Saturday, December 1, 2012

1197. Three teeth in a one-year-old dwarf hamster

Saturday Dec 1, 2012

The hamster with the swollen upper nose came back as she could not gnaw seeds. 4 days ago, Dr Daniel had incised the upper right area of the nose, draining the pus. Now, the lower right area of the nose below the right nostril had become more swollen. "The right nostril is bigger in diameter than the left," I said as the gentleman owner had complained that the hamster had sniffling sounds.

The hamster's upper right area was slightly swollen after drainage of the abscess. It took one month for the abscess to ripen and it was lanced 4 days ago on Nov 27, 2012. The lower right upper area had shown on pimple but was mainly hard as a rock. So, there was no point cutting it as it was not "ripe" meaning that the abscess had not come to a head.

The hamster squeaked when I tried to open the mouth with forceps but othewise was "sleepy" when hand-held by the girlfriend for me to take images of the inflamed area to document the condition. There would be another 4 days before this area would ripen and pus could be released. I scheduled Dec 4, 2012 to operate.

This hamster has only 3 teeth instead of 4. One right upper incisor and two lower incisor teeth with a gap between them.
"Was he born with 3 teeth?" I asked the gentlema as the hamster's front teeth grow continuously unlike human teeth. So a fractured one would grow back and the hamster wears out the teeth by gnawing and eating seeds..
"He had four teeth," he said.
"You dropped him when he was young," the girlfriend said.
Presently the hamster gained 5 g, from 40 g some 4 days ago after lancing the abscess. He would eat the bananna paste and loved the green jelly but could not chew on seeds or pellets for the past 4 days. So that was why the couple consulted me.
"He used to be 60 g," the man said.
"Once the abscess in the lower right area of the right nostril is soft and lanced, he will put on weight, befitting his name of "Ah Pui" (Fatty in the Hokkien dialect).

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