URGENT- blood in cage please help
Hi!
I have a Syrian hamster, Daisy, who I often bring up on this forum. I got her about a year and a half ago when she was somewhere between 4-6 months so she is just about 2 years old.
Daisy has always been extremely active and healthy, even in the last few months despite obvious signs of aging (ears are darkening, fur getting lighter, etc.)
she usually gets up at around 7pm every night, although the past few weeks she's only been getting up when I shut my lights, around 11pm.
Last night she was still asleep when I went to bed but I didn't think much of it as my other 3 hamsters were also asleep and I was going to bed earlier than usual.
this afternoon, around 5:30 pm, I decided on a whim to check on her since I hadn't seen her at all yesterday.
she was asleep in her usual spot which is hidden under the wooden lid of an acrylic container that she likes to burrow in.
when I lifted the lid, I saw that her white bedding was stained with dark red, almost brown spots and knew right away it was blood.
it's not like one big bloody spot, more like lot's of little spots which is leading me to believe that she is bleeding when urinating. Daisy seemed ok, a little sleepy, but I had woken her up. I didn't want to bother her or cause pain but I had to see where the bleeding was coming from so I gently lifted her and there was a small spot of blood right above her tail, I'm assuming this is her private area.
Other than being slightly more lethargic than usual, she wasn't acting like she was in pain, being very sweet and letting me touch her. I gently put her back and gave her some water which she drank from for about 30 seconds and quickly started to call some vets.
after doing a lot of research, the quickest way to get her seen is to take her to the only exotic urgent care that's within driving distance which is open from 12-8pm. by the time I found out about it they weren't taking in anymore animals for the night and advised me to come tomorrow.
I finish work at 3 so the earliest I can get there is 4:15 tomorrow afternoon (its a bit of a drive).
at first I was confident Daisy could wait that long as she isn't acting critical but I just checked up on her (it is now 10:00pm in my time zone) and while she still isn't acting like she is in pain, she was shaking slightly when she woke up and kept making these weird puffing noises. I offered her some water which she took a few sips from, and I heard her eating a little bit which I guess is a good sign.
I'm pretty sure that she has a UTI or something similar, which would be an easy fix with antibiotics but I know hamsters can go from bad to critical quickly and I'm so nervous that by 4:15 tomorrow afternoon, assuming we even get seen right away, it will be too late.
Does anyone have advice, experience, or know anything I can do to have her hold on?
Also does anyone have any idea of what she might have?
Thank you in advance for bearing with me and reading such a long post
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