URGENT: Blood in Hamster cage.

[HammyGandB]

Hi everyone

I woke up this morning to find a blood bath in my Syrian hamster, Oreo's, cage. I'm incredibly worried.

I have attached a picture of the collected blood from his cage, it's in a bag to take to the vet for reference.

It looks like bloody urine on his tissue bedding? It was in both corners where he pees etc. My partner seems to think it's the colorants from the purple grape we gave him last night. Is this a possibility? It just looks too dark and red to be from a grape... There also seems to be droplets on some of his toys and on his wheel.

We tried to have a look at where it was coming from but we've only had for a week so he isn't tame yet... I can't seem to find where it is coming from, he has black furr which makes it even more difficult to examine him... Couldn't really find anything in his poop.

We are trying to get an emergency appointment at our vet but haven't had any luck yet...

Can anyone provide some advice... I'm sick to my stomach worried about him... Thank you for any help you can provide x

[LunaTheHamster1]

Hi, it can be from food, if you have another grape and wet it and add white bedding or toilet paper to it, you could compare the colours.
He could have just made one heck of a mess with his grape.

There are a couple of other things to try , if you have some hydrogen peroxide you can spray it on the stains and if it fizzes that is a sign of blood. (I don't always find this 100% accurate though as I think it depends on the size of the sample)

There are also human urine strips that test for blood that you can use if there is enough to sample, again not sure of the accuracy. These are just suggestions.

But also needs to be said, as I am not a vet if in any doubt you are doing the right thing in getting a vet appointment. I hope he is ok.

[HammyGandB]

Hi LunaTheHamster1

Thank you for your reply. I actually tried the praying hydrogen peroxide on it, I used the most drenched piece of bedding I could find and... it fizzed.
I even just sprayed on a fresh piece of bedding to double-check it wasn't a reaction with the bedding and it's not. Thanks for this tip, I now know it's definitely blood.

Now to find out where it's coming from... I'm praying it's nothing serious and I can get some medication for him. Maybe it's a UTI or something other than internal bleeding or wet tail... We've only had him for 8 days and love him so much...

Thanks so much for the help!
Take care x

[Amethyst_ice]

Hey, what did the vet say?