R.I.P. Nina

This morning my littlest hamster died. She was acting slightly weird yesterday morning, like scratching herself a lot and sleeping outside more often, and then when I came home from work yesterday she was hunched over outside again and wouldn't open her eyes. I tried to wake her up to make sure she wasn't hurt or anything (I still suspect that maybe she was getting beat up by the bigger hamster), but she was pretty groggy and kind of grumpy when I tried to pick her up. I had some errands to run last night, so I left her alone, trying to tell myself that I was just being paranoid. But when I got home later that night, she was even worse - walking around with her eyes closed, losing her balance, bumping into things, falling over when she tried to scratch her face... it was really sad and scary. But bless her little heart, when I picked her up to see if I could tell what was wrong with her, she perked right up, opened her eyes, and tried to look interested in the outside world, even though she still had a lot of trouble balancing. I called the only emergency vet rescue I could find that would be open at 10pm, not really expecting much help with a hamster, and I was right - the woman I spoke with was very nice, but explained that her clinic didn't have much experience with "pocket pets," and there was an $80 fee for emergency services. I planned to call Petsmart or a regular vet this morning, but by the time I got up, it was too late. My little hamster had died underneath the exercise wheel.