Diabetes testing and treatment

Here is a good post on how to test your hamster for diabetes — elevated ketone or glucose levels.

http://hamster.etla.org/web/diabetes.html

You can buy Keto-Diastix reagent strips.  It’s not clear to me whether these are especially for hamsters, or for humans.  The link above says to ask at a pharmacy.  And you may need to buy ketostix and diastix separately if you can’t find the combined form.

 

 

Dwarf hamsters

Apparently, dwarf hamsters are prone to diabetes.  You may also see references to Campbell’s hamsters.  This is a variety of dwarf hamster.

Here is a link on diabetes in dwarf hamsters.

http://www.hamsterific.com/hamsteruniversity/dwarfdiabetes.html

 

Searching for info

Here is a Google search for diabetic hamsters.

You are probably saying, “I could have done that myself.”  But you would be surprised how many people jump onto a forum with “Can someone tell me about where I can find info on Subject X?” where Subject X is some really broad topic that does not lend itself to a quick reply.

[I selected the blog title somewhat tongue-in-cheek just to get something going, but I’m also somewhat surprised that this topic isn’t as whimsical as I first thought.]