MagiStream

I had something weird happen. I had a hamster and I moved her to put some new furniture in my room. two or three laters later she died. I got a new hamster who was fine when I got her and she died about two days after I got her. I got an adoreble Dwarf bunny, she was unique, black with gray feet and a little tear marking under one eye. She was doing well and then...last Wednesday I found her dead...it could be other reasons, but somehow I think the deaths were connected since they happened in such a short time after I got the animal who was really healthy and all.

I just don't get it.

Do you have any kind of air fresheners? plug in, wax, spray, just sits there and is sniffy, etc.
What are you using for food and bedding?
Where are the cages located in your room? What's around them? (doors, windows, furniture, heating/ cooling vents)
What is your new furniture made of? What did it come packed in?
Anything else new (paint, carpet, etc)?
Any other pets in the house?

Losing pets is NEVER any kind of fun, and to lose a bunch so quickly like that, there's got to be something strange going on. I'd like to help narrow it down and figure out what it might be.

Well...I think it was my new dresser. I don't know exactly what it's made of or been painted with, but the odd part with that ties to my two hamsters. Before, Jenova was fine and healthy. I moved her out of my room to put the new dresser in and since I had to take out her table I decided to put her on the new dresser and it seemed fine.

One day though I noticed she was breathing heavily, but I was able to take her out and hold her and she acted fine...but later she progressed and finally died...it was painful to watch, I thought Namine's death was hard since she could barely sit up to drink.

Iloe was moving around and healthy when I first saw and brought her home. I placed her on the dresser, where Jenova's cage had been and I noticed that she didn't touch her food (but she was very small and tiny, quite young) but I didn't think much of it and then one day she was just gone...under her water bottle dead.

Yelena was different. Rabbits have big cages so I had to sit her cage at the end of my bed (on the floor) and it was facing the new dresser. I got her out and she once tried going under it but I caught her in time. But she was fine (though I noticed she wasn't touching her food or hay) and she was drinking...then that Wednesday I checked her and...she was gone too.

Other people give me possible reasons that can explain it, like Jenova being old (Namine was about five), Iloe was already sick from the weather change, and Yelly may had an infection...but somehow I don't really believe that. How can those things explain the sudden deaths? and about two or three days after bringing them home?

Small animals are VERY good at hiding signs of illness, because in the wild a sick animal is a dead one. So they don't act sick until they are so sick they can't hide it any longer. As pet owners, it's our responsibility to watch them for any changes in behavior. Poop consistency and color is often an early warning sign. If they came home from the pet store sick (and especially if they both came from the same store) that would explain the sudden deaths of the new ones.

Please answer the other questions I posted though. Even if the dresser is made of cedar (cedar is bad for pets as shavings to live in, but not usually instantly fatal), or pressboard (the fumes fro the glue could cause a problem), it seems too quick a death for that to be the culprit. This is, of course, assuming the animals came from the store healthy.

Oh no they didn't come from the same store. Iloe came from Petco and I got Yelly from another store.

I used...paper bedding. That's the stuff I used for all my hamsters and I had some left over so I used that for Yelena's cage. It couldn't be the culprit since Jenova usually stuffed her cheeks with it to make her nest (and shoved all her bedding into one corner...the little brat) and it didn't do anything to her. The soft bedding is kind of my favorite since it tends to absorb more and smells good, but also is comfortable for them.

Well...I don't know what it was made from. But how could just sitting on it make them sick? Jenova and Iloe didn't come into actual contact and so they didn't chew on it (I didn't let Iloe out of her cage because I wanted to work with her to be able to handle her) and Yelena didn't chew on it either. Do you think the fumes from the paint or wood could had somehow played a role? But...my dog Jackson wasn't affected. He walks in and out of my room without trouble.

Small animals like hamsters, rabbits and guinea pigs can be sensitive to their environment. I'm really sorry to hear that they all suddenly died. But are you sure is your new dresser that's to blame and that they weren't sick already. Little critters like that are experts at hiding illness, sometimes til is too late to help them.

Unrelated, I have a cat and I build pyramids for her out of empty toilet rolls and duct tape. If i don't she grows bored and starts shaving herself and after being at the vet getting her checked we came to the agreement that it was stress and boredom making her shave herself.

Pictures of it and her using it.

Spoiler

I can recommended something like this to other people with smart cats that like using their brain and getting stimulated, and is simply and easy to make.

Karzarill wrote:Unrelated, I have a cat and I build pyramids for her out of empty toilet rolls and duct tape. If i don't she grows bored and starts shaving herself and after being at the vet getting her checked we came to the agreement that it was stress and boredom making her shave herself.

Pictures of it and her using it.

Spoiler

I can recommended something like this to other people with smart cats that like using their brain and getting stimulated, and is simply and easy to make.

My cats would love this! Do you add treats or anything to make your cat interested in playing with it?

Grizz wrote:

Karzarill wrote:Unrelated, I have a cat and I build pyramids for her out of empty toilet rolls and duct tape. If i don't she grows bored and starts shaving herself and after being at the vet getting her checked we came to the agreement that it was stress and boredom making her shave herself.

Pictures of it and her using it.

Spoiler

I can recommended something like this to other people with smart cats that like using their brain and getting stimulated, and is simply and easy to make.

My cats would love this! Do you add treats or anything to make your cat interested in playing with it?

I feed my cat both treats and regular meals in it, she have always liked using her paws so I build her something that would allow her to use them more often.

Coming from different stores makes illness less likely, which brings us back to environmental concerns. Please answer the other questioned I posed on the previous page. It will help us nail it down.

As to how a dresser might make small animals sick- as I said in my previous post, fumes from the glue used to make pressboard (the sawdust type boards) could affect a small animal and not affect a larger one, like the dog. But it's still a very unlikely culprit.

What does the dog around small animals? Rabbits are known for dying of fright. A dog even just looking and sniffing at them can cause a fatal heart attack. (that's what happened to my last rabbit. She got loose from her cage, and our husky went over to sniff her. He didn't touch her. But she shrieked and flopped over, dead. Not a thing anyone could do. At least she was 8 years old when that happened.)

Cool trick with the pyramid.

Well...

There is only one door to my room, but she isn't close to it, there's a distance between the door and where her cage was and my window is further from her still.

No air fresheners or anything (had one, but removed it long ago because I didn't use it)

For food...she had the normal rabbit food they were feeding her at the pet store, timothy hay as well for fiber. The water was a tricky part since the label on the vitamins said 1 1/2 drops in a...well fairly big bottle, but that was for big rabbits since dwarf rabbits don't need that much, I mean they need it, but too much can be bad...right?

Nothing else is new...well actually, I did get a bed frame with a headboard and footboard. Her cage was actually against my foot board.

And for the last one...I got a small dog, dachshund. But she never was out of her cage around him and she didn't seem to mind him, she usually was too far from him in her litterbox or under her house (where I found her dead). I usually chased him out of my room if he started getting too noisy.

There is one more fact but I don't know if it would matter...I get hot fairly easily now so I have my fan running (still feel hot though, so today I opened my window), but that couldn't affect her...could it?