Bleeding mouth

Question
I noticed my hamster seemed to feel a lot chubbier when I held her this weekend.  She was also bleeding and I thought that was her period or something.  But she died this morning and my mom said she was bleeding from the mouth with her eyes open =[.  I know hamsters die of old age and usually of strokes but do they bleed from the mouth?  My hamster was almost 3 years old.  Also, she wasn't really eating for the past couple of days.  I clean her cage every weekend and she usually has pine bedding but this weekend, I changed it with some expensive biodegradable fiber bedding called Carefree, I believe...  Do you think it has anything to do with eating that?
Thank you!

Answer
Hello Sharon,
I'm sorry your hamster passed away. You know I think that the pine bedding could have had something to do with the mouth bleeding. Pink bedding is known to cause liver and lung disease and sometimes you can get a little blood in your lungs depending on certain types of lung diseases. Also, when a hamster is near the end they do stop eating and drinking. I can't exactly tell you why she was bleeding, but I have seen it in hamsters with eternal bleeding.