wound/ gash/ puncture

[mecks]

i got three hamsters from someone trying to get rid of a liter of dwarf hamsters outside of petsmart. they were a christmas gift for my girlfriend. it turned out that i had 1male and 2 females. they both got pregnant. i eventually seperated the male, and then the baby males when they were old enough. i started giving them away little by little. i gave a pair of females to my next door neighbors' kids, ages 7(girl) and 14(boy). two weeks later their cat knocked over the cage at night when everyone was sleeping. the next morning the boy saw one of the dwarf hamsters trapped or hiding under the broken apart cage, she was wounded. she has a gash on her back. the other dwarf hamster came out three days later. she was the lucky one, no wounds of any sort, just dehydrated. we googled hamster wound and it said to use fish oil to treat it. my girlfriends aunt had some vitamin pills or something, that consist of fish oil. should we continue using them? i dont have much money at this moment to take her to the vet, but when i do, i will take her. the day we got her back, she was moving around as if traumatized and scared, biting me as if i were the cat, very understandable. we have her now for a week now. she seems very swollen, doesn't want to move much, unless we try to care for her or give her water and powdered or crushed hamster food. she can't use one of her front legs. we put the fishoil on her every day. she looks soaked, she rubs it all over. she keeps her eyes closed, has trouble opening them. she breathes fast and also shakes. how or should i clean her from all that fishoil, she must feel uncomfortable. i feel for her. can i bath her in water or should i use a damp or wet cloth? this is temporary i should be bringing her to the vet sometime of next week. please help with any information. thanks doc.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

This problem sounds severe.  The swelling and behavioral problems indicate internal damage, and, she sounds as if her front leg is fractured, the shoulder is dislocated, or there is spinal damage.  The prognosis for survival is low without treatment and she may not survive even with treatment.  Many vets discount treatment for "pocket pets", therefore I recommend that you at least call around to some veterinarians to ask.  

If she is suffering it may be best to have her humanely euthanized, which would not cost very much.

[ireneo]

Not everything you read online is correct. A bite wound needs to be cleaned thoroughly and possibly antibiotics given. In the case of a small animal with a cat bite, antibiotics are definitely needed. Remember, cats don't brush their teeth so a bite wound is like injecting bacteria into the skin.

Fish oil is NOT an antibiotic. It will not help. Now the hamster is oiled up and that makes a different problem.

From the way you describe her behavior, it sounds very serious, that an infection has set in and gone systemic. Do not bathe her right now. I'm sorry to say, unless you take her to the vet today, she may not survive. If the infection is throughout her body and has attacked her organs, she may not make it any way. Please don't wait any longer.