TOA
PAYOH VETS
The ideal way in dogs would be to resect the skin of 1 cm away from the edge of the skin tumour according to the vet book to cut off any spreading cancer cells.
A Syrian hamster's shoulder area is so small. This is not practical as the wound would be so big that the stitching of the wound will not be possible.
In this hamster, the tumour was cut off. The owner did not want it to be sent to the lab for histology. It looked much like a cancerous tumour. Toa Payoh Vets would send it for confirmation.
Histology test showed it was a malignant tumour.
Hamster skin growths need to be removed by the vet when they are small as there is the danger of spreading and insufficient skin to cut off and to stitch up after resection.
Also anaesthesia by gas to top up as the surgery and stitching took some time. How much of gas to give by mask? This is a judgment of the vet.
"Insufficient," Dr Daniel said as he stitched up the wound after I took off the mask after giving a few seconds of 5% isoflurane and the hamster moved a bit.
 |
 |
"Every vet can operate on
any size of large skin
tumours in the hamster," I
told him. "The only
difference is which vet
can operate such that the
hamster survives at the
end of the operation." 5%
isoflurane is very potent
to a hamster. 2 or 3
seconds of smell will do
to top up Zoletil sedation
which was need in this
type of large tumour
removal surgery. The
hamster had 5 drops
Zoletil 50 IM but was
still not fully sedated.
Hence the isoflurane gas
top up. This is where the
judgment of the vet comes
in. A second more of gas
anaesthesia by mask hay just
kill the hamster but will
not kill a dog or cat.
Hence there is a layman's
belief that hamsters die
on the operating table
easily and many vets
prefer not to operate but
give medication for tumour
cases. Medication never
works. Anaesthesia may
kill. So, many hamster
owners wait and wait till
there is no choice but to
operate. By that time, as
in this case, the tumour
is massive and not all
cancerous cells can be
taken out.
I warn the owner that the
tumour may recur again as
it was not possible to
make a big cut and to have
sufficient skin to stitch
up. The lab report
indicated the resection
margin had tumour cells
and so I expected the
tumour to recur. It is not
possible to resect 1 cm
around the circumference
of this hamster's skin
tumour as there will be
insufficient skin to
stitch the wound. Hence,
small tumours are best
excised by your vet to
save the hamster's life.
Follow up: As at 7
days after surgery, the
hamster is well. It had
some swelling in the skin
below the shoulder. I
asked the owner to rub the
swelling as it would be a
blood clot. The
swelling disappeared.
Update will be on this
webpage:
www.asiahomes.com/new1/20130222syrian_cancerous_skin_tumour_toapayohvets.htm