Elderly hamsters and cats

Hi Cat,

Thanks for all the advice you gave me for my elderly hamster, he was at the vets again this morning. He is eating well and was even on his wheel last night. I´m now monitoring his weight so if I notice any changes or I feel he is in pain then I can go back and see what the vet says. He had to have his teeth filed for the second time in 3 weeks, I was wondering, is there anything I can do to get him chewing on something? He´s got wooden toys and toilet roll tubes in his cage but he doesn´t touch them. With him being old it´s not ideal that he keep going to the vets to get his teeth done.

I have another query, I volunteer at an animal rescue, and on saturday I took an elderly cat to the vets and then brought her to my house as she was off her food, lethergic and generally not herself. The vet gave her some antibiotics and something to get her appetite back. I have an elderly cat myself (16ish) so I kept her seperate from mine - incase she had something contagious. Sadly she had to go back to the vets on sunday and was PTS today, the vet said it could have been feline parvo, as a litter of kittens that had come into the rescue lost their lives to it.

When I take my cat to the vets for his boosters, is he protected against parvo? Do you think he could have caught it? He had no contact with her but nevertheless I´m still worried. I´ve looked up the symptoms online so I´ll keep a look out for them, but do you think its worth me taking him to the vets anyway?

Many thanks again,
Cally

From the topic:

02. Vet Chat

Report

Comments

Post a comment in this discussion:

25 Nov 2009 14:51

Cat the Vet

Hi Cally,

Feline ´Parvovirus´ is better known as Feline Panleukopaenia (or Feline Infectious Enteritis - just to make it really confusing!) and is a fairly rare infection these days, mainly thanks to vaccinations. It is a disease very similar to Parvovirus in dogs, hence its common name and has similar symptoms. It is usually only seen in young kittens born into communities where the level of vaccination is very low. It can cause a variety of symptoms but it usually either kills the kittens while they are still in the womb or shortly after birth. Of those that do survive many will have ´Cerebellar Hypoplasia´ which gives them a characteristic ´wobbly´ walk. There is a video of a cat with this condition on my profile page. Vaccination against Feline Infectious Enteritis is very effective and if your can has been done then he should be safe from the disease.

As for the hamster, providing him with things to nibble on is all you can really do but if he won´t use them I can understand your frustration! As he is older his jaws may simply not be very strong, or they could be arthritic, which would mean he is less able to chew. There are some chew toys for the small furries which are flavoured, it might be worth trying those but if he copes well with his trips to the vets then they are unlikely to cause him too much stress, and they are definitely preferable to over-grown teeth.

Cat

Report