(no subject)
yesterday, while getting ready for work, i heard a rustling in my closet. i had a mouse over winter break, so i was sure another one had gotten in somehow.
but i heard more rustling, and it sounded much too large to be a mouse. so i was convinced there was somehow a badger in there.
then it occurs to me, well, maybe presley (my hamster) somehow got out. so i slide open one end of the closet and look up at the shelf (he was hiding from the courtyards staff). sure enough, his cage door is open. he CHEWED THROUGH THE WIRE holding the door shut. so that can't be good.
so now that i know that no rabid badger is going to attack me, i open the closet the rest of the way, calling presley and telling him what a little fucker he is for scaring the crap out of me. i'm also worried about the fall he must have had from the shelf. i saw him standing on a pile of laundry, so i figured her must have had a soft landing.
i snatch him up and immediately notice some kind of brown/red substance pouring out of his mouth. so i paniced. crying like a big weenie (he is my BABY, ok?), holding him in my hands, not knowing what to do.
i set him in the sink in the bathroom while i got his cage down to return him to it. i put him back in and he made what i thought was a really weird face at me.
he was shaking and acting really weird, and i was calling vets' offices but no one could understand me, because i was crying too hard (i know, i'm a weenie) and i finally talk to a 24 hour emergency clinic in annapolis. but i had no way to get there. so all i could do was lay down on the floor by his cage and sit tight til someone could take me.
while peering into his cage, i noticed something a little weird.
tootsie rolls. two of them. how a hamster in a cage on a high schelf not only acquired tootsie rolls, but also brought them back to hide in his cage, is far beyond me. i still have NO idea.
so jeff gets online and i tell him what happened, and, super hero that he is, he comes over immediately. still in his pajamas.
so we finally see the vet and i held presley while she tried to check him out. she came at him with these two long cotton swabs and he kept batting them away. it would have been really cute, if it didn't suck so bad.
so i'm holding him and she says, 'uh oh, looks like he broke his jaw' (which explains the weird face he made at me) and i couldn't hold him anymore, i couldn't stand to look at him. so she took him out to a nurse to help out.
he wouldn't eat for her, or stay still, so she came back and laid out my options.
basically, he's got until roughly tomorrow night to start eating, or i've got to put him down. the more i think about it, i should have just had her put him down right then, but she made it sound like he had a chance, that bitch.
so now, i've dropped $100 on a $7 hamster, i'm softening food for him, and trying to force a little syringe of water into his mouth every few hours. nothing is working. he picked up and hid some food last night, but upon closer examination, he didn't actually eat any.
he also won't let me get the syringe in his mouth, and didn't drink any of the water in his bottle, so he's been more than 24 hours without water. he didn't run on his wheel last night, and he doesn't make sounds so i don't know how to really tell how bad he feels.
while i love him to death, financial matters eventually have to come into this - i can't afford hamster surgery.
so...
1. does anyone know a good method of pinning a hamster down and forcing a syringe in his mouth?
2. does anyone know how to tell how much pain a small animal may be in?
3. how long should i stick this out?
it's seriously heartbreaking to think he might be hurting so bad and there's nothing that can reasonably be done - but i also don't want to lose him when maybe just waiting ONE MORE DAY would have had him eating again. they said it might heal on its own, possibly, but how long is it fair to him to go on attempting to force feed him? is it reasonable to let him live through weeks of pain and force feeding because SOMEDAY he'll be better?
whoever said buying a pet was like buying a little tragedy was so right.