Hamster drama.
Today's list:
* Cooking/baking (pancake batter, Mac and Green, mashed sweet potatoes need to make more tomorrow, trial pumpkin pie, possible chicken broth) Just a note: this does not include usual daily cooking. My kitchen gets a lot of use.
* Bedding change for Pickles
* Kitchen (sans stove; that's another day)
* Organize bento stuff
* Re-read bits of Amabile (1996)
* Grocery shopping
* Laundry will continue throughout day
* Bags in living room
I had a bit of a scare with Pickles last night. Yesterday AM was his wellness checkup at the vet yes, you can take a hamster to the vet if your vet handles small animals. It is an important part of any pet's life and I'm extremely glad that I did it. I gained a lot of insight and got a lot of information. Laugh if you must but, after all, hamsters are animals too and, thankfully, he came out with a clean bill of health. Just as we were leaving he left a semi-soft poo in his holding cage. I commented on this and the vet (whom I do trust; I wouldn't go to her if I did not) said that this could be stress and to simply watch him as I usually watch my pets. She knows that I am an attentive owner.
He was sluggish last night and didn't eat much. When I checked on him during my evening fresh food deposit (and what is usually playtime) he had a wet area around his bum. My first thought was OMFG wet tail?!?, but then I looked a bit closer. I had seen wet tail at PetCo before and this didn't look like the classic signs. It just looked wet - no poo, no nothing. He was behaving normally, save wanting to go right to sleep after I put him back in his cage. We didn't play long last night because I wanted him to rest.
This morning I checked on him and, much to my relief, I could see that he had indeed played around a bit last night; he set his toilet paper tube on end, clever little thing! He had urinated in his corner and - even better - ate some of last night's lettuce. I opted to do a full bedding change and threw out his tube. I did my usual daily bowl wash/food refill (I don't believe in recycling dry food when wet food is given to an animal) and checked Pickles for signs of distress. He was a bit more playful this morning.
His bum didn't look like it was any wetter and I decided to wipe him off with a wet paper towel. I'm so glad I did; all that I removed was urine. No poo. No wet tail. I think that what must've happened is that his fur must've gotten a bit wet while urinating in his little igloo (and he did so a LOT for some reason yesterday). I'm much relieved. I gave Pickles some handling/playtime today (while Storm looked on calmly, although with some intensity) but cut it a bit shorter than usual because I want to make sure he gets his rest.
Last night, unfortunately, the anxiety I was feeling about Pickles fueled my very vivid dreams. All night I missed concert meeting times, didn't have enough food with me while I was out in a strange place with no transportation, and couldn't find Storm. I woke up in the throes of a panic attack, and the anxiousness and slight panic hasn't waned in the four hours I've been up. I've made my pancakes, though, so I'm not stress eating anymore. I'm going to go shower and go about my day.
Maybe I'll take a soaky bath, too.
Sarah