tonyshuman
Well-Known Member
I am sad to say that my dear Ms. Piggy died last Friday. She was a little hard to rouse in the morning, but I took that to be general hamster laziness. When I came home from work that evening, I could not awaken her. She was breathing deeply and would not move or eat. I took her to the emergency vet (since it was after 5 on the Friday of Labor Day weekend), and got lost on the way. At the vet, they put her on oxygen and tried to warm her up with rice socks. While I was discussing diagnosis/treatment options with the vet, Ms. Piggy stopped breathing. They attempted to resucitate her to no avail. My little Ms. Piggy was only about 3 months old.
The vet did a necropsy to try to determine a cause of death, and called me later that night to tell me that she had a severe intestinal infection, with lots of blood and obviously severe pain in her abdomen. It's possible that she had a blockage and straining caused her intestines to tear, thus leading to the bleeding. She was eliminating normally to the end, so I had no sign that she was in trouble until Friday. I was told to watch for diarhea in her sister, and she appears to be fine.
Ms. Piggy was one of my first hamsters, and I never knew how adorable and funny hamsters could be until I had her. She first made me laugh by lying on her back and drinking out of the water bottle as a little baby.
She and her sister Petunia made my heart melt when they snuggled together.
And she cracked me up by sleeping in the oddest positions, like on her back with her feet twitching, smushed between a wall and a toy, or huddled in a nest made of pieces of a cardboard tube painstakingly moved into their coconut house.
Ms. Piggy was always a little slower than her sister. Slower to climb the tubes, to figure out the layout of the cage, to use her teeth to help her climb the bars of the cage like a tiny monkey, she even ran slower when we took her out for playtime. She had a beautiful coloring that may have also carried genetic defects, making her always smaller and weaker than her sister. It may also explain why she was susceptible to whatever killed her and Petunia was not.
Ms. Piggy was by no means a sweet hamster. She liked to bite my fingers, even when they were gently petting or offering food. She loved to run away and hide under furniture if I didn't watch her closely enough when she was out. The night before she died, she was running all over the back of the couch, trying to find a hidey-hole to snuggle up in. However, she was sweet to her bigger sister, and as cute as can be.
I was completely heartbroken when the vet told me she had died and brought in the fragile little body for me to see. I spent a good 15 min crying inconsolably over a hamster I had known only 3 months, that bit me and appeared to hate me, that my boyfriend had given the silly name of Ms. Piggy. I was barely able to drive home that night, leaving her body there to be examined and then laid to rest with wildlife that the vet was also unable to help. The vet was extremely caring and even mailed me a sympathy card.
I feel especially bad for her sister, who has never been alone. I let Petunia see that her sister had died before we left the vet. I am thinking of getting her a new cagemate, once the pain of losing Ms. Piggy is gone, from a very reputable breeder of Campbell's Russian Dwarf Hamsters nearby. There are many cheap and/or free baby hamsters on Craigslist, but I think Ms. Piggy's possibly genetic defects may have taught me a lesson--that it may be nice to help people who have "accidental litters" from petstore hamsters, but that you have no idea how healthy those hamsters will be.
In any case, I love and miss my Ms. Piggy. No other hamster in the world was like her, all cranky, snuggly, and able to sleep in the weirdest positions. She had the most adorable grey spot on her left ear. I imagine her like this, snuggled up in that great hamster cage in the sky, legs twitching in her sleep to scratch an itch or run over to where she hid the sunflower seed. Petunia and I are thinking of you, Ms. Piggy, and I'm sorry your life was so short and I couldn't tell something was wrong until it was too late.
:nerves1
RIP
ink iris:
The vet did a necropsy to try to determine a cause of death, and called me later that night to tell me that she had a severe intestinal infection, with lots of blood and obviously severe pain in her abdomen. It's possible that she had a blockage and straining caused her intestines to tear, thus leading to the bleeding. She was eliminating normally to the end, so I had no sign that she was in trouble until Friday. I was told to watch for diarhea in her sister, and she appears to be fine.
Ms. Piggy was one of my first hamsters, and I never knew how adorable and funny hamsters could be until I had her. She first made me laugh by lying on her back and drinking out of the water bottle as a little baby.
She and her sister Petunia made my heart melt when they snuggled together.
And she cracked me up by sleeping in the oddest positions, like on her back with her feet twitching, smushed between a wall and a toy, or huddled in a nest made of pieces of a cardboard tube painstakingly moved into their coconut house.
Ms. Piggy was always a little slower than her sister. Slower to climb the tubes, to figure out the layout of the cage, to use her teeth to help her climb the bars of the cage like a tiny monkey, she even ran slower when we took her out for playtime. She had a beautiful coloring that may have also carried genetic defects, making her always smaller and weaker than her sister. It may also explain why she was susceptible to whatever killed her and Petunia was not.
Ms. Piggy was by no means a sweet hamster. She liked to bite my fingers, even when they were gently petting or offering food. She loved to run away and hide under furniture if I didn't watch her closely enough when she was out. The night before she died, she was running all over the back of the couch, trying to find a hidey-hole to snuggle up in. However, she was sweet to her bigger sister, and as cute as can be.
I was completely heartbroken when the vet told me she had died and brought in the fragile little body for me to see. I spent a good 15 min crying inconsolably over a hamster I had known only 3 months, that bit me and appeared to hate me, that my boyfriend had given the silly name of Ms. Piggy. I was barely able to drive home that night, leaving her body there to be examined and then laid to rest with wildlife that the vet was also unable to help. The vet was extremely caring and even mailed me a sympathy card.
I feel especially bad for her sister, who has never been alone. I let Petunia see that her sister had died before we left the vet. I am thinking of getting her a new cagemate, once the pain of losing Ms. Piggy is gone, from a very reputable breeder of Campbell's Russian Dwarf Hamsters nearby. There are many cheap and/or free baby hamsters on Craigslist, but I think Ms. Piggy's possibly genetic defects may have taught me a lesson--that it may be nice to help people who have "accidental litters" from petstore hamsters, but that you have no idea how healthy those hamsters will be.
In any case, I love and miss my Ms. Piggy. No other hamster in the world was like her, all cranky, snuggly, and able to sleep in the weirdest positions. She had the most adorable grey spot on her left ear. I imagine her like this, snuggled up in that great hamster cage in the sky, legs twitching in her sleep to scratch an itch or run over to where she hid the sunflower seed. Petunia and I are thinking of you, Ms. Piggy, and I'm sorry your life was so short and I couldn't tell something was wrong until it was too late.
:nerves1
ink iris:
