How to understand that a hamster is dying and what to do

How to understand what is dying

The death of a pet rodent sometimes occurs unnoticed and quietly. Having left a vigorous animal in the evening, the owner finds in the morning a cold and numb body with no signs of life. However, in many cases, careful attention will allow you to notice deviations from habitual behavior that foreshadow death.

Death from old age

Hamsters are small animals. The size of their internal organs is appropriate, therefore the tiny heart, kidneys, and stomach wear out quickly, so the rodent does not live very long. Situations of stress and improper care do not add to the health of the animal and shorten its already short life.

An unhealthy looking pet may indicate impending death. Signs of impending aging are:

hair loss, its unhealthy appearance;
refusal to eat;
increase in sleep period;
bowel dysfunction;
decreased motor activity.

Old age in a hamster begins at 20 - 24 months.

If a pet older than the specified age exhibits at least two of the indicated symptoms, then most likely in 1-2 weeks he will die of old age.

In addition to natural death in old age, rodents die for other reasons.

How to determine the age of a hamster?

Poisoning

Even when kept in a cage, a hamster can eat toxic substances; the symptoms of fatal poisoning are:

salivation;
convulsions;
paralysis of limbs;
coordination problems;
rapid breathing;
increase or decrease in temperature.

Injuries

Rodents rarely survive severe trauma. Traumatic factors can be:

falling from a height;
attack by domestic animals;
awkward manipulations with a pet.

Injuries that are accompanied by blood loss, spinal fractures, and damage to the skull and brain become fatal. If, after receiving an injury, the animal lies immobilized, makes weak monotonous sounds, and has involuntary trembling of the limbs, then death may occur in the coming hours.

We establish the fact of death

The death of a hamster can sometimes be confused with paralysis or sound sleep. If your hamster suddenly died, you need to make sure that it is really death and not paralysis. But how to do that?

The most important signs of a dead animal are the absence of a pulse and breathing. You need to bring the mirror close to the nose: if it fogs up slightly, then the animal is still alive. To determine the heartbeat, the body must be picked up. By the way, you can determine its temperature in the same way: no heat comes from dead hamsters. The fact of death may also be indicated by the numbness of the hamster.

Deadly diseases

What is the most common cause of death for babies? The cause of premature death of a hamster can be a variety of diseases:

tumors;
infectious and cold processes;
metabolic disorders;
diseases of internal organs.

How do you know if your hamster may be dying? In a sick rodent:

loss of appetite;
noticeably depressed state;
stool is disturbed;
breathing and heart rate changes;
skin condition worsens;
the cornea of the eyes becomes cloudy;
motor activity changes;
depression or overexcitation is observed.

Due to their small size, it is very difficult to diagnose the problem in time; many diseases have a lightning-fast course. Usually the owner begins to sound the alarm when it is too late to treat the pet.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the death of the female and (or) offspring during childbirth.

Has your hamster died or hibernated?

How to help a hamster in the last days of life

To ease the suffering of a small animal in the last days of its existence, try to make them as comfortable as possible for it.

If the house or nest is on the upper floors of the cage, move it to the bottom. Remove wheels, ladders and other play equipment from the cage so that your pet does not fall from them and get injured.
If there are still hamsters living in the cage, then remove them. It is better not to touch a sick animal so as not to cause unnecessary stress.
Try to feed him these days only what he really liked.
No matter how strong your desire to caress and pity your pet is, do not give in to it. Sick animals love solitude.

This will only harm him.

The main signs of death are the absence of breathing and pulse

What to do to save a dying pet

When can you save

Timely treatment will help save your pet's life. The hamster is helped by:

for minor wounds and injuries;
for curable diseases;
for mild poisoning.

To do this, you first need to contact a rodent specialist.

In the case when traumatic injuries are diagnosed, the pet is provided with rest, its mobility is limited and the doctor’s orders are followed.

Wound surfaces are carefully but carefully treated with aseptic means.

In the early stages of the disease, a timely diagnosis and compliance with the doctor’s prescription will help save the rodent.

If the substance or poison that caused the poisoning is known, then you need to independently or with the help of a specialist select and give an antidote or a reverse drug. Drinking plenty of water will also help, water, chamomile decoction can be given using a syringe until the signs of poisoning disappear.

Careful care, proper feeding, keeping a dry and moderately warm room will speed up the healing process and prolong the life of the pet.

In what cases can you not help?

If the pet is old, then it is impossible to save it from natural death. The mechanisms of suppression of all vital functions associated with age will inevitably cause the death of the pet.

