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Old 04-16-2019, 01:15 PM   #1
Heather
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Default Tumour on face :(

I took my hamster to the vets yesterday with what I thought was a cyst but the vet told me that she’s quite sure it’s a tumour. She said that she couldn’t remove it and we had two options - euthanise her today or send her home with pain relief. We decided to bring her home because she is still a happy hamster and it doesn’t seem to bother her much. But now that I’ve had time to for it to sink in I’m thinking of things I should have asked. I plan to ring the vets back tomorrow but I wondered if anyone here could offer advice.

The medication we have is metacam - which I don’t fully understand because we can only use it for a few days so what do we do for pain relief the rest of the time? Also, the possible side effects include diarrhoea and I’m worried that I’ll cause her more issues by giving it to her.

The vet said to us that she can’t really say if she’s in pain or not. Myself looking at her I can’t imagine it’s comfortable but she is still very active for a hamster of her age (over 2 now). She’s eating normally and looks bright, at least until yesterday she did - she’s not been happy at all since we took her the vets, I think it really stressed her out, which is a separate worry for me now.

The lump appeared very quickly, we initially thought she had been chewing at something as she had an area which looked a little red but then it ballooned out. When I tried researching it myself I felt like it must be a cyst, because it looked a little red and had a bit of a scab to it I assumed she had caught it and it became infected, I thought she would need some antibiotics I wasn’t really prepared to hear that it was a tumour and I’m not really sure what to expect now. Is it normal for them to appear this quickly?

Just any advice at all on how to make her life as easy as possible. As long as she seems to be enjoying herself I wouldn't like to see her put to sleep, obviously if it grows more and she can’t eat or becomes inactive then I will have to reassess what we do. But for now I really just want to know how to help her. With it being on her face I wonder if giving her water in a bowl or maybe softer foods?
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Old 04-16-2019, 02:03 PM   #2
Shannonmcn
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Default Re: Tumour on face :(

Honestly I agree with you about it sounding more like a cyst or an injury that's swelling. I know cancer can be aggressive in hamsters but if it was over the course of a few days? I dunno. I also agree that it was the right thing to bring her home if she's still hamstering about normally.

I have had one vet also jump to tumor and euthanasia very quickly. Too quickly for me to be comfortable with. I now suspect it was actually pyo but I didn't know enough about it at the time to argue. I don't know about palliative metacam (since that's how it's been prescribed) only being used for a few days either. Doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe someone else will have heard that before but I don't think I have.

I don't know your vet obviously and they could be completely right but you can always consider a second opinion. Just to put your own mind at ease if nothing else. Honestly maybe take anything I say with a grain of salt. I'm still bitter about that experience with one possibly poor vet.

You're right to try and make sure she doesn't irritate the area too much but maybe just watch her and see if there's anything she's actually having trouble with before you change too much, especially if she's a bit stressed after her vet trip.
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