hope ur hamster's fine =)

This post has been edited by gothic_sushi8: Jan 22 2010, 04:36 PM

Thanks =) really appreciate ur reply.
Anyway, just came back from d vet.
Well d doc said it MIGHT be cancer. I dun believe her honestly. I mean.. which veterinarian is afraid of animals? =_=" 1st she asked if my hamster bites. Then she said, "erm, u hold him". All she did was just stare. & she wasnt wearing any gloves =-=" like, WTF.
I bought some meds for him. Will observe for 2 weeks.
Hope he'll recover in a few days time
Thanks again

Obviously the vet you visited is inexperience. I strongly recommend you to visit Animal Hospital in Jalan Genting Klang. Few months ago i brought my hamster there to do a minor surgery. Frankly speaking the vets there are very experienced. They really know how to hold a hamster gently. Furthermore the price there is reasonable.

Well, I've did some reading before this. What my hamster is having could be cancer, but I dont wanna conclude as I'm not a specialist. Still need to observe for at least a week 1st before I consult another doctor. As surgeries to treat cancer is consider a major one, hamsters may not survive it due to blood loss or other reasons.

How much did they charged you for ur hamster's surgery btw? & what was d reason for d surgery?

anyone can help me?

i think is better to feed back what those pet shop selling + try to get some nutrient food show at first page

I'm not defending this vet here, but I'm just giving some clarifications based on my own experience. For such animals, whether they bite or not is actually quite a common question for the vet to ask. And for the not wearing of gloves to protect against bites, you'll need to be wearing quite a thick glove, and wearing such a thick glove makes it difficult for the vet to actually feel the animal. And asking the owner to hold the animal is also quite common, as such animals do not like being to have themselves held in such a manner and will often struggle. Thus it'll be better for somebody who's familiar with the animal to be the one holding them.

Anyways, onto the growth. It may be cancer, but it may just be a non cancerous growth. A non cancerous growth will be better news, but it'll still cause problems in the long run as it'll just get bigger and bigger. There's also a possibility for it to get infected too.

I've just had a hamster come out of surgery yesterday for such a lump on the right cheek, that also got infected.

The surgical procedure itself is quite simple, and the GA given is via gas. Basically getting the hamster to breath in the gas till they get knocked out, then an incision is made where the lump is and the lump taken out.

Whether the hamster will survive or not depends very much on the hamster. For mine, the hamster was very obviously losing weight and was having problems eating solid food, but I fed it the nutri smoothie mix (which is a good thing too that she likes to eat). But she's still rather active. If your hamster is acting weak, then chances r that it may not survive. The good news about mine is that the moment we brought her home and put her back into the tank, the first thing she did was to rush towards the bowl of smoothie. Eating is a good sign.

All in all, we've had 6 visits to the vet:
1) diagnose the lump. not sure what it is as yet. poked a needle into it to draw blood to see. found out there's infection. got given 2 antibiotic jabs
2) 2 more antibiotic jabs the next day
3) 2 more antibiotic jabs the next day. given oral antibiotics to feed to her, 1 drop per day
4) one week later, the infection is starting to mature and there's puss. poked a needle into the lump again, and try to squeeze out puss. continue with the daily oral antibiotics. lump size decreased slightly
5) one week later, lump size increasing again. determined that the lump is not just infection, but could be a growth. here's the decision time, on whether to do surgery or not
6) day after, surgery done, brought hamster back home. put her back into her tank after fully disinfecting the tank. feeding nutri smoothie mix as she's still not keen on solid food. continue with oral antibiotics.

need to bring back to the vet 2 days later for examination again.

edit: cost of surgery is RM100, at the Small Animals Vet over in Bandar Puteri Puchong (next to Mailboxes)

This post has been edited by fyire: Jan 24 2010, 10:52 AM

hm.. well my hamster did "scream" when she tried to touch it. lol. Ok I accept your explaination since u've been to d vet more frequently than I do

U must love your hamster very much
I got tired of people telling me "it's just a hamster & it has a short live span", well indirectly saying, just leave him & his illness alone.
Well, small or big, it's still a living creature & it deserves to be treated that's how I felt.
Now, I just have to give him his medications everyday & observe his condition.

