We went to a couple of pet stores today looking for Aspen bedding. You’d think since it’s the only safe wood for hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, etc., it wouldn’t be so hard to find, but you’d be wrong. I have been using the same bedding (by Kaytee) for years but suddenly Petsmart isn’t carrying it so I bought a new brand instead. The package claimed it was Aspen but the pieces look, smell, and feel different. Overall the wood chips feel harder and I’m not sure whether they poked her butt or what, but on Wednesday evening I discovered blood around Oreo’s rectum. Strangely enough, she was acting normal – eating and running around just as much as usual – so I wasn’t sure what to do.
We took her to the vet on Thursday just to be on the safe side and they were stumped. By then the bleeding had subsided and they recommended we just take a wait and see approach since she didn’t appear to be in any pain and didn’t have diarrhea, which would indicate wet tail, which is often fatal for hamsters.
The night before her vet visit, I had moved Oreo to a smaller cage with all Carefresh bedding since it’s super soft. She’s been fine ever since, and I found another brand of Aspen today I’m going to try since the Carefresh is too expensive to use exclusively (I usually just put that in whatever corner she’s using as a bed).
I really like the animal hospital we used. I was there once before when Peanut was diagnosed with a tumor and the wait time was a little long, but everyone was very nice. We hardly waited at all this time, plus we didn’t have to pay since the first visit for any new patient is free. Even though they weren’t getting any money out of it, they still took Oreo’s situation seriously and spent time examining her thoroughly and even consulted a textbook to try and figure out what could have been wrong with her. Ultimately everyone came to the consensus she probably was constipated and strained too hard.
So that’s a relief. Oreo may be a little beeyotch most of the time, but I don’t want to see her in pain.