Hamster Ailments - Swollen Testicles
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007Our Syrian Hamster, Trouble, is over 2 years old now and entering the twilight stages of his life. Over the past month, we have become increasingly concerned about his health after he developed swollen testicles.
As any owner of a male hamster will probably concur, hamster testicles are rather 
large in comparison to the size of a hamster generally. However, problems with testicular cancer and infections are also well recognised in the older hamster. Trouble was also exhibiting signs of being generally unwell. He seemed more lethargic, was spending less time awake and appeared quite disorientated at times. His testicles also felt very warm to touch.
A trip to the vets reassured us that a diagnosos of testicular cancer was unlikely. There were no hard lumps (which the vet found out to her cost as Trouble - our very placid and tame hamster - sunk his teeth into the vets finger!) and the fact that both testicles were equally swollen, suggested that an infection was the most likely cause. The poor mite had to have an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory injection and we were given 5 days worth of oral medication to put in his water.
In my ensuing discussions with the vet, it was difficult to be completely reassured that this was an easily solved medical problem. Although Trouble’s medication had helped to reduce the severity of his infection, he continues to have quite swollen testicles which do affect his movement. Castration is an option but for a hamster of advancing age, any operation poses serious concerns - the vet was not keen to go down this route.
The problem for us now is whether we wait until Trouble becomes so uncomfortable that euthanasia is the best option, or do we risk putting him through an operation that he may not survive anyway?
As any pet owner will appreciate, these decisions are difficult but come as part of the responsibility of pet ownership. If only animals could talk! It is difficult not knowing how uncomfortable Trouble is but we can only keep an eye on him day to day and try to make rational judgements about his quality of life. If only keeping a pet were that easy!
