Any advice for Elderly hamster

[Professor_Nibbles]

This is my first hamster and she is a female syrian turned 2 at end of August. Since then, she has not been coming out as much and only for food and water. I took her to the vets on Monday as I saw blood on her tail and surrounding area. They can't tell what it is yet but gave her metacam and zylkene. It seems her back legs might be sore or something as well hence her careful movements.

I assume with old age it will only get harder for her to move around the cage. I custom built one 140x60x70, the height is quite difficult for me to reach her or clean the cage tbh esp if she needs medicine and is not coming out as much. I was gonna buy a Bucastate 2.0 for her as a hospital cage but wonder if this can be used long term for the remainder of her life to make it easier for her. Will it stress her going from a bigger cage to a smaller one?

I also saw the niteangel stacker but it's only 80cm long, would that be ok as a hospital cage which I can always get another one to double up in future or should I just get the Bucastate? Also if i get a new enclosure, should i bother putting in a wheel if she doesn't use it anymore, probably cos her back legs are sore and shes now a bit old? Thank you.

[Jeir]

This may be a bit late, as you may already have decided what to do, but if not (and for others who may have a similar situation)...

To make things easier for you both, I would say a smaller cage would be fine. The Bucatstate cages are still good sizes, after all. Just ensure that you transfer as much substrate and toys over as you can, and keep them roughly in the same place as they are in her current cage, so it's all as familiar as possible for her to reduce stress. I would leave the wheel in, as running is something hamsters do to be happy, so even if she only goes on it for a couple of minutes it will still be worth it.

Hopefully she's doing okay after her treatment. It might be worth offering her baby food (avoid anything with onion/garlic/leek. The Heinz Sunday Chicken Dinner one is a good option) as it's softer and easier to digest, while still being nutritionally healthy.