Do they carry deadly virus?
By airianne
@airianne (50)
Philippines
March 31, 2009 4:12pm CST
Last week, I got my hubby a cute little teddy bear hamster, this is my way of introducing him to the animalandia since he grew up with fear of animals, he had some bad experience when he was young.
After just one day of playing with the cute and cuddly hamster, he got sick. Severely sick that the doctor ask him to be on bed rest for three days,the doctor also told us that he may have caught virus in his surroundings and warned us that such virus can be deadly.I can't stop thinking until this time, as to the possibility of these cute hamsters to be as deadly as it could get.
4 responses
@xhaylea (361)
•
1 Apr 09
In my case ive never really heard of hamsters having deadly viruses, but i could imagine how it might be a possibility. Like all animals, hamsters can also catch viruses and things, and maybe because they're small they catch it easier or something? ive owned several hamsters in my lifetime and they've all had a healthy life, and no sign of any viruses, so im not too sure how it could have been caused for your hamster. I hope your hamster can get well soon and i hope a miracle will happen for you and your hamster xx
@trickiwoo (2702)
• United States
31 Mar 09
I've never heard of a hamster carrying a deadly disease, but I imagine it could be a possibility. Hamsters are animals after all, and animals are capable of carrying and transmitting diseases. I've owned several hamsters in my lifetime, worked in a pet store where I was caring for hamsters every day, and I volunteer with small animal rescue so I'm around a lot of hamsters all the time... and I have never gotten sick from a hamster. If you're worried, it would be a good idea to find out where the hamster came from. You may even want to take the hamster in to a vet. He could have gotten sick from the hamster, or it might just be a total coincidence. But it would be a good idea to either determine if the hamster caused the illness or rule it out.
If you husband did in fact get sick from the hamster, then that is just so horrible! The poor guy! He had a bad experience that left him afraid of animals, then the animal you use to try to get him over his fear of animals ends up getting him very ill!
@eagle_f15 (1827)
• Malaysia
1 Apr 09
Hmmm..maybe your husband is allergic ?? Well in my case I have not heard of hamsters carrying deadly virus or bacteria. I was a kindy teacher a few years back and we had a class pet hamster who was with us 3 full years of it's life span. No children or me as a teacher got sick because of the hamster...I mean cough cold and those other sickness yes but the hamster wasn't the cause of it. The children were taught to clean the cage, bathe the hamster weekly, change the papers, fed the hamster, took it out to stroke and play...but each time hands must be washed after putting the hamster back into its' cage.
