VET CASE 2015. 1/2. Large necrotic smelly chest tumour in a dwarf hamster.
The family vet does not operate on hamster's chest and elbow tumours. Written by: Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow).
May 1, 2015. This over one-year-old male dwarf hamster has 2 large subcutaneous tumours. The family vet who did not perform surgery advised euthanasia when the thin hamster could not live a good quality of life. The owner surfed the net and contacted Toa Payoh Vets in May 2015.
The hamster was thin as he had poor
appetite. The larger chest lump gets rubbed onto the floor when the
hamster walked. It became ulcerated, infected and gangrenous black.
Surprisingly, the hamster was still eating.
At Toa Payoh
Vets, the owner was informed that his hamster was at a high risk of
death under anaesthesia if he wanted surgery to remove the chest
tumour. With informed consent of the high risk of anaesthetic death,
the young man decided on surgery.
To my surprise, this hamster survived the anaesthesia and recovered fully at home after excision of this large necrotic tumour by Dr Daniel. Isoflurane gas anaesthesia were used in this case. The young man came back for removal of the elbow tumour one month later. That was why I knew he had survived the post-operation. Toa Payoh Vets is fortunate to receive many hamster tumour cases from Singaporeans over the past years.
See some of the cases at: https://www.toapayohvets.com/surgery/050609hamsters_ToaPayohVets.htm
Most of our hamster owners are young
people who had surfed the internet. With more surgeries done on dwarf
hamsters, the anaesthetic and surgical skills of the vet and staff
are honed.
Early detection and excision of the tumour would be
ideal in order to achieve a good outcome.
In conclusion, all
owners are informed that it is not possible to guarantee 100%
successful outcome in anaesthesia and surgery of every dwarf hamster
with gigantic tumours operated at Toa Payoh Vets. Vets who do not
wish to operate on dwarf hamster lumps will generate good will by
referring their clients to vets who do such surgeries, rather than
prescribing medication and saying that the hamster can be put to
sleep when the lump grows too big, smelly and become infected by
bacteria. The owner will be traumatised daily seeing the hamster
suffering from the painful ulcerated tumour soiling the bedding and
wafting bad smells. He or she is likely to surf the net for
solutions. So why not refer the owner to a vet who does operate on
hamster tumours?
The goodwill generated means that the
hamster owner is very likely to return to the family vet for
non-surgical conditions as there is trust that the family vet really
cares – not just advising euthanasia when the tumour is about to
cause death of the hamster after a long period of suffering.
/Video
link:
https://youtu.be/cooD8F6t6zI
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A SECOND VIDEO. See link below:
VET CASE 2015. Video 2/2. Large necrotic smelly chest tumour in a dwarf hamster.
The big chest tumour had been excised and the skin stitched. Only isoflurane gas anaesthesia was given as the hamster was very thin and weak. Some hamsters survive the surgery but die at home a few days later as they were in very poor health but needed the emergency surgery to remove the smelly rotten tumours.
Surprisingly this hamster survived as the owner came back with the request to remove the left armpit tumour. The hamster survived this surgery. It is best not to wait till the tumour is gigantic and infected as there will be insufficient skin to stitch.
Video link: Video 2/2. Large necrotic smelly chest tumour in a dwarf hamster.
UPDATES
AT:
https://2010vets.blogspot.com/2023/10/4202-vet-case-2015-video-12-family-vet.html
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