Hello
I'm Jemma and I'm 19, I've been mum to over 10 hamsters and I currently have just the one. Her name is Essie (named after the nail polish brand hehehe
) and she's a shorthaired cream coloured Syrian. I've had her since the 1st April, and we have an important story to tell. I'm hoping to make more hamster owners aware of what we've been through. The main reason why i've come on here is to share my story. I've experienced something with Essie that i haven't before with any of my previous hamsters (thank god.)
On Friday just last week, 10th May, I'd just moved Essie into a tank so i went out and bought her a few new toys. I came home and went up to my room to put the new toys in her cage to find her surrounded by sawdust with blood on it. I immediately got her out to check her over and discovered something which, thinking back now was quite horrific and i never want to come across anything like it again. She'd suffered from a Rectal Prolapse (Please google it if you have no idea what that is, i don't really want to go into details here. But please be aware its not the nicest thing you'll read about.). The night before i'd noticed she was quite a dark pink around that area, but after finding out a few days before that female hamsters are apparently in heat every 4 days i didn't worry about it to much and thought it may have been connected with that. At first when i found her i didn't have a clue what had happened to her so my mum rang the vets for advice, apparently its extremely rare.
I found her like it at about 1pm but we couldn't take her to the vets until that evening as the surgery didn't open until 5pm. We got an appointment for 5.15, during that appointment i was given the options of putting her to sleep or having everything 'put back inside' so to speak. No way could i put a lively, happy, healthy, little hamster to sleep (she's only 4 months old!), so we went for the surgery. We were told she may not make it through being under the anaesthetic, and that even if she did, the tissue was a little dry so it might become inflammed and infected and she might have to be put to sleep because of that, but she made it through the anaesthetic!! She gave us antibiotics and anti inflammatory medicine for her and we left. That evening she slept for england! We were told to take her back to the vets if she hadn't pooped within the next 24 hours.
Saturday evening, she hadn't pooped still so we made an appointment and took her back, she'd had a small stitch put in so they had to gas her a little and remove that as she'd inflamed a little and the stitch had become too tight. We had to hope and pray that everything stayed where it was meant to be! And luckily, it did. Throughout Sunday i did get incredibly worried about her as she still hadn't pooped yet she'd been eating and drinking constantly since her surgery! But all that changed in the early hours of Monday morning, 8am i rang my mum in tears literally saying 'SHE'S POOPED SHES POOPED' and a huge wave of relief washed over me.
We had a follow up appointment booked for Monday evening, we took her to that and she got the all clear, the vet said she'd 'beaten all the odds' and now she's looking so much better!
My main message to everyone is, make yourself aware of everything a hamster can get wrong with them, if you see anything to do with a rectal prolapse on your hamster, get it to the vets as soon as you possibly can! The quicker you act the better the chance your hamster has at surviving, because the more its come out, the higher the chance of it being rejected if its put back in. But if your hamster is young and healthy THERE IS HOPE!
Everyday from now on when i look at my hamster, i'm going to see my little miracle. I just hope i have at least 2 more years left with her!! We've already been through so much and i haven't even had her for 2 months yet!
Thank you for reading my story!
Jemma & Essie