You also cannot help a relatively young animal:

in case of severe poisoning, especially rat poison;
for oncological diseases;
with injuries incompatible with life;
under extreme stress.

What to do when you can’t help a dying rodent

If the hamster shows no signs of life other than breathing, then you can leave it alone in its usual cage until it dies out completely.

How do hamsters behave before imminent death? When an animal groans or wheezes, it is most likely experiencing severe physical pain. In this case, you need to make a decision to euthanize your pet.

Euthanasia of a sick animal doomed to death is a choice between a painless and quick death and a slow, painful death.

Euthanasia services are provided by veterinary clinics. The procedure takes place in two main stages. First, the animal is put into deep sleep under anesthesia, after which the specialist administers a medicine that stops the heart.

At the owner's request, the rodent's body will be disposed of.

Temperature-related disorders

If the hamster did not show the slightest signs of illness and suddenly fell into an unconscious state, it may be hibernating. In the natural environment, Djunga hamsters retire in winter, experiencing cold weather, periods of lack of food and insufficient lighting. The other extreme is overheating of the hamster, and this is much more dangerous than cooling, since the small animal is absolutely defenseless against high thermometer readings. It is overheating that most often becomes the cause of death for a rodent.

Low room temperature

Turning off the heating or leaving a window open for a long time on a frosty day can cause the hamster to fall into torpor. In this case, the body will be very cold, and the heartbeat will slow down significantly - to one beat every fifteen seconds. A sleeping hamster barely breathes and due to its small size it is quite difficult to determine how intense the breathing is and whether it exists at all. But if the body is soft to the touch, this means that the rodent is alive.

To awaken it, you need to move the cage to a room with a temperature above +20 degrees. The hamster will wake up in 2-3 days and care should be taken that the feeder and drinker are full when he wakes up.

This is especially important, since during hibernation a rodent wastes a very large amount of energy and its health will depend on how quickly it replenishes it with food. A hamster left hungry after hibernation may develop serious liver problems.

This method of awakening is optimal, since it is close to how a hamster wakes up from hibernation in its natural environment, but the process can be accelerated:

Wrap the hamster in a warm cloth or down mitten, place it in a cage and move it to a room with a high temperature.
Fill several bottles with hot water, place them in a row and place the cage on them. Heat will be transferred through the bottom, warming the hamster

Heat

Exposure to high temperatures has an extremely negative effect on hamsters. These animals have very dense fur and completely lack protection from overheating - they do not sweat and cannot breathe through their mouths.

You can tell that a hamster is overheated by the fact that it does not move and is breathing heavily, or its coordination of movements is impaired and it is generally weakened.

Heatstroke can be caused by the following situations:

Transport by car
A cage placed on a windowsill or balcony so that the hamster is exposed to direct sunlight
The animal's house is located next to the heating devices
There is not enough air in the room where the hamster is located and it is very humid

If you decide to get a hamster, remember that they do not live long - about two to three years, after which they inevitably die. But under the influence of certain factors, the animal may die earlier. However, not every owner knows what to do and how to help their pet.

Reasons for premature departure

Death during childbirth

Sometimes the cubs are stillborn. Sometimes during childbirth the following may happen:

the giving birth female dies;
newborn puppies die;
Both mother and newborns die.

The main reason for the death of a female in childbirth is too early pregnancy. In this case, labor is weak, the fetuses that died inside the womb decompose and the animal dies.

The process is fleeting. Sometimes the female manages to give birth to several completely alive and strong hamsters, and then dies. In this case, the owner is faced with the question of what to do with the offspring. If there is no experience and opportunity to feed the offspring every 2 hours with a special milk formula and warm them, then it is wiser to euthanize the newborns. Otherwise, any error in care will cause illness and death of pets.

The birth of stillborn cubs or their death in the first minutes of life and the subsequent death of the female indicate not only a pathological birth, but also a previous illness.

During or after a fight

Hamsters fight very brutally.
In the wild, hamsters live alone, so at home they will protect their home from their fellows. In this case, rodent fights end in death.

It is almost impossible to save an animal from lacerated bite wounds; if the fight happened at night, then most likely a dead animal will be found in the cage in the morning.

After or during anesthesia

If a sick or injured hamster is treated under anesthesia, the animal may fall asleep so deeply that it gradually stops breathing and cardiac activity.

