Hot on the heels of the cat, we now have the hamster.

Daughter has a hamster. Every night before bed and every morning upon waking she visits the fuzzy dude. Tonight’s visit has her scared. She’s noticed his right cheek pouch has been full-looking for a couple days, but we just figured he had food in there. But tonight we noticed a bulge under his chin area. That’s not normal. It’s a bit soft, and when you feel the cheek pouch it too feels soft… not like there’s food in there. We’ve also noticed that the past few days he’s not acted the same; for instance, Daughter commented to me just last night wondering why he wasn’t as active at night as he usually was. When I hold him tonight well… he fights me as I try to examine him, which is good. But he also doesn’t feel quite the same… skinnier? Something doesn’t feel right.

At this point, I don’t know… but first thing in the morning it’s back to the vet, but now with a different animal.

The thing about this one…. see, this is hamster #2. Hamster #1 died in a manner that daughter feels responsible for. Shortly after his passing, we obtained hamster #2 and ever since Daughter has been a very protective mother; in fact, almost over-protective. It’s a natural reaction and understandable, but now with #2 having this issue, Daughter is very upset. For now, I just want her to get some sleep. We’ll visit the vet in the morning.

Updated: I admit, I’m a little worried about the fuzzy dude. Last night I found a small syringe, filled it with water, and ensured he drank. Also saw him pee, so dehydration hopefully isn’t an issue… food may be tho as even this morning I didn’t see much of dent in his food bowl. He’s up and about this morning. I didn’t see a dent in his water level so I gave him another syringe of water. Found a local vet that does hamsters. Have an appointment set for later this morning. Daughter still concerned, but at least happy that we can take him to a vet. More later.

Updated 2: Found a vet in town that can handle hamsters. Long story short, it seems to be some sort of abscess. Vet even took a sample and looked at it under the microscope, bacteria activity, not a tumor. Gave us some antibiotic and we should see improvement within a week. If still bad after 2 weeks, time to take him back. Vet also gave us some other good advice towards getting through this (feeding, watering, etc.).

Of course as we talked about all of this, I was expecting massive amounts of money to be spent, especially if we have to bring him back in 2 weeks to lance and drain things. The vet was cool and practical about it…. that nothing he does is financially sound, since this isn’t cattle or horses — it’s all emotional. The prices for things were actually quite reasonable, and while yes I spent more money today than on actually buying the hamster, well… what kind of Daddy would I be to my Daughter if we didn’t give some sort of try, especially for something that seems to be so minor and easy enough to remedy, y’know?

So anyway… Daughter is feeling much better about things. We’ll see how the hamster does.