Is he dying?

Question
I had gotten a long haired Teddy Bear hamster(male)last Feb. as a gift from my boyfriend. Cookie has been my "baby" since then because I had moved and had to leave my cat behind at my mom's house. Well, it was weird. I woke up this morning in a panic, knowing something was wrong with Cookie and I ran to his cage. He wasn't where he normally sleeps at that time in the morning and then I noticed him in the corner of his cage, on his side(which is strange) and barely breathing! He seemed perfectly fine last night, being friendly and eating and drinking normally. The only thing that had concerned me was the past week he had a big ball of poop stuck to his behind, but when i had checked two days ago it had fallen off. Is this normal when a hamster is dying, or might he have caught something? And when he DOES breathe it's a deep, labored breath. I tried to move him into a smaller cage, but when I tried to pick him up he squeeled a little and I didn't want to hurt him. I don't know what to do. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate any help and insight.

Answer
I hate to say it but it does sound like he is in the last stages of death. It sounds like he's having heart failure and that his body is slowly shutting down. What type of bedding do you use? Sometimes a hamster can become really allergic to things and can die as a result. One thing that they can die from is allergies to ceder or pine bedding. He is probably not going to make it through the night sadly and generally long haired teddy bear hamsters only live 2-3 years and he's about 1 1/2 years old right now. I really think he's dieing from something internally that nothing can be done about. Some hamsters just have sudden death. I call it this because the hamster shows no signs or symptoms of anything unusual and the next day they are dead. I always believed it was something internal that happaned to them that was just sudden and there was nothing that can be done to prevent it. I am so sorry about the answer that I am giving you but it's the best one that I can give and I have to be honest with you so you won't have any surprises.