Sudden death

A pet hamster can die due to general health. The causes of sudden death are heart attacks or strokes. Such disorders are associated with the functioning of blood vessels and the heart; they are quite typical for these rodents. Sudden cardiac arrest may be the result of severe fright, such as that caused by a sudden attack by a cat.

Death from boredom

By nature, hamsters are loners. During the breeding season, they do not form social groups, and the female spends only a few hours with the male. If after mating the partner does not leave in time, then he may become a victim of the female, who in these animals can be larger and stronger.
Therefore, you should not attribute human feelings and emotions to a rodent; they are not capable of dying of melancholy if the cage is cleaned and there is food and water.

Steps

How to tell if your hamster is hibernating

Think about how unexpected this happened.
Has your hamster been feeling unwell lately? Maybe he has lost his appetite or started drinking more than usual? Have you noticed that your hamster's stool has changed? What weight did he lose? That he became less mobile and stopped running in a wheel? If you've noticed these signs frequently lately, the cause of immobility is most likely death.

But if recently the hamster was completely healthy, but suddenly became completely motionless, most likely the hamster is simply hibernating.

The age of the hamster plays an important role. How old is your pet? The average lifespan of rodents is 18-24 months, very few hamsters live to 36 months

If the hamster is already old, the risk of it dying increases. Pay attention to the ambient temperature. Hamster hibernation largely depends on temperature. If the air temperature in the room is above 20 degrees Celsius, then hibernation is unlikely to be the cause of immobility

If the room is hot, pay attention to whether the hamster's cage is located near the air conditioner. Air conditioners make the room very cold, which can cause the hamster to hibernate. Therefore, even in a stuffy room, there is a chance that your hamster is simply fast asleep. Think about whether the hamster has enough food and whether he has enough light. Hamsters hibernate during difficult times when there are not enough resources to survive. This is usually due to harsh winters, low temperatures, short days and lack of food.

If possible, get close to it and look at it for a few minutes. Remember that the hamster's entire body has gone into hibernation and slowed down, so breathing may be almost unnoticeable.

Observe the hamster for more than two minutes. In 2 minutes you may not notice signs of life and not see if the hamster is breathing. Then you may mistakenly think that the hamster is dead.

Feel if your hamster's heart is beating.

If you can't see if your hamster is breathing, try feeling its heartbeat. It may slow down significantly, but will still be present. A hibernating hamster can feel as few as four beats per minute, or one beat every 15 seconds.

It will be difficult for you to feel the heart of a hamster due to the small size of the animal. To do this, place the thumb and index finger of one hand on either side of the hamster's chest (behind the elbows). Apply a little pressure, but not too much. Wait a little. After some time, you may feel a slight tremor at your fingertips.

A hamster's body temperature is not an indicator of its life/death.

Don't worry if your hamster suddenly seems cold to you. This doesn't mean he's dead. During hibernation, all processes in the body slow down and body temperature decreases.

How to wake a hamster from hibernation

To awaken your hamster from hibernation, take him to a room where the air temperature is about 20 degrees Celsius. After 2-3 days the hamster should wake up on its own.
Fill your hamster's feeder and water bowl with food and water in advance.

How to bury

The most reasonable and correct thing is to give the body to a clinic, where it will be disposed of in accordance with all sanitary standards. The service is paid, but not very expensive.

Even if you were very attached to your pet, you should not turn the flowerbed near the entrance into a cemetery for domestic rodents. Most likely, the burial will be dug up by cats or dogs.

It is better to bury your pet not in the yard, but away from crowded places. If, nevertheless, it is decided to bury the body, then it is better to do it in a vacant lot, on the outskirts of a forest, or in a corner of a summer cottage.

The pet is wrapped in cloth or placed in a small box. If the death occurred in winter, you will have to spend a little effort digging a hole.

The hole should be up to 30 - 40 cm deep. After the improvised grave is covered with earth, the soil must be well compacted.

Correct content

First, let's look at how to properly keep a hamster, because poor living conditions can cause death.

If you want to create ideal living conditions for your pet, you should not seek advice from sellers and consultants at pet stores. Often these people do not have specialized training and are interested in getting as much money as possible for goods, even if in the end they may cost your pet's life.

To keep your hamster healthy, it is important to choose the right cage. A high cage is dangerous, as hamsters like to climb up the bars under the roof and fall from there, seriously injuring themselves.

The cage should be spacious. Minimum bottom dimensions:

for dwarf species – 50*30 cm;
for Syrian hamsters – 60*40 cm.

The minimum size means that it is advisable to take a larger cage along the bottom, but not smaller.

