Protecting Yourself from Your Hamsters Illness

Let's talk about protecting yourself from your hamsters illness.

We all know that pets get, sick and many pet owners aren't really sure what illnesses their pets can get. It is important to know these things because in some cases the animal can pass their illness onto you, their owner. This article will focus on arenavirus in hamsters and how it can be caused to humans.

The tricky thing about arenavirus is that some hamsters don't really show any symptoms of the virus. They could have it and pass it on to you without you ever knowing your pet was even sick. However, many hamsters do show at least some symptoms of the virus. Arenavirus symptoms in hamsters include weight loss, depression, convulsions, swollen lymph nodes. Arenavirus can also affect a female's pregnancy and unborn babies.

To protect yourself from getting arenavirus from your pet hamster, always wash thoroughly wash your hands after touching it. Use gloves when cleaning it's cage because arenavirus is usually spread through urine or saliva. Once you clean all the bedding and everything out of your hamster's cage you will also want to disinfect it to try to kill the virus if it is present in the cage. When you are discarding the dirty cage contents put them in a bag, double bag it and put it right outside in your trash cans.

If you are really concerned about arenavirus in hamsters, you may want to only have one pet hamster. Make sure the hamster you buy is from a very reputable pet store, look at all the hamsters in the store and make sure they all look healthy and that none of them are acting strangely.

If you have children, make sure they understand the important of properly handling pets and to always wash their hands with soap and hot water after touching the hamster, it's cage, or anything else that is comes into contact with.

The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your veterinarian or other health care professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment.