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44K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  Chrissy 
#1 ·
Last night around midnight I heard my dwarf hamster, Elliot, scratching around so I looked into her cage to see that she had gotten her foot stuck between the little plastic "balcony" attached to the upper part of the cage and the wire of the cage bars.

I helped her get it out, but now she is keeping it tucked up and not stepping on that foot. It looks very limp like it may be broken above the foot.

I am totally broke and won't be able to take her to the vet until Friday when I get paid.

If I did take her to the vet, can they even do anything? I looked online and it seems to be a mixed response between "the vet will put a splint on it" and "you can't put a splint on a hamster because they will just chew it off."

It isn't bleeding, but it does look ever-so-slightly swollen, which would be expected. She's pretty much acting fine and even tried to run on the wheel right afterwards, but I've taken the wheel out so she doesn't further aggrivate the leg.

I'm transfering her to a plastic storage bin so she isn't tempted to climb the cage as well.

Any advice guys??
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like you're doing everything that I would have done. I found this as well, hopefully it helps.
Take one table spoon of salt, half a table spoon of turmeric powder (this is a yellow powder used in asian cuisine) add half a cup water and heat it gently on low fire, when the mixture thickens take an old peice of rag or bandage clothe and mix with the rest of the mixture. when it is luke warm wrap this rag round the broken leg with a little pressure. this bandage will dry quickly because of the salt in it. Leave it for 2-3 days or until the hamster starts walking without any difficulty. You can also wet the bandage twice daily with the rest of the mixture after heating it again to make it a liquid form. I tired this on a broken leg of a one month old chick and it worked.
 
#3 ·
=( poor girl... sorry i cant help. I havent had that problem before. I keep my hamster in a plastic bin, so she cant climb, and there are no shelves or bars. much safer. so its good that you are doing that.. hopefully there is something they can do..
friday is a long way away...
 
#5 ·
I know that dwarf hammies can survive an amputation to the leg. my friend had one that was unlucky enough to end up with only 2.5 legs left but it didn't bother it in the slightest. It still ran like the wind!

If you explained your money situation to your vet would he/she let you take her in earlier? It might be worth a try.

I hope everything turns out ok for her.
 
#6 ·
Update

Well, I have been taking care of poor little Elliot as good as I can. I gave her lots of stuff to chew on since she can't run on her wheel for the time being. And she's also in a plastic bin-house so she can't climb around and hurt herself more.

Her foot/leg isn't swollen anymore, and it seems to be getting better because it doesn't look as limp and lifeless as it did before. Perhaps she only sprained or twisted it. Either way, she's doing fine and has lots of Carefresh Ultra to burrow around in and stuff.

I did call a small animal vet, they said they won't put a splint or anything and if it wasn't cut there was no need for antibiotics. The only tip they gave me was to give her vitamins or soy milk for extra calcium...and that a broken limb might take 2-3 weeks to heal.

I feel bad taking away her wheel for that long. But hopefully she will heal up okay and be back to her normal self.
 
#7 ·
I had a very similar thing happen to my last dwarf hamster... She got her leg caught in the cage bars and I had to free her. I was sure her leg was broken because it was hanging limp and when she was caught she was hanging upside down with her leg twisted completely around. I asked my vet what to do and they said I could try making a splint but she'd probably chew it off. They also advised extra calcium (bread soaked in milk).
It turned out her leg was NOT broken! I was very surprised but after several days of limping and not moving that leg, she started putting weight on it and she recovered just fine. Hopefully your hamster is the same situation, from what you've described it does sound like it is doing better.
 
#8 ·
Wow, that sounds almost exactly like what happened to my hamster. Thanks for the imput, I really hope her leg isn't broken. It just looks so limp, like you said. It does seem like she's starting to use it a little more today even. She isn't keeping it as tucked up next to her as she was.
 
#9 ·
I hope that your little one will be ok. We raise dwarfs but I have never had any problems with broken bones or any of them getting caught on anything in their cage...are you using a wire/mesh cage or a bared cage? We are using a plastic cage at the moment and our hamsters love it.
 
#10 ·


The cage I have for her is this one. She's quite the climber, so I think that she was climbing up and her foot slid inbetween the cage bars and that attachable platform, so she then fell backwards and couldn't get her foot out.

This is the first time I've had anything like this happen to any of my hamsters. I always thought people were being over-paranoid about the wire cages being dangerous, but I guess maybe not.

She's doing fine for now, and the foot does seem to be getting better. I guess I'll just have to wait it out.
 
#12 ·
I'm glad she's getting better. I always thought that to but I found out a couple yrs ago when we had gerbals that they can indeed be dangerous. I refuse to use them anymore, we use either plastic cages or fish tanks. Our plastic cage has plenty of ares for our hamsters to climb and play and we've had NO problems with it at all, it's great.
 
#15 ·
Kendalle said:
Glad she is getting better!

Hehe if i were a hampster id want a bin cage that one looks fun with all the huts and tubs

Yea those are pretty neat looking. The ones we have have lots of tunnels and spaces they can crawl in and stuff. They are the big plastic cages. :)
 
#16 ·
Yes, I have her in a plastic bin house now that I made after she hurt her leg.

As a modification to the other ones I've seen, I actually used two floor register covers like this:
and cut holes into the top and just popped them in. They were about $3 each at Home Depot

It seems to allow air flow pretty well, I also make sure I open up the whole top a couple times a day to make sure enough air is going in.

Once Elliot heals up, I'm going to make her a more elaborate bin (this was an emergency bin on a $12 budget, haha) and probably make them for my other hamsters. I don't ususally like most of the hamster cages on the market anyway.

She actually seems to be getting better each day. She doesn't seem to be in pain at all and looks like she's starting to use her leg/foot more.

Thanks everyone for you advice and support!
 
#20 ·
Update

I took Elliot to the vet a few days ago, because the swelling had gone down but it looked like there was a red bulge in here ankle area.

I was afraid it was an infection or an abcess, so I took her in. The vet said that she thought the leg was probably broken in her accident and that the bulge may be part of the healing bone. But it wasn't an abcess and didn't seem to be infected. So all good news!

She sent me home with an anti-inflammatory/pain killer and a very low dose of anti-biotics just in case. Since giving Elliot her meds for a few days, she's running around like normal and not really even limping at all. I'll probably even be able to give her the wheel back soon.

It looks like she'll make a full recovery and live out the rest of her cute little hamster days. (She is two already.) =)

Thanks again everyone for your support and input!
 
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