Chinchilla Nation » lump

No More Lumps!

Ippo456 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:11:14 +0000

This past Monday, Baby Hamster went for a second vet visit to have his sutures taken out (from the removal of the ‘mobile’ cysts found under his neck) & to have another surgery (the removal of his skin below his left ear that houses the smaller cysts).

The sutures & where the large cyst was (under BH’s neck)

As the vet was examining the smaller cysts he was about to operate on, they have actually subsided to the point that the vet decided surgery was no longer needed I think it must have been the 7-day dosage of Baytril that really helped the smaller cysts to go down. Now he’s been given some kind of steroid gel to be applied on twice a day, for a week.

Yay for a successful recovery!

More Lumps!

Ippo456 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:50:30 +0000

In my place, it seems like there hasn’t been an isolated incident of hamster illness, i.e. there seem to be at least 2 hamsters who fall sick at the same time. This past weekend was Brain & Baby Hamster.

I discovered a lump behind BH’s left ear a couple of months ago, which the vet took care easily. However, smaller several cysts came back in the same area! I don’t have the stomach to squeeze out the puss ..

On Monday, the vet suggested that BH undergoes a surgery that removes the skin which houses the cysts, because squeezing the cysts is only a temporary solution & it’s a recurring problem. So, surgery was scheduled for the next morning.

Tuesday afternoon when I picked up BH from the animal clinic, the vet explained that as he put BH under anesthesia, he found a larger lump under BH’s neck that he didn’t notice the day before. The lump apparently could move around from side to side! Instead of removing the smaller cysts behind the left ear as planned, the vet removed the lump underneath the neck & decided to only squeeze out the smaller cysts as simultaneously performing 2 surgeries on BH would put too much strain on the little guy. The vet isn’t sure what the lump under the neck is, but he did mention the word “tumor” o_0

BH is now on Baytril for 7 days. I have him scheduled for a second vet appointment 2 weeks from now to remove the sutures on the neck & for the vet to finally get rid of the smaller cysts by removing the skin.

Smaller Lump

Ippo456 — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:24:27 +0000

I took Baby Hamster in the morning to see the vet who managed to squeeze out the abscess with no effort! I told him how I tried doing that, but nothing came out. The vet said that the abscess probably wasn’t ‘ripe’ enough to come out. The abscess was light green & sticky, yum. The vet shaved off the area around the lump & squeezed out as much abscess as he could. Now BH is on antibiotic for a week.

When we arrived home, his abscess was still bleeding, so I compressed the area with thyme tea; by nighttime, it was already scabbing. The lump has gone down significantly, but the vet said how the cyst will always be there. As whether the abscess will come back or not, only time can tell. The vet also complimented on how BH was the best hamster he has ever handled; he didn’t bite or nip him at all

Since BH has been on the antibiotic, he’s been sleeping a lot more. Not only that, I noticed that the fur on his back isn’t as thick as Daddy Hamster’s. Maybe BH is the daddy, and BH is older than I thought he is (I estimate his age to be about 1 1/2 years old)? Well, I hope that he’ll stay with my for a little while longer. So I hope that the sleeping is the side effect of the antibiotic & not of his age.

Vets are gone!

Ippo456 — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:44:25 +0000

I go to this particular animal clinic, which is the official clinic for the local zoo. The clinic has 3 vets, but the one I always always see for rodent problems (chins & hamsters) has relocated out of state and my alternative (who treated Dee Dee & Winnie) is on vacation. The third vet has been under the guidance of those 2, but he’s only worked at this clinic for a couple of years and not as experienced with rodents. There’s a new replacement vet, but the staff I talked to doesn’t know if she’s experienced with rodents.

The problem is, I found a lump near Baby Hamster’s left cheek.

I tried putting hot compress on him to release the abscess (I think it’s an abscess), but I wasn’t successful. I was afraid, most of the time, of hurting him. Plus, he wouldn’t stop moving. He was very patient with me though; at one point when he’s had enough, he gave me a friendly nip (not the painful ones Syrians can give, so I wasn’t punctured). Afterwards, he was still as tame as ever. I’ve read somewhere that Syrians, once they’ve been tamed, they will always stay tame. As for other hamsters, if you don’t handle them regularly, they will forget what it’s like to be handled & will bite again.

Since I’m reluctant to go to another clinic, I’ll give this vet a try.