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Posts Tagged ‘mammary cancer’

Recovery

May 13th, 2009

YYyaaaayyy!!!! I’m so happy to see both Dee Dee & Brain are doing much much better!

Brain already seemed better after a day of antibiotic. Now she lives on her own & is already her old self, running on the wheel & climbing the cage bars. The reason why she’s alone is because when I tried to put her back with her sister, Pinky, after a 24-hour separation, I guess Pinky doesn’t remember her anymore? Pinky kept picking fights with Brain even after I’ve continually stopped Pinky.

I can see the improvement with Dee Dee after a day of antibiotic, too! It’s amazing what these antibiotic can do, huh? Whenever I try to give her the antibiotic though, she always struggles, I guess that shows the old girly still has long ways to go No more clicking noises when she’s breathing & I can see that she can breathe a lot easier now (before, I could see her back going up & down rapidly as she was trying to inhale). She doesn’t like me syringe feeding her with drinks & food, but I don’t mind because Dee Dee is eating & drinking on her own.

I think they will all be okay, thanks to the wonderful wonderful vets & all of the best wishes.

Another interesting thing, I bought some baby food, pureed carrots & pureed peas, all of the hamsters love them! Except for Dee Dee. I guess Dee Dee is like one of those old ladies who is set in her ways I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but she’s my favorite Russian Campbell.

Tags: antibiotic, dwarf hamster, mammary cancer, pneumonia, russian campbell
Posted in Hamster care, Hamster health | Comments (1)

Sick Brain

May 8th, 2009

Last night when I was playing with Pinky & Brain, Brain was suddenly bleeding from her behind! Blood was everywhere on the fresh bedding! I tried to find out where exactly was the blood coming from, the urethra or rectum, but she was squirming around too much so I gave up. I didn’t know what to do, other than to separate her from Pinky & give her 0.5 ml of leftover Baytril I had from when the chinchillas were sick. She was suddenly lethargic and moped around all night. I didn’t want to bring her to the emergency clinic because I know that the vet there would suggest that I put her down, but I wanted to give her a chance.

Come this morning, I was lucky that my vet had an opening. Also, Brain had stopped bleeding. According to the vet’s examination, there’s a cyst in her belly (but she doubts that it’s the cause of the bleeding) and her spleen is hardened. Apparently, the blood was coming out of her urethra. The vet explained how the urine & reproductive system both empty out of the same opening; she concluded that the cause of the bleeding could either be from some kind of kidney disease or mammary cancer. At this point, there’s nothing the vet could do, except for me to continue monitoring Brain & put her on Baytril to see how she progresses.

The vet explained how when she was in college, hamsters used to live up to 6 years, and her college classroom hamster was 5 years old. Due to inbreeding, apparently hamsters who make it up to 2 years of age are considered lucky. Look at what humans have done to these furry critters