Labored Breathing

He didn't look good when I glanced in the cage.
Hamsters don't usually lie on their stomachs, flat.
They usually are curled up in balls if anything.

It was especially odd that he was sleeping in plain view. As hamsters tend to find a corner or sleep in their hideouts. They don't just sleep out in the open.
And considering I'd turned on the lights, and was opening and shutting other cages.
With him being out in the open, he should have been up and running around, being active.
As me opening up cages is usually the wake up call that fresh food is being provided.

Yet there he laid....

So I grabbed some gloves and cautiously picked him up.
-As if he wasn't feeling well, I didn't want to get bitten if I disturbed him.

Yet.
He didn't react.
I stroked his back.
Watching his labored breathing.
My heart sinking.
This wasn't good.
Hamsters are wiggly by nature.
To have them not moving around...
is never a good sign.
Lethargisim is bad.
Especially when his breathing wasn't normal.

My suspicions were confirmed.
When I flipped him onto his back.
And he didn't react at all.

Plus, I could see that his eyes were crusted shut. Another bad sign.

I took him to a manager,
Who told me to go check in with the vet.
Who took out his stethoscope and listened.
And pronounced that it sounded like he had a respiratory infection.

Which, if we had caught it earlier, could have meant that we could have found medicines for him.
Yet,
We didn't.
With him that motionless, lethargic.
He was either going to lay there until he died...which could be in four days, or in four minutes...
Or we could ease his suffering.

:( So I made the choice, to have him put down. Y_Y

Poor thing.
It always hits me harder when I'm there when the animals pass on. As I always want there to be a happy ending, the animal finding its forever home.
So to know that this hamster wouldn't. Was depressing.

Poor little Timothy. :( I wish we could have done more for you.

-Sarnic Dirchi