Poppy scared stiff.

[LancashireLass]

Hi I'm not sure if I can link two threads but I had an emergency with Poppy last night which has really shook me up. She woke up at around ten whilst I was on FaceTime with my friend, I tried to give Poppy her meds and as usual she was fighting against me. As soon as her meds were given I let Poppy have a couple hammy chocs, all the while my friend was saying how cute Poppy was and talking to her. Within a couple of seconds Poppy frozen rigid not moving, but breathing, I put her down on the settee and she was still rigid, she almost felt like she had died, I'm not sure if it was when i was administrating her mediation and I accidentally hurt her or if it was my friend talking on FaceTime that freaked her out. When she came to, i put her back in her cage and she dashed back to her bed, she then fell asleep, I was so worried I stayed up most of the night to keep an eye on her, I went to bed around 2am. This morning I've not been able to sleep I came down and I can tell she hadn't been out of her bed with her bedding, she was awake snutching around and I eventually managed to coax her out, she was very wary of me and when I placed on the settee all she did was move round very slowly, she did take a piece of cheese off me. I'm scared incase, I've hurt her, and that she has lost all trust in me, I want my little diva back. Has anyone else had a similar experience, please advise me, also I have to take her to the vet tomorrow morning.

Janie

[Julia9290]

Oh, no! I hope people can help, but I have not been in any situation like this, sorry.
I hope it all gets better from here and on!

[ham888]

Others here will give a better response but hams do get spooked sometimes and if she was hurt I doubt she'd be happy taking cheese etc. Our Chocolate ham is easily spooked and I've had times where hamsters go completely unresponsive, not even twitching their whiskers. Given Poppy ran back to bed it sounds like she was spooked and looking for familiar cover in the nest.

Has anything changed in the room?

[souffle]

It is the usual response to a fright. She may have caught the facetime pics out the corner of her eye and taken a fright. They can freeze for quite some time and this is to protect them from a predator seeing them. For example a bird of prey overhead would send them into a freeze. Even though she has likely never seen one she still has that instinct in her to freeze. Then they hide as soon as they feel it is safe to move.
Try and be very calm and maybe ensure the lights are dimmed and you do not loom over her or have anything that could cause a fright on. She will settle down soon again x

[LancashireLass]

Thanks Soufflé I hope your right, she seems settled now, hopefully the vets will be smooth running tomorrow. Actually what you said sounds about right she took her treat well and it was a couple of seconds later when it happened my iPad was right next to me. I feel awful.

[LancashireLass]

Hi Ham888

No nothing changed in the room, my friend had Facetimed me to let me know how her sick father is and I was trying to multi-task, in this instance bad move. I'm gonna ask the vet tomorrow, it's either a fright I which can be avoided or hopefully not something more sinister.

Thank you xxxx

[kyrilliondaemon]

Yeah... Hams do get over things. One of our syrians got really upset at the vets a few weeks ago, we had no choice but to get her out twice a day for her meds and she quickly settled down with us again. Now you'd never realise anything had happened from her behaviour
Hopefully the vet will confirm that she just had a fright

[LancashireLass]

Thank you Kyrilliondaemon, you've been wonderful xxxxxx

[LancashireLass]

No Poppy playtime, I'm gutted. I thought at one time she was going to come out but no, she doesn't even trust me when I feed her from my hand, I hope this is tempory and god help me tomorrow when I have to take her to the vet.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Good luck tomorrow!