Surprise, Surprise!

[daddysgurl9245]

Well, my sister comes home from work and what does she have? A hamster! There's something very special about this little critter though. She's deformed. His/her (haven't checked gender yet) head tilts to the side when he/she walks. He/she is very cute though! It's a Syrian, all black, but the underside, from it's chin to it's little bottom is all white. My sister works at PetSmart and of course, we all know they sell little critters there and three of them happened to be special. Her friend took a gerbil with a bone missing in it's leg and two hamsters with bones missing in their faces. They were free due to their deformities. My sister's manager bought them the cages and food. We have to be careful what we put in the hamster's cage though...no upper levels; it would fall off the ramps, and definately no wheel! Have any of you ever had a hamster like this? Are they any different than a regular hammy? Oh...the hamster's name is Sammy, the Tilted Head Hammy! Sammy or Sam for short. :D

[Firewolf]

Thats nice of you to save deformed hamsters. I've heard of other hamsters deformed but never really seen one. Well I don't know too much about deformed hamsters.

[pixibubbles]

not experiecned anything with them either... could you post photos of sammy?

i dont kno how big the cage is but some run about wheels are designed to be put in a cage.... he/she wouldnt be able to fall out of that...

[TiaMaria]

Are you sure it's deformed? It sounds like head tilt to me!

[TiaMaria]

Hamsters can suffer from strokes and these most often occur overnight when the hamster is active. The hamster may appear unco-ordinated with semi-paralysis on one side of the body resulting in a head tilt and inability to walk straight. The hamster may also fall over repeatedly or be unable to sit up.

Many hamsters do recover well from strokes but it is essential in the early days following a stroke that the hamster continues to eat and drink and depending on the severity of the stroke it may be necessary to hand feed the hamster and take it to the water bottle to enable it to drink, or place the hamster in the nest with some food and move the water bottle close to the nest.

Hamsters that have suffered strokes usually show some improvement within a couple of days and will continue to improve over the next few weeks, regaining their mobility and co-ordination. However, some head tilt may remain.

Another cause of head tilt and loss of balance may be an ear infection and therefore if the hamster shows no improvement within a day or two veterinary advice should be sought as it may be a cureable ear infection.

[babybluesmommy]

This is not a criticism to you or your sister....but maybe she should talk to Petsmart about finding different breeders. That sounds like alot of deformed animals all at once. Why would a good breeder send those animals to a petstore?

[dwankrista]

It sounds to me like an inner ear infection. The hamster needs a vet.

[TiaMaria]

It sounds to me like an inner ear infection. The hamster needs a vet.

Thats what I thought :|

[Chaos]

I would bet an inner ear infection, or even a pituitary tumor. Both require medical attention, though there's not much you can do for a pituitary tumor.

[daddysgurl9245]

Sammy seems to walk around, eat, drink, and use the potty alright. I'm not quite sure if the vet examined her (we checked, it is a little girl), but I would imagine she did. I'll ask my sister anyway. Is it possible it could be just a genetic defect too?

Oh, and I'll try to get pics of Sammy up when I can find a decent digital camera. :D

[sumsolusfleo]

I used to work for Petsmart and the breeders that we got our pets from are horrible, but Petsmart won't change them. We always got sick animals in and a lot died an hour or two after they arrived. Hamsters always came in with wettail, guineas came in skinny and very ill. We had one rat come in without an eye....birds are always sick when they come in. Parakeets anyway, finches and doves always come in healthier than the parakeets.

[iheartu]

thats horrible :( poor babies... at least the ones that survive it get a second chance at life...

[sumsolusfleo]

Yeah. I used to adopt a lot of them. A blind winter white hamster that everyone thought was evil cause she attacked any hand that entered her cage, but she got semi used to my scent so I was able to pick her up. No one ever noticed she was blind till I pointed it out. A sick guinea pig that a certain manager (don't like her) didn't want to spend the money to get the proper things done to make her better, a one legged finch and his mate...and plenty more. That is why I eventually quit...a certain manager who didn't care about what happened to the animals....

[Moosley]

It could easily be a genetic problem, a genetic neurological problem. I have... had.. a winter white 'mushroom' which has now been proved to be a hybrid, but his line, his family, ALL the mushrooms had 'issues' and this one being the worst (and last of the line of course).

He had a head tilt and he weaved his head as well. He lived a perfectly normal life, had a cage with 3 levels and had a wheel, although he spent more time in a bin cage, he always had a wheel and still loved it.

I wouldn't advise keeping the hamster without a wheel unless it is going to really hurt itself trying to use it, the worst that can happen is that they fall out...

[TiaMaria]

It could easily be a genetic problem, a genetic neurological problem. I have... had.. a winter white 'mushroom' which has now been proved to be a hybrid, but his line, his family, ALL the mushrooms had 'issues' and this one being the worst (and last of the line of course).

He had a head tilt and he weaved his head as well. He lived a perfectly normal life, had a cage with 3 levels and had a wheel, although he spent more time in a bin cage, he always had a wheel and still loved it.

I wouldn't advise keeping the hamster without a wheel unless it is going to really hurt itself trying to use it, the worst that can happen is that they fall out...
I agree, oyu can get an all plastic wheel, a silent spinner or something that will make her safe when she runs!

[pixibubbles]

you could use a really thick layer of bedding... rocky has an obsession with climbing to the top of the cage and then letting go lol... so i put lots of carefresh in coz it gives her a nice landing spot.

you can also get balls that fit in cages he could falll out of that :)

[ilovepink]

lol hehehe:p
she sounds so cute,cant wait to see pictures.
I think a trip to the vets would be good.
grrr i hate hearing bad stories about pet shops,how sad:mad:

[daddysgurl9245]

Thanks for all the great advice guys! She does have a Silent Spinner in her cage now and she seems to be using it ok. For the person that was talking about all of the deformed animals she's rescued, two of mine, well, three now, are rescues from PetSmart. One of my rats has a hernia and they weren't able to sell her, so I took her; for free of course. One of my pigs was in horrible health, had bumblefoot and skin conditions and they were only feeding him carrots when I got him...again, for free. He wasn't very nice at first, but with love and great care, he's just like any other guninea pig and as sweet as can be. And of course, Sammy. :D

[daddysgurl9245]

Oh...and pictures will be up whenever I can get the disc loaded onto my computer.