So how is ur hamster now?

Well, mine is a little different, they would be saying its just a hamster, go see doc can buy another xx hamster. Well, sometimes I would like to ask, then why you bring your kids to clinic, just send to grave la, dig hole dump. Then go make another baby! Its different, all of us pet lovers understand one thing, its life and its our love! Cannot be replaced by anything else. I had a fav hammy passed away long time ago, and now I love my hammies as much as it, but the feel is not the same.

Well, currently its about 24 hours after bringing her back. The surgery was done yesterday in the morning. Her fur looks better already. Before this, it was matted and spiky, with obvious signs of fur thinning and loss. This morning, the fur's back to the smooth condition once again, although still thin in some areas.

Examined her closely again, and some parts of the lump is still there. This is to be expected in a way I guess, but at least the major part of it is already gone. The vet did also say that a second surgery may be needed for the remainder, but that's to be decided much later after she has recovered from the first. If the small leftover lump doesn't grow anymore, then its then best to just leave it as it is.

The tank or cage where you put the hamster in also needs to be changed slightly post operation. We removed everything from the cage, and instead of putting in the wood shavings, we just lined the bottom of the tank with paper towels, to be changed daily. Only thing in the tank now are the food bowl, a little plate with the smoothie mix, and a little container that she likes to hide in (this little container has to be disinfected on a daily basis too). In other words, keep the tank as simple as possible, so its easy to clean up on a daily basis, as its very important to prevent any infection of the surgery wound.

Examine the surgery wound regularly too, and if its bleeding, try to clean up using cotton balls soaked in warm water (boil the water, then wait for it to cool down).

Yea, what they're trying to tell us is more or less the same.
Well, I can accept them saying a human's life is (more) worth saving compared to an animal's.
But does that mean that animals dont deserve to be treated?
If an animal is sick, it's the owner's responbility cos they r d ones who choose what food to feed them & when to clean them & their waste etc.
I know how u feel I had a pair of hamster actually. But d female squeezed out of d cage & ran away. When I found her after 2 days, she's already too hungry & tired. That was only d 5th day I bought her. But it made me weep when I have to bury her with my own hands.

Looks like she's recovering pretty well how's her appetite?
What breed is your hamster btw?

She's a winter white (pearl). Currently well enough to start running around the tank away from me when I have to take her out to feed her the antibiotics. Appetite seems to be alright, although still prefer the smoothie mix rather than solid food that she still picks at.

glad to hear that. hope she recovers real soon

Ya, its a sad case when our pet passed away.

Glad she is ok, at least she is eating

Let me know how your hamster is doing, and/or if she needs to go for surgery or not. I can pass u the contact of the vet that we went to over in Bandar Puteri Puchong.

Ok thanks
Will keep you updated.

how many moth for a mother hamster to pregnant....how long the baby stop milking?

wow so cute.. i wish my hamster could breed.. together for so long, but nvr do geh..

Just brought the hamster (Eenie) back to the vet yesterday for the post surgery checkup. She seems to be doing ok, and improving. Such surgery wounds tends to take just 3 days to heal, but since there's infection in the area as well (from before the surgery), it may take longer. But the wound itself is already closed up properly, but there's some ugly looking scabs still stuck there still. Leaving those scabs alone for the time being.

Still some 'pimple' looking little bumps on her skin where the left over lumps are at, most likely puss accumulating from the previous infection. Decided not to touch those as yet as its too close to where the surgery wound is at. Contrary to most beliefs, such signs of puss can actually be a good sign, when it comes to a bad infection, as it shows that the body is fighting off the infection and isolating away the infected cells. Normally has to be lanced and removed, but this has to wait a bit in Eenie's case.

Next trip to the vet will be in 7-10 days, or if any of the 'pimples' breaks (on its own or from her own pawing) for an antibiotic jab (just in case she eats any of the puss while cleaning herself) and a cleanup of the area.

I wanna buy 2 female winter white hamster[2 -3 months old]
anyone have it?
if its winter pearl will be great
with budget of RM 5 each...
wish to COD at Midvalley on 31th january 2010...
will pay you RM 10 for coming Midvalley around 3pm at McD


This post has been edited by Icerry: Jan 30 2010, 01:45 AM