“Hamster Specialist”
Recently, a group of preteens were at my house for a family party. They discovered our hamster and decided to “play” with her. Of course I knew nothing of this … but my 6 year old son was there. He told them to leave his hamster alone to no avail. Three days later when I found our hamster dying. I found out what happened from my son. During their “play” they dropped her several times, spun her as fast as possible in her ball, threw her when she tried to bite, and basically tortured her for who knows how long. So there she lay, dying… Her body was cold, rigid, and dehydrated. The food in her cage appeared untouched. Her feces was scattered around her, indicating that she had not moved for a long time.. I really thought she was dead, but when I set her back in her cage I saw her whiskers move. I didn’t know what to do for a hamster. I figured that it must be like any other of God’s creatures. Warm, re-hydrate, and keep watch. Quickly, I warmed a dry wash cloth in the microwave for 10 seconds and wrapped her up. Slowly she showed signs of movement … mostly in her nose. We keep this up rotating two different clothes. During warming I gave a quick call to our local chain pet store. They transferred me to their “Hamster Specialist.” He told me that you could try giving her fresh squeeze orange juice to re-hydrate and supply her a source of nutrients. He stressed that vitamin C could be helpful. I could tell from his voice he did not hold much hope for our success. To get the juice in her I used the dropper from our dry-tail bottle. At first most of the juice dribbled out the side of her mouth but I could tell she was swallowing so I continued. Slowly but surely she came back to us. When she started to hold her head up on her own it would shake and bounce. Once she started to walk, I could see how much weight she had lost. She proved to be very thirsty and hungry. Whether this was a good choice, I don’t know, but when she was stronger I feed her cream of wheat on a toothpick. One very tiny bit at a time. I was worried about the sticky texture. Not one bite did she try to store in her pouch. She was starving. It took about 6 hours of care before I left her on her own. Today she is back to her chubby figure and doing great. We all love her and she is still friendly to us!