Equally important is a running wheel of the correct size:

for a dwarf hamster, the wheel diameter is from 16 cm;
for a Syrian hamster – from 18 cm.

You shouldn’t take two hamsters with the motivation “so that one doesn’t get bored.” Hamsters are territorial animals. There is a high probability that one day, instead of two pets getting along, you will see a bloody battle with a fatal outcome. This applies to both different-sex and same-sex hamsters.

Do not engage in uncontrolled breeding of hamsters. Pregnancy seriously shortens the life of the female, and in some cases can lead to the death of her and her babies. Hamsters are famous for the fact that they can easily eat their offspring.

Hamsters should not be bathed in water. They need special sand for bathing.

How to cope with loss

Children often grieve over a loss. In order for grief to stop tormenting them, it would be advisable to go to a pet store on the next weekend and buy a new pet there. Although in this regard the decision is made individually.

The death of a living creature is inevitable, so when taking responsibility for caring for and maintaining a hamster, remember that you will have to deal with the death of your pet. But if you kept the rodent with dignity and were an attentive owner, then these thoughts will comfort you at the moment of your pet’s death.

Hamster diseases and their treatment. If your hamster is breathing heavily through his mouth

Due to excitement, it is difficult to figure out what to do if the hamster lies and does not move, but is breathing. After all, the presence of breathing means that the animal is still alive.

Before you run to the vet, you need to try to figure out why your pet is lying motionless

Pay attention to other signs: whether the eyes are closed, how often the rodent breathes. If the eyelids are closed and breathing is calm, the hamster may just

If a previously healthy animal suddenly falls into a coma, it is possible that it is hibernating. Breathing will be very rare, and the pet will be cold to the touch. In nature, dwarfs hibernate in winter, waiting out cold, hunger and short daylight hours.

Proper nutrition

There is a wide variety of food for rodents on display at pet stores. However, despite what the labels say, not all of them are created equal. Cheap food is not suitable for feeding hamsters - they are usually of poor quality, incorrectly balanced, and do not contain all the necessary substances and vitamins. There have been cases where rodent poison was found in food, which caused the death of pets.

For normal functioning, hamsters need balanced dry food. It should include cereals, plant seeds, herbs and flowers, as well as protein supplements in the form of dried insects.

It is important to give hamsters allowed vegetables and fruits. You can feed hamsters cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, turnips, radish. Types of hamsters that are not predisposed to diabetes can be given pumpkin, carrots, fruits and dried fruits.

It is forbidden to give onions, white cabbage, sorrel.

Other diseases

If your hamster is breathing frequently "out of the blue" without being scared or tired, this indicates respiratory or heart failure.

Pneumonia

You need to listen to the breathing of a tiny animal - wheezing, gurgling, snuffling indicate problems with the lungs. If you've recently had a runny nose and your hamster has become lethargic and reluctant to eat, it could be pneumonia (pneumonia). The animal simply cannot breathe, so it tries not to move and freezes in one place.

Treatment consists of antibiotic therapy - for small rodents, Baytril 2.5% is traditionally used at a dose of 0.4 ml per 1 kg of weight (for a dzhungarik weighing 50 grams, this is 0.01 ml). Injections are given subcutaneously 1 time a day for 10-14 days.

Agony

If a hamster lies motionless with his eyes open and breathes heavily, and before that he was sick for several days, then he dies. There is no way to help a rodent in agony; even an experienced veterinarian can only end the suffering by euthanizing the animal.

Consider whether your hamster has wet tail fur (a sign of diarrhea), a sudden increase in abdominal contour, or sudden weight loss. Hamsters have a very fast metabolism, so they cannot be sick for a long time: without proper treatment or in case of severe problems, they “burn out” in a few days.

Cancer

Also called neoplasia, the most common areas for hamsters to develop spontaneous malignancy are the gastrointestinal tract, hematopoietic system, skin area, and appendages. Lymphoma is the most commonly reported cancer of the hematopoietic system. Hamsters with cutaneous lymphoma may experience anorexia, alopecia (patchy hair loss), and weight loss. These symptoms may lead to a misdiagnosis of Cushing's disease.
Melanomas that occur on the skin are often reported and mainly in male hamsters.
Djungarian (winter white) hamsters develop neoplasms at a rate 5 times greater than Syrian hamsters, with most tumors being integumentary.
Cancer is less common in hamsters than in other animals such as rats, poultry, and some strains of mice, but it is still commonly reported and likely goes undetected when hamsters pass away unexpectedly.