I was making the sandwiches this morning when I heard this horrid screaming type noise and looked down to see the hamster being chased by the 2 cats :-o I rescued the hamster (it was breathing very hard - thought the shock might finish him off but luckily it didn't) and it sunk its teeth deeply into my finger! I popped it back into its cage and left it to calm down. Ive just checked on him after getting back from the school dropoff and noticed that he is holding one of his front legs up (no obvious cat punctures). Is this something I should get checked out at the vets do you think - is there anything a vet can do?

id get him checked, my cat once got my hamster no wounds and he lived for 24hours after but the shock did kill him after so even if theres nothign wrong with his leg i would take him

Hi when i was at college i had a syrian that fell arkward and i took it to the college vet ( was doing an animal course) And she examined him, told me it was broken and that there isnt anything a vet can do, so the little guy lived using 3 legs for the rest of its life, it was his front leg. He lived another 10 months like it. But i dont know if things are different now, that was 10 yrs ago.

I'm not sure that I'd put your hammie through the stress of a vet visit so soon after being chased. The shock of being chased is something that the vets can do nothing about and so it's kinder to love him up and get him back to normal as soon as possible, and then when you're sure that he's survived the shock you can decide whether to take him for a check.

Shock kills far more small animals than injuries do in traumatic circumstances. A sizeable minority of small animals and birds are killed just by taking them to the vets for a check up. Shock also accounts for why vets won't operate on a cat which has been hit by a car until the following day unless there's no option and the injuries will kill them if left- it really is that serious for the animals.

There's also a good chance that if his leg got a bang (but isn't broken) then by tomorrow he may feel more able to use it and you'll decide that a vet visit isn't necessary.

Personally I'd watch him carefully and check that he's eating, drinking, going to the loo and grooming, all of which tend to not happen when the animal is in acute distress. If he's doing all of these then he's not struggling with shock and you can be a little more confident that he's going to be OK.

When Pidge fell off the roof of his cage he badly hurt his back leg. I was told to take anything out of the cage he could hurt himself on (basically everything except his food bowl) to make a hospital cage.

But 12 hrs later although he was in pain, he obviously wanted to play so was climbing the walls instead.

So my advice would be, make sure he has space in his cage so wont trip etc (excess stuff taken out) leave in his wheel and bits and just let the little mite rest.

A vet visit will just stress him out more. But do keep an eye on him and if it doesn't get better in a couple of days, or if he's in terrible pain, pop him to the vets.

I decided to leave it until tomorrow to see how he goes. I dont think the cats actually got him, but I guess he hurt himself either falling out of the cage or down the stairs. The front hatch is now fastened with an additional tie wrap (although cant be totally sure it wasn't left open by DS1). He is still ok, just holding his leg very oddly and squeals if I hold him near it. I have let him off drawing blood from my finger even though it is now turning a rather fetching shade of blue!