So I have a hamster. His name is Pooch. As many people know, he is actually hamster number 3. The first 2, sadly, did not live to stay my hamsters for more than a week. The first, who never even got a name was given to me during Christmas by my brother Kevin. It came as quite a surprise, but I loved it. I took him out and played with him, let him run around in his ball, and tried to bond with my new cute little hamster. But apparently he was not up for any of that. Plus, his cage was situated in front of the fireplace, so it was kind of drafty. When I took him back to Petco, they gave him a 10% chance of living. They said curing him, if possible would take about 2 to 3 weeks, which is time I didn't have before having to head back up to school. So what did I do you ask? I got a refund and went back to school. Sounds cold, I know, but it happened.
When I got up to Utah I got hamster number 2. He was named Pistachio. Pistachio lived a long and healthy life of about 7 days, just like his predecessor. I have no idea what happened with him, but one day he was alive and running about, and the next he wasn't moving and had blood on his little face. So, I took him in to Petco and since they have a 15 day return policy, I was able to get Pooch, hamster number 3.
Pooch is the craziest hamster, climbing on the bars and then hanging there like a monkey, jumping off the ramp at the top of his cage instead of running down it, and then just a few weeks ago, he discovered how to escape from his cage. For three nights in a row, we discovered him gone in the middle of the night, cage door mysteriously open. Usually we found him in the kitchen - typical, since he is the fattest hamster I have ever seen. So I put a twist tie on his cage door hoping that would stop him. It did for about a week, until there was company over and Pooch was taken out. This was the fated night of Pooch's accident. I forgot to put the twist tie back on his cage door, and later that night, Cari found him running around through her sheet music at 4am. She successfully put him back on the cage, along with the twist tie, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't going to stop Pooch that night. Somehow, he got the cage door to open part way even with the twist tie and was able to start escape number 4. However, he only made it about 2/3 of the way out before he got stuck because the door wasn't open wide enough. His little butt and leg had gotten caught and he was left to hang, struggling outside the cage for about 1 or 2 hours until Amy found him. After a few squeaks from Pooch when she tried to help him, she woke me up. Poor guy. He had injured himself. He was left to hobble around his cage just dragging his back right leg around like it was a twig attached to him.
So I took him to the vet. They gave me meds which I have to administer twice a day with droppers. Try to get a crazy hamster to stay still while you give him 4 drops of medicine twice a day. What I thought would be nigh impossible actually turned out to be relatively simple. just wrap him in a hand towel with his head poking out and drop the drops into his mouth. Not so big a deal.
Now that I've dealt with the immediate problem, several twist ties have been put on the cage door, and Pooch seems to have gone back to normal, minus the use of his back leg. The vet said if there was no improvement then I should take him back in becuase it might be broken, and I'm guessing that is the case, because he still doesn't use his leg, and it's started to get scratches on it from all the dragging around he's done. So I quite possibly will be taking him in to the vet to see what they think again shortly.
Other than that he still runs around, although with a slight hop in his step, and is still eating like the little oinker he is, and is still the cutest little hamster alive.
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