VET CASE 2015. 1/2. The family vet does not operate on hamster's chest and elbow tumours
Channel: Dr David Sing
Date: 2015-05-01

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