead, half eaten. I assumed the mother killed it off for her own reasons. Tuesday morning(day 16) No eyes were open, 2 more babies were found dead. External wounds consisted of bites to the nostril area and upper skull, in a few victims the legs were also removed.

At about 5:00pm another(the 4th) was found in the same possition. This left 2 babies to survive until 10:00pm when I checked again. One was found dead barried by the mother across the otherside of the tank.

I dug into the mother's nest to find the 6th dead, in its sleep. Becuase of this one case, I feel that all 6 hamsters died of reasons other than externally inflicted wounds. Therefore I don't think the mother killed them.

I asked around and I got the name "Milk Disease" it seems to fit the discription. I wanted more info on it if I can find it.

[Sarah]

hi zeke,
so sorry for the new borns. http://petshub.com/ubb/frown.gif

sounds to me like the mummy hammy ate them otherwise y would there b missing limbs n bitten nosrils?

so wat is this milk diease all abt?

Originally posted by ZeKe:
First of all, anyone who is going to breed hamsters should certainly keep a diary of everything that goes on. I wish I had in this case.

I had 6 babies Monday, on their 15th day of life. Their eyes should have opened on the 13th, but they didn't. The mother and babies were doing a great job aside from this immaturity of development.

Monday night 1 baby was found dead, half eaten. I assumed the mother killed it off for her own reasons. Tuesday morning(day 16) No eyes were open, 2 more babies were found dead. External wounds consisted of bites to the nostril area and upper skull, in a few victims the legs were also removed.

At about 5:00pm another(the 4th) was found in the same possition. This left 2 babies to survive until 10:00pm when I checked again. One was found dead barried by the mother across the otherside of the tank.

I dug into the mother's nest to find the 6th dead, in its sleep. Becuase of this one case, I feel that all 6 hamsters died of reasons other than externally inflicted wounds. Therefore I don't think the mother killed them.

I asked around and I got the name "Milk Disease" it seems to fit the discription. I wanted more info on it if I can find it.

[Sarah]

hi zeke,
so sorry for the new borns. http://petshub.com/ubb/frown.gif

sounds to me like the mummy hammy ate them otherwise y would there b missing limbs n bitten nosrils?

so wat is this milk diease all abt?

[ZeKe]

If the babies died of natural causes the mom would either eat them to destroy the corpse or kill them because she knew they were about to die - to put them out of their misery. It seems like mom didn't kill the babies, just rather ate parts of them and barried them somewhere(she barried them with her food)

As I mentioned the 6th one died without any external wounds. I don't know what milk disease is all about really just yet

[Yinx]

Hello,

If the hamster pups did die of milk fever, all of them would have swollen bellies. Seeing they were already dead, the mother might have decided to 'dispose' of them by eating them up. As mentioned in CHS, this provides her with extra protein to rear the other pups.

When I had my accidental litter of Syrian pups (the mother was already pregnant when I purchased her), some of the pups did not open their eyes on day 13 as well. In fact, if memory doesn't fail me, some of them only opened their eyes on day 17 or so.

Of the 8 pups in the litter, one of them also died of milk disease (at abt 2wks old). The unfortunate pup had already opened its' eyes by then, & when I found it, it had a swollen belly. Luckily, the other pups were not infected.

Milk fever *can* be cured if treated in advance. Just administer antibiotics to the mother & everythg should be fine. However, this has to be done during the early stages; as soon as it's detected.

[miachan]

Hi..
hope this quote may b of some help..??

"Milk Fever is an illness of baby hamsters who have been nursing. The main symptom is a bloated belly and the main cure is anitbiotics and an alternative food source. If the baby is very young (under two weeks) and has to continue nursing the mother MUST also be treated with antibiotics.
"Bird Myacin" is very effective to cure Milk Fever... Dissolve on tablet in the hamster's water per day..."

Taken from;
http://www.homestead.com/hamsterhaven/SICK.html


[This message has been edited by miachan (edited 02-19-2001).]

[This message has been edited by miachan (edited 02-19-2001).]