Slight hamster injury

Question
My hamster (female golden Syrian) has an injury on her fore-paw. It's very slight, and not noticeably bleeding, though it looks as though it has bled. She's not protective of the injury and doesn't seem to be bothered or unnerved by it at all. As far as I can see, she's either bitten it, smashed it or the nail got pried at. She's a bit apprehensive of me looking at it, but no more than usually. She doesn't snarl, hiss or gnash her teeth when I try to look at it.

Other than the fact that she's got a scab-looking injury on her fore-paw she's exactly as normal, and acting normal. She's running, playing and eating in her usual manner.

What action should I take? Is it safe to let her run in her play-ball, should I try to stop her from climbing her cage walls? (That's one of her favorite pass-times and it's really in all honesty rather fool-hardy to try to stop her).

Answer
Hello!! Well you're an excellent parent and you are doing everything that you are supposed to do with an injured or sick hamster. You've already taken the necessary steps to make sure that she has a full recovery. You're watching her a lot and monitoring her activity, making sure it's normal and nothing is unusual. If her injury is scabbing over she is doing great and healing just fine. As far as letting her do her normal stuff, since she doesn't seem to be hurting, let her romp and scale the cage walls as much as she wants. It would be really hard to stop her from doing what she wants to do especially since hamsters aren't that bright lol. :-) She would look at you crazy if you kept her from doing her daily climbs :-). Too bad my hamster doesn't climb or actually do anything interesting, he just sleeps and eats but then again he's a dwarf hamster. At work when we have a sick or injured hamster, we keep them in 10 gal tank with nice aspen bedding and a house. We observe them everyday and write down what we see. Most of them have wheels to run about in but if they don't feel good they won't use them. Since she is using everything in her home, she's normal as normal can be. :-) Good luck with your hamster and I hope you two have many years of fun together. Here's a tip to entertain her more with her climbing. Tie some treats to the top of the cage and watch her work her way to get them :-). Good luck :-)