eye popping out and bleeding

Question
my daughter has a robo hamster and it appears to have been squeesed. her right eye is bleeding badly and bulging out. she seems fine other than that. very active and running etc. will the eye fall out or do i need to have it removed. i dnt know what to do or if she will even live. plz help

Answer
Hi Brandon

Sorry to hear about your hamster.  This is a danger with hamsters as their eyes protrude so much and you do have to be very careful when handling them.  You definitely need to get to a vet with this hamster as soon as possible.  If the eyeball has been ruptured, then sometimes it is possible to treat with antibiotics and the eye will heal as the eye socket will naturally fill in with scar tissue.  If you get a hamster to a vet urgently with something like this, sometimes the vet can get the eye back in providing there is no other damage.  They can stitch the eyelid shut for a week to help the eyeball to stay in place.  In some situations however the eye does need removing.  You may be prescribed an eye ointment such as Fucithalmic which prevents infection and keeps the eye moist.  Hamsters can cope very well with a missing eye or blindness as their eyesight is poor anyway and they tend to rely heavily on their other senses, so eye injury as such isn't a problem but in order to prevent infection, which could make the situation worse, and to prevent the hamster being in pain veterinary attention is definitely needed.

I don't know if you can get to a vet either today or over the weekend, but if you can, then this would be preferable.  

I hope you get on OK with this.

Regards
Sheila