Archive for October, 2009

Happy Howl-o-ween!

October 31st, 2009

From the chinnies (since they haven’t been featured on the blog lately):

Winnie Halloween 2009

Tubby Halloween 2009

ps: these pumpkins have been sitting in the fridge for too long, that’s why the face paint on the large pumpkin is peeling off.

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The Best

October 29th, 2009

Lookie what I got in the mail!

Brain condolence greeting

And inside says .. (right click on image & choose “View Image” for larger)

Brain condolence greeting2

It’s a condolence greeting regarding Brain from the Animal Clinic! All the vets (even the one who relocated out of state) & the vet technicians signed the card! They are truly the best people you can trust your animals to :-D If you look up Animal Clinic on Yahoo! Local, there is nothing but good reviews about the place. It’s people like the ones at the Animal Clinic (yes, the place is literally called the Animal Clinic) that inspire me to want to care & do more for animals. This card made me smile despite the fact that one hamster after another is getting sick :-)

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Good Night Brain

October 25th, 2009

Brain was euthanized on 20th of October.

The decision wasn’t easy for me to make; I had sometime to think about it & I hope that it’s the best decision for her.

This past Friday night, I discovered that some of the bedding in Brain’s cage was red. She was bleeding again. This time, it was worse because part of her intestine was sticking out, too. This happened during the weekend when the vet clinic was closed & all I could do was syringe feed her & hope that she would last until Monday to see the vet. She stopped bleeding after a night, but she still wasn’t herself — she was very lethargic & stayed in her house throughout the weekend, which wasn’t normal at all.

I finally got an appointment with the senior vet, not the vet who diagnosed Brain last time. The senior vet agrees with the previous diagnosis that the lump is cancer. The reason why the intestine prolapsed is because Brain’s reproductive system has been strained. Even if the intestine was put back in, that’s not the underlying problem. In the classes that he teaches, the vet uses hamsters of all stages of life to study cancer & he explains that the chance of Brain’s cancer to come back is high even after it’s been removed. Not being able to see her anatomy, he suspected that the cancer was either in the urinary tract or in the reproductive system, since both empty out through the urethra where the blood was coming out from. I didn’t want to surgery performed on Brain to remove the cancer if the cancer was going to come back, unnecessarily forcing Brain to undergo repeated procedures. The vet mentioned that Brain’s hunchback meant that she was in pain. After hearing all the options, I didn’t immediately decide for euthanasia. The more I weighed the options, the more conflicted I became, especially not knowing how Brain truly felt.

She will be cremated and her ashes will be spread onto a local pet cemetery ground. I think I will visit it next week.

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Posted in Hamster care, Hamster health, Rainbow bridge | Comments (2)

More Lumps!

October 22nd, 2009

In my place, it seems like there hasn’t been an isolated incident of hamster illness, i.e. there seem to be at least 2 hamsters who fall sick at the same time. This past weekend was Brain & Baby Hamster.

I discovered a lump behind BH’s left ear a couple of months ago, which the vet took care easily. However, smaller several cysts came back in the same area! I don’t have the stomach to squeeze out the puss ..

On Monday, the vet suggested that BH undergoes a surgery that removes the skin which houses the cysts, because squeezing the cysts is only a temporary solution & it’s a recurring problem. So, surgery was scheduled for the next morning.

Tuesday afternoon when I picked up BH from the animal clinic, the vet explained that as he put BH under anesthesia, he found a larger lump under BH’s neck that he didn’t notice the day before. The lump apparently could move around from side to side! Instead of removing the smaller cysts behind the left ear as planned, the vet removed the lump underneath the neck & decided to only squeeze out the smaller cysts as simultaneously performing 2 surgeries on BH would put too much strain on the little guy. The vet isn’t sure what the lump under the neck is, but he did mention the word “tumor” o_0

BH is now on Baytril for 7 days. I have him scheduled for a second vet appointment 2 weeks from now to remove the sutures on the neck & for the vet to finally get rid of the smaller cysts by removing the skin.

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Sharing

October 13th, 2009

Not!

Robos sharing1

Robos sharing2

Robos sharing3

Seems like there’s 1 girly who is always hogging the food bowl. I don’t want to get them a bigger food bowl because they’ll just end up pooping inside the food bowl 0_o

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Summer Goodness – Broccoli

October 3rd, 2009

We all know how hamsters love broccoli. But what can beat eating freshly picked broccoli from your own garden?

BH broccoli flower

What Baby Hamster is eating is not the broccoli florets your normally find in the supermarket. Because it’s been quite warm lately, my broccoli plants have started going to seed. That’s why the broccoli that BH is eating looks slightly different. Had I cut the broccoli later, it would’ve flowered.

This was my last yield of broccoli :-( To see how the garden has progressed throughout the summer, see here.

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