4214 - 4216. Be Kind To Dwarf Hamsters. Get your vet to excise his ear wart when it is very small as in this case

More younger Singaporeans are aware of the need to get their hamster's tumours excised by the vet when such tumours are detected early and are much smaller. "Breast tumours" appear to be common in the older dwarf hamsters. Some are malignant and will recur. Others are non-cancerous but do grow to a large size as in the case below.

Other than the high anaesthetic risks of operating on the older hamster, an overweight and massive tumour pose much challenges and risks of death. Bleeding is always profuse but seem to have no serious effect on the dwarf hamsters so far after removal of the "breast tumours."

As most hamsters pull off the Elizabeth collars, many owners don't enforce the wearing of such e-collars. In some cases as the one below, the hamster chewed off the stitches. Healing of the big wound is best done by granulation, with twice daily cleaning of the wound and keeping it very clean.  Smaller tumours will lead to smaller wounds which heal easily. Therefore, get your vet to excise the small tumours early. Examine your dwarf hamster or Syrian hamster daily and detect such tumours early.

From my last 10-20 years of operating on hamster tumours, anaesthesia should not be a problem if the vet has sufficient experience of hamster anaesthesia. This is because,  unlike in the case of the dog, there are no ECGs and other anaesthetic monitoring machines for the dwarf hamster. There is simply no place to attach the electrodes. Therefore the vet must be vigilant and observant to ensure no hamster ever die on the operating table owing to anaesthetic overdose.

Vets who feel uncomfortable in operating on tumours in such small creatures will do well to refer the case out and avoid the highly charged emotions of anaesthetic deaths on the operating table. 
 

6036 - 6039. A fat hamster had her large tumours excised. She chewed off her sutures 6 days later. The big wound was left to heal by granulation