Video 1.  Anaesthesia & Surgery of the dwarf hamster at Toa Payoh Vets. A large 3-g skin tumour
Channel: Dr David Sing
Date: 2013-11-08

Many Singaporean hamster owners believe that the hamster will definitely die if the vet operates to remove its tumour. Some vets do not advise surgery.  Procrastination leads to the tumour growing to a large size, becoming infected and causing pain, hair loss, lameness and death in some cases. Hamster tumours are easily excised when they are much smaller, less than 3 mm across and anaesthesia now is much riskier as the hamster is aged at 2 years of age. 

More loss of blood occurs when the hamster's tumour is massive and excised during surgery. Death is due to blood loss as the dwarf hamster's loss of a small amount of blood can kill it, unlike the situation in a dog. Seek a vet who will operate on hamster tumours.

Other vet educational videos from Toa Payoh Vets are at: http://www.toapayohvets.com/videos.htm