The other day we did something that I never thought I would do: we took the hamster to the vet. Have you ever tried to find a vet that will even LOOK at a hamster? I must confess that I never thought I would do that. But, every member of the family is important, even the small four footed ones. Luckily, our avian vet (the one who takes care of our finches when we have a problem) also takes care of small animals. Our regular vet does dogs, cats, and large animals (horses, cows, etc….) which is what you would expect in a community that is largely farms. Our son was very worried that Bear (the Hamster) had some sort of infection on his foot. Luckily Bear was OK: he just had some heavy callous growth on his foot (too much time in his hamster wheel, I think). What did catch us off guard was that the vet was surprised to hear that Bear was almost four years old. He told us that hamsters generally only live to the ripe old age of two, so Bear is really extraordinary. Bear sleeps, eats, drinks and spends most of waking hours in his hamster wheel, expending a whole lot of effort without really accomplishing anything. In many ways I can sympathize with him, for sometimes I think we are all in hamster wheels…….
July 8th, 2006 at 9:45 am I’m glad to hear that bear is ok.
July 9th, 2006 at 10:22 am He is doing fine. Mark was very worried about him. We just have to soak his foot and help cut away the callous. I think our own personal hamster wheels give us all some callouses that need to periodically be cut away….