What a bloody weird day.
First, Richard wakes me up to tell me he's spitting up black stuff, and his tongue has turned black. So I get up, and find that Tweak has Wet Tail, which can kill hamsters within 24 hours if left untreated. We hurry to the car to drive to the pet store and buy some Wet Tail drops to put in Tweak's water... and, for the first time ever, the battery is dead. The seat belt had snagged in the door just enough to keep it open, so that the dome light burned all night. Richard calls CAA while I try to figure out what to do. I go online to see if there are any home remedies for Wet Tail. There aren't, but every single site I look at warns me NOT to use Wet Tail drops - they're ineffective. "You must take the hamster to the vet."
Fortunately the battery was OK and we were able to get to the emergency vet a few blocks away within the hour. But Tweak wasn't feeling sick, and insisted on gnawing her way out of the alarm-clock box I'd tucked her in, crawling up my arm, checking everything out. Extremely curious about everything. I waited for an hour while dogs with bizarre oozing wounds and even a dead dog came and went, trying to keep a very bored, hungry, and hyper hamster occupied. Finally Tweak was checked out and given some injected fluids, along with antiobiotics that must be administered orally every 12 hours. Sheesh.
Richard's malady turned out to be Black Hairy Tongue. Seriously. It's a mild yeast infection caused by Pepto-Bismol.
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9 comments:
Pepto bismal causes yeast infections? On the tongue? Wow. What is the treatment? Your poor hamster. I'm glad you got her to the vet on time.
Hairy Black Tongue is cured easily; all you have to do is brush your tongue extra-vigorously for a few days, rinse thoroughly, and stop taking Pepto-Bismol. The blackness goes away almost immediately. But it's the weirdest damn thing I've ever seen!!!
That's a good thing to know about those drops. No wonder we could never cure wet tail! Good thing you found a vet that works on Saturday! Keep an eye on Butters, and wash your hands, after handling Tweaks.
Dad will probably be the next one with Black Tongue. He's been drinking Pepto like it's water. Maybe I should give Dad the wet tail drops?
I thought you guys were delivering the butler this weekend?
I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's just the Pepto tablets that give you Black Hairy Tongue. Some Wet Tail drops couldn't hurt though, heehee.
We're delivering the butler next weekend, thank God. Richard has four nights off, so we might spend a night there.
Bi-zarre! What an a mazing series of occurences. The black hairy tongue- wow. I don't know anything about hamsters butI'm so relieved he'll be ok. What iswet tail?
Bi-zarre! What an a mazing series of occurences. The black hairy tongue- wow. I don't know anything about hamsters butI'm so relieved he'll be ok. What is wet tail?
I think there are several causes of wet tail in hamsters, but generally it's diarrhea. They dehydrate very quickly and usually can't move after a while, but somehow Tweak had all her energy when she was really sick. Now I'm staying up late every night to give her medicine, which fortunately tastes good to her, and cleaning out her cage every day. Basically I've become a hamster's bitch. ;D
Dangit, that was me. Richard didn't log out again.
I'm glad you clarified that. I was just gonna chew you out for making Doug clean the cages. ;)
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