[yasmin_the_hamster]

Yasmin: 3 months, 150 grams, syrian

So I have done something incredibly stupid and I feel very, very sorry for it. Yasmin is living in her Detolf, and I build her new cage (200 x 55 x 100 cm, 50cm bedding, Allspan Classic). At 1 in the morning today, I put her in her new cage, without any prior adjusting. I put there just a bit of her old bedding into her house. She started digging straight away.

I thought, whe will adjust quickly, since she is young. I did not hear any burrowing during the day, so I though she is sleeping in her burrow and did not wake her up. But at 17, I founf her with paws from blood, digging again obsessively. She must have been frightened and very stressed, which I feel very guilty about.

We took her immediately to emergency vet. She has 3 paws bruised and 1 nail missing.

I was searching through the cage and I did not find a single spot with blood, where she could rip her nail off or hurt her paws. It must have been from obsessive digging, which lasted for hours, or at least that is what I thought. Vet told me the bedding (I took a sample with me) is so soft, that it must have been something hard like cork or wood. But I could not find any blood on her toys and I do not even think she stopped digging and went to her toys or to her house. I put a photo of her house in attachment.

My vet told me that her wounds are clean and that she will heal on her own, I just need to monitor her. She walks normally and doesn´t seem to be in pain, however, hamsters never show pain. Otherwise, she is healthy. She went to sleep straight away in her old Detolf.

I have a couple of questions - how to heal her paws? Vet told me, she will heal on her own. I took away her wheel and sand anyways.

My second question is - do you think it is possible that digging hurt her so much? Or do you also think it must have been something harder than the bedding?

Thank you for your help.