2001-10-03 - 11:35 p.m.

What's The Matter With Mo?

Ah, the little hamsters. They are adorable, but they seem to be prone to a host of medical problems. Just when I think I've seen everything, I see some new weird ailment or injury.

For instance I once had a hamster that lost all its hair. There was another hamster whose teeth were growing and wouldn't stop. So the hamster wouldn't starve to death, I had to periodically take a pair of pliers and break the teeth. That was a lot of fun.

Then there was poor Snowball and her eye...

But I'm not going to tell you about that. Believe me, you don't want to know.

Last night, I was looking in on the hamsters, and something made me take a closer look at Sweet Moses, Lily's favorite hamster. There seemed to be something not quite right with him.

I took a closer look at him. He looked like he was pregnant!

I have never seen a hamster look so fat! However, picking him up it was more like he was inflated than fat, his abdomen all distended. He didn't seem like he was in any pain, but he didn't seem like he was enjoying himself.

Damn, damn, damn. Mo is one of the younger hamsters in the house. I was just about so start breeding him, but that's not going to be happening now. He can hardly move, poor little fella.

I'm tempted to try to call a vet to see if he can help, but every time I've done that I've only made the hamster miserable, and they die anyway.

So Lily and I just have to watch, and wait, and hope he gets better.