Hamster Stroke?

[kris245]

Since she seemed like she was in no pain this morning, and was acting more like herself I thought she'd be OK for a few hours.
Tonight the skin is red, and she is trying to get higher up. We are at the emergency clinic right now, where she has already bit the vet tech (she really only likes vets handling her for some reason-must be the smell!)
We'll see how it goes.

*update* So far she is still with me. The vet said she probably lost circulation in that limb, and either got desensitized and annoyed by it thumping along, or there was some tingling or pain in it that was bothering her. He said that there were no signs of major infection yet (the redness would receed if she stops since she is already on baytril), and the wound is not bleeding, so he did not recommend any actions for tonight. As long as she doesn't create a huge, bleeding wound, and her back legs continue improving, he does not see why she would need to be euthanized quite yet. The nice thing was they did reimburse me the initial $100 charge, seeing as he didn't do anything and just wanted to check on the status of the wound.

Tomorrow morning we are going to her normal vet, and going to decide the next steps in her life. For now, we are hanging on.

Hopefully these posts will help anyone in the future (I hope people don't need it, but it seems to have happened on occasion)as Google has a lot of inaccuracy/misunderstandings.

[Thin Lizzy]

That's good the vet gave you back the money for doing nothing.
I feel he hasn't much hamster knowledge, and I would be feeling very annoyed with him.
No one knows how much the hamster is suffering.

[kris245]

I took her into what I thought was her appointment today; turns out there was a mix up with the dates. However, with me basically in tears in the lobby, they let me drop her off for the vet to see her once she was done with surgery. I said my goodbyes to her, and tried to give her some love before I left.

They called while I was at work and said Pammy was still pretty bright and trying to be active, despite what had happened. However, the limb near her wound was swollen slightly and they feared infection. This I could've dealt with, since we could control infection and clean up the wound.

Then I got the bad news. Pammy had a mass in her abdomen extending from either her liver/spleen and down her abdomen. I don't know if I could ever feel something like that, and the vet who saw her a few weeks ago (she is experienced with small animals/exotics) said her stomach had felt like a normal hamster stomach (poop included). They were thinking that this may have the caused her leg issues if it was pressing on anything, and I think it probably caused some of her respiratory issues if it was near her liver/diaphragm. I've always been super paranoid about masses, so I don't know how we missed it unless it was fast growing.

We decided to let her go today, after looking at her future quality of life and while she was still herself. This was a long, draining weekend for both of us, and I didn't want her to go through anymore.

Thanks for the replies and help through this difficult time.

[DrKMcK]

Oh! I am so sorry to see this. I was really hoping that the vet could have just done an amputation to prevent her hurting the leg any further. Many hammies do well on 3 legs and she had been getting along somewhat well. How sad that she has a mass too. I don't blame you for making that decision. I would have done the same. It would have been really hard on her to do further surgery in another area. My sympathy for you
Play well at the bridge little one.

[Thin Lizzy]

I know how hard this must've been for you, but you did the right thing by letting Pammy go.
I could see how stressful this was for you by your posts. This mass that was discovered could have been slowly building for a while, vets can feel the hamster's body and everything can be normal one minute and not the next.
It's always hard losing a pet but, at Christmas time it's even harder.
Thinking of you at this sad and difficult time xx