Chances of successful operation?

[Shaza A]

Hi, this is my first post here.

I have an 19 mth old Campbell Dwarf male which we got out of a rescue centre. He was born there so I know his age reasonably accurately.

I discovered lumps on his tummy on Sunday and took him to a local vet on Tuesday, who put him under for a few minutes to see if the lumps were cysts. However, they are reasonably solid and they couldn't get anything out of them. One is quite small (left hand side near his back leg, while there is a bigger one nearer his middle).

The question is to operate or not? (I'm not that convinced the vet I took him to has a lot of experience with hamsters as he didn't seem to know best how to pick him up and he said they would have to improvise some sort of aesthetic if they did it )

We have never had hamsters before so, I really don't know what is the best option. I have read some of the stickies so know a wee bit more what post op care might look like but I have loads of questions and wonder would anyone be able to answer them.

What are the chances of him surviving surgery? I read a research paper based in Germany on the types and survival rates of hammies after tumour surgery and it seems they do tend to come through the surgery ok - is this generally the case? Has anyone lost a hammy during surgery?

How do you stop them biting / scratching at the stitches? I read in one of the threads this wasn't a big problem for one of the hammies, is this generally the case?

Is the surgery itself likely to shorten his life and am I better just leaving well alone? Vet says lumps are at an operable size. They don't seem to be affecting him too much/at all at the minute - he is eating and playing etc just as normal - though he has been biting me quite a bit recently. Is it better to monitor the lumps and see if they grow much and make a decision later on or should I try and get them now and hope that he makes it through the surgery?

Really don't know what to do for the best, don't want him to suffer in any way, but don't want to put him through a surgery to either lose him during it or soon afterwards when he might have lived a happy enough life with the lumps.

Would appreciate any real life experience in dealing with this.

Thank you

[SKB_Hamsters]

Sorry to hear you hamster has tumours.

From my experience. It really hard to say the chance of successful surgery - in hamsters and other small mammals it’s a 50:50 chance recovery.

I’ve had 4 hamster (2 Syrians and 2 Russians) who had successful surgeries from enucleation, amputation, tumour removal and abscess drainage. 3 of these surgery were performed before I adopted them.

But then had a Syrian hamster (and a mouse) who sadly didn’t make it through surgery. They had a spay due to a pyometra and a mammary tumour removal. They made it through the procedure but they didn’t come back around from anaesthetic.

When I’ve had to make this decision I was assessing the quality of life - if I didn’t decide to go ahead with surgery then they would have been suffering and it usually when I have started considering putting them to sleep.

It hard to advise what to do as it is your hamster - but if it was my hamster and the tumour isn’t huge and not impeding quality of life I personally would leave it. Talk with your vet - as when I had my mouse who need her tumour removed my vet told me how if the tumour got any bigger than a certain size it wouldn’t be able to be easily be removed. It’s hard not knowing what type of tumour it is - as you could risk surgery and these lump may come back. Ask you vet if they have had experience with performing surgery on a hamster or an animal of that size as it’s a very different to surgery that of a dog, cat and rabbit - and how I confident they feel about doing surgery.

If you go ahead with surgery you need to be prepared if the outcome isn’t the one you hoped for. It is painful and even though I was prepared nothing can prepare you for losing them and it hard not to kick yourself. However The way I’ve had to look at it was surgery or pts, they’ve gone to heaven without their tumour or womb infection so are free of pain. And my vet told me they were under so didn’t feel anything.

I hope this helps. And wish you and your hamster all the best as I completely understand your thought and concerns.

[Shaza A]

Thank you very much for the response , its great to get some real life experience.

The tumours don't seem too large at the minute and are not impeding him doing anything, but if they get much bigger vet says they won't be operable.

I suppose the biggest decision is whether surgery would actually prolong his life or make no material difference - and I'm really not sure.

I'm also really concerned about post op care, keeping stitches in tact and infection.

I think I will probably hold off and monitor him for a few weeks. I am just not confident he will survive the surgery and if he does, that he will recover enough to prolong his life (It may also be malignant and surgery isn't really going to help much and indeed he will be restricted and confined for a period of time - which he won't be happy with).

No doubt I'll change my mind another dozen times before I finally decide

[ElenaGD]

Originally Posted by Shaza A

Thank you very much for the response , its great to get some real life experience.

The tumours don't seem too large at the minute and are not impeding him doing anything, but if they get much bigger vet says they won't be operable.

I suppose the biggest decision is whether surgery would actually prolong his life or make no material difference - and I'm really not sure.

I'm also really concerned about post op care, keeping stitches in tact and infection.

I think I will probably hold off and monitor him for a few weeks. I am just not confident he will survive the surgery and if he does, that he will recover enough to prolong his life (It may also be malignant and surgery isn't really going to help much and indeed he will be restricted and confined for a period of time - which he won't be happy with).

No doubt I'll change my mind another dozen times before I finally decide

Good morning, finally what happened to your little friend???

[Shaza A]

Good morning, thank you for asking.

He was grand for about 6 months. When I say grand, the tumours didn't bother him too much though they did continue to grow. He also developed a third tumour on the other side of his tummy. They got to the extent that they started to inhibit his movement. He started not being able to climb up things and he would fall of some of his perches (the tumours were just in front of his back legs and when he sat down they would flop out the side in front of his paws).

He seemed to be in ok form, but one of the tumours started to get very large and looked very red so I made the decision on 22 June to have him euthanised . He had turned 2 around the start of June.

I decided not to get another hammy. So I took all his cages, toys and bedding that I had left to the rescue shelter I originally got him from. The man there said he thought a lot of the dwarfs from that time had passed away as they were getting quite a few donations of cages etc. He wasn't able to tell me if any others had tumours.

We buried him in my mum's garden - she lives very close to us and her garden is much bigger than ours - and we got a lovely plaque made to mark his grave.