Antibiotics-Induced Enteritis in Hamsters
Although typically useful in fighting infections, the overuse of some antibiotics may prove harmful in hamsters. Such is the case with gram-positive spectrum antibiotics. When overused, lincomycin, clindamycin, ampicillin, vancomycin, erythromycin, penicillin, and cephalosporins can kill the bacteria that usually live in a hamster's digestive tract, which in turn allows the overgrowth of other "bad" bacterias. This eventually causes inflammation of the small intestines (or induced enteritis in hamsters), resulting in diarrhea and death within 2 to 10 days.
