[Imogen]

I'm not really an expert on this and there's others that may have on-hands experience with hamsters but from what I'm reading myself either your hamster has either taken quite some damage from the impact of having the cage knocked off. I'm only replying since I've seen no one has replied to you yet.

With the clear string thing you mentioned your hamster may have worms? Not entirely sure though since it could've been something she picked up and the faeces has dried with it stuck in it.

In future though, always make sure you keep a hamster or small rodent inside a different room that your cat will never be allowed into.

I got a hamster just about 3-4 weeks ago and he's been kept inside my room ever since with the door shut 24/7, this is because I have two cats. They're not dumb and they stalk my bedroom door all the time now but they will never ever get in and would never stand a chance at knocking off a massive home-made bin cage that is even hard for me to lift.

Cats are born to kill/play with small rodents and having had your hamster somewhere the cat couldn't get may have avoided this complete situation.

As I said, I'm no expert and it may have not been the impact. My hamster escaped my room 2 days ago when I let him free-roam for the first time and he started climbing up the back of a wardrobe and decided to fall about 5'4 feet back down to the floor but he seems okay. My cat was watching him under the wardrobe but luckily I got to him first before he became my cats dinner.