Otis - Farewell My Friend

Yesterday marked the day of the departure of my little buddy Otis. He's a hamster that my non-g/f and I have had for the past year and a half. He was a little over two years old (we guessed, because he was born 3 months before we got him), so he was a geriatric ham. He was diagnosed with Cushing's Syndrome a few months ago. Cushing's Syndrome is a immunodeficient (don't quote me on that) disease that usually will kill the hamster. It causes a build-up of cortisol in the body, as well as an enlargement of the liver. It's a mammalian disease so we can get it too. What happens is that there are mites that live on the skin of mammals (including humans) that are harmless unless they get out of control. When the hamster acquires this disease (a common disease in hamsters [unfortunately, many online sources don't list this disease as a common ailient in hamsters) the mites are no longer checked by the immune system and grow in numbers. These little mites will cause skin irritation, and the hamster will scratch him/herself to the point of breaking the skin. They usually develop scars, and this is when we took him in a few months ago and learned all of this. Since then, he's been on antibiotics to help heal his scars and another medication that will control the mites. He was on the road to recovery as far as we knew. It's kind of crazy how fast it all was. One day he was there moving around and eating, the next gone. This is the first animal death in my life where my pet passed away peacefully in their sleep. It's sort of weird, because fish can't die anywhere, but in their tanks, unless they escape, so I guess I'm used to that. For terrestrial animals, like dogs, I'm used to putting them to sleep. It's really something to find your pet just lying there unmoving and not breathing. I still feel like he's at home in his cage, even though I personally buried him this morning. Rest in peace little guy. I know you are somewhere running in that big wheel in the sky!

P-Wagz