Goodbye Lady Goodbye

Today is a sad day. Our pet hamster named Lady has died. We tried to save her but it was too late, or perhaps our efforts made the illness worse.

2 days ago I noticed some whitish discharge that looked a little like pus coming out or around Lady's penis. Oh yeah, Lady is a male hamster. Jasmyn insisted that we name him Lady. Well the milky white stuff was alarming but upon doing so research I learned that hamster pee is milky and pus looking when the hamster is healthy. Lady seemed to be drinking and eating and eliminating just fine. But I called the Vet and asked what we should do. They thought that Lady should be seen by a Vet because it was likely he would need antibiotics to get rid of the supposed infection. So yesterday I took Lady to the vet. The vet removed some of the white stuff and thought Lady might have an abscess on his penis, probably from the other hamster biting him. Lady and Elephant often play fight or maybe real fight for dominance, all of which we read was normal behavior. So the Vet messed with the abscess trying to clear it out. She did remove some of it, but not all. She sent us home with some antibiotics, and something to help reduce the swelling. We gave Lady the dose last night. He seemed fine.

This afternoon when I was getting ready to re-dose his with meds I found him curled up on some bedding. He didn't move when I opened the lid of the cage. I nudged him and he wasn't breathing. Poor Lady was dead. When I turned him over I noticed that his penis was crusted with blood as well as the white stuff. I don't know if he died because we didn't catch the infection soon enough, or if the vet messing with it made it worse, or the meds were too much for his system, or if the trip to the Vet was too stressful for him. Either way he is gone.

The kids were very sad. They wanted to bury Lady in our back yard. Together we dug the hole. I wrapped Lady in some soft napkins and placed her into a tea box. Kaleb, Jasmyn, Mason and I gathered around the hole and each took turns holding the tea box and saying a few words about Lady.

Kaleb: "Well, Lady you were Elephant's best friend. And now your just dead. Poor Elephant. I love you. Good bye Lady"

Jasmyn: " I love you Lady, I miss you and I wish you weren't dead.

Mason: (pats tea box) "Bye bye Lady".

Jen: " Lady I am so sorry if I did anything to cause your death. I tried to do the best I could by taking you to the Vet, even though now I fear that may have caused your death. I hope you weren't in pain when you died. I loved you because you brought joy to the kids lives. Thank you for being so patient and being such a good little hamster. Good bye Lady you will be missed."

Then we placed the tea box into the hole and we all helped cover it up with the dirt. When we were finished the older kids headed inside. Mason patted the ground and said "Bye bye Lady" and then waved at the grave site.

*sigh*

We went to the pet store and bought Elephant a new toy to play with and some bright colored bedding (yellow) to brighten his cage up and hopefully cheer him up after the loss of his best friend Lady.