Thursday, November 20, 2008

4. Hamster websites

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ...@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 18, 2008 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: Babu my beloved hamster
To: David Sing <99pups gmail.com="">

Hello Dr. Sing,
Sorry that it took me a while to reply. I was busy confirming and arranging my flight for Australia next Feb (yes, i'm finally going) with all the accomodations, health check ups and other jests. I still read your website for interesting case studies. Sometimes I will google the clinical terms to find out more about the condition. Yes I'm such a geek! But i always found your case studies interesting, especially the dog that swallowed the chicken drumstick. I feel that you should spay it considering the owner already knew how you successfully managed to remove the drumstick without any casualities, so there's already a good impression. I'm sure she would understand if anything goes wrong due to the ongoing poor health of her dog. I really think it deserves a chance to experience it's last few years!

I don't think any pet shops host any websites on their own. But i found a directory that lists some of the pet shops in SIngapore. http://www.singaporebusinessguide.com/category/Pet_Shops.htm

I usually go to Serangoon North to get my pet supplies and sometimes hamsters as they have a great variety of accessories and different hamster breeds which are more affordable than Pet Lovers Centre, which operates at shopping malls and notoble landmarks. The shop that has great knowledge of rearing hamsters and has a wide variety of different breeds is The Little Pet Shop. Depending on the season, you can often find breds of Winter Whites, Syrians, Roborovskis and even Campbells which are rarely on sale these days due to their slightly aggressive behaviour and difficulty in handling and taming. However, the Little Pet Shop offers interesting colours like the Black Bear, Mottled, Opal, Beige, Sable. I found a good website that has an informative listing of the different type of colours and bandings. http://www.geocities.com/aaahamsters/
The shop claims to import their hamsters overseas from specialised breeders and therefore are able to offer a wide variety and colours to hamster enthusiasts.

There is another shop called the House of Chinchillas which sells a very extensive collection of syrians, both long haired and short haired. But the cost is expensive. Around $40. Unlike most pet shops that do not offer Syrians, I think this pet shop offers the best selection and colour types.


For a normal winter white breed, the costs varies from $5-$10. The pearl winter white would cost around $15-$20. For rarer dwarf campbell breeeds such as the Black Bear, I saw it being sold at $50 at Pet Lovers Centre but the Little Pet Shop at Serangoon only sells it for $30. The rarer Syrian breeds are generally more expensive, at least 40 bucks onwards but you could get the normal coloured ones for as less as $10-$15.
I bought a rare chocolate coloured dwarf from the Little Pet Shop about a year ago. His colour recessive was more much rare so it was a little pricier. Around $30. But I have never seen another hamster which has the same colour coat as the one i bought so it was a good investment. He is very aggressive despite months of taming until I deemed him untamable. but he is characterically interesting although he is such a devil! I could only hold him with gloves. He is in very good health though, very fat and cute! I have attached his picture to this email so you could see how he looks.

I found a forum that local pet owners communicate at http://www.petschannel.com/forum/ and the singapore hamster club forum http://www.sghamsters.com/ipb/

phew, think that was a mouthful! hope these could help you out.


On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 5:44 PM, David Sing <99pups gmail.com=""> wrote:

Thank you for detailed email reply. Babu might have middle ear infection for some time.

You are a good writer and will be a good producer of movie. You can also produce a good hamster book for children on how to take care of the hamsters. Why will anybody buy a Singapore hamster book unless it is well written and the book layout designed (by you for example).

Lots of hamster-care stories teaching the reader what happened to other hamsters that need care. That is my concept for this book for children 8 - 12 years old (primary school). Most of the problems are due to uneducated management, disease, feeding and others.

Can you search the internet to locate Singapore hamster forum and give me their URLs? Where are hamsters sold? Where they come from? How much to buy one? Any more Syrian hamsters and other breeds? We can research to know what are the other owners experiencing. If you have time, let me know.




On 11/5/08, ...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Dr. Sing, I just managed to view your email reply and shall post the answers to your following questions.

1. Babu's head was still not upright after surgery. From the phone conversation I had with you, we speculated that he probably had an inner tumour inside his head coupled with his constant scratching that might have inflicted his wound or tumour to be much worse. He also had eczema on his joints when i consulted you earlier a few months back.
2. Just about 8 hours before his death. I saw him lying down breathing heavily.
3. Yes, he was active and busy running his wheel and climbing on bars. He even had an voracious appetite.
4. I got him last November when he was slighly bigger than the average babies seen in Pet Shop. He was around one yr old when he passed away.
7. How detailed would you like the story to be? I generally feed him with these brands of food - Marukan Japanese Food Mix, Vitakraft & Harry Hamster. And of course his beloved dried mealworms! I use recycled paper bedding that is meant for small animals and change his bedding once every one and a half or two weeks. I switched to paper towels and tissue paper as bedding promptly after his sugery though, and change his bedding every night for hygiene.



As for the videos, I could only procide you with those that I have captured with my previous phone once I get its virus ridden memory card working as my apple computer is not compatible with its functions.. Ill let you know as soon as I could retirve my videos! and pls tell me more about your hamster book!

Take care Uncle!!



On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 3:16 PM, David Sing <99pups gmail.com=""> wrote:

Hello

I am sorry to hear the sad news. It is difficult to speculate on what's happened.

1. Is his head upright after the surgery? If not, there is more tumour inside the ear canal.
That may have caused him considerable ear ache.

2. How long since the surgery that you discover Babu dying?
3. Is he eating and active for past few days?
4. How old is he now?
5. Babu is a beautiful creature and has given lots of laughter to you and your lady friend.
6. Your pic of Babu were excellent.
7. E-mail to me a short story of when you purchased him, what he is fed, his routine, his bath time etc. Compile a video of what you have on You Tube (if you have the time). If and when I write a story book on Singapore hamsters, I will include Babu in one of the stories.

Thank you for providing me the feedback.

On 10/31/08, ....@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Dr. Sing,
I'm deeply saddened as I type this informal email to you. Babu, the white dwarf hamster with the lop-sided ear that you gave stitches to is down to its last breath right in his home. I don't know what happened but there are patches of blood stains scattered in his tissue paper bedding and the area where the stitches were seems to be the primary cause of its injury. My presumption tells me that he ripped his scab off the stitches and has caused a traumatic incision on his would that has left him gasping for life. He appeared to be normally active right after the surgery but perhaps I was too busy with work to actually properly follow up with his condition. Still, I change his bedding everyday and give him fresh new food and water with medicine. I do not know how long he has been lying as I was out before I saw his state but in this wee hours of the morning and his limp body lying listlessly, I guess that sadly, Babu has no chances of survival as we speak. Still, I would like to thank you enough for your invaluable support and treatment for Babu. Truly dear little Babu, with his mild mannerisms and love for dried mealworms would be greatly missed and loved by his owner. He is my favourite hamster, after all. I just thought that I should inform you as a follow up, despite the tragic news.


You could call me if you need any questions with the programme cd I gave you;or any account and details following up Babu's death. And yes, I'm still helping you out with the bottle label la, no worries.

I'm still so upset that Babu is down and dying :(

Friday, October 17, 2008

3. Ventral dermatitis in a hamster

"I know it costs $10.00 to buy a new hamster," the slim lady in her 30s put the hamster with a fiery red belly on the examination table. "But I feel for my hamster's pain and discomfort for the past 4 weeks. She squeaks now and then as if screaming in pain."

"There is some allergy on her belly," I said. "Something contacting her belly skin and causing itchiness. Did you change to some new bedding some 4-6 weeks ago."

The slim, fair and serene lady recalled: "I change to corn bedding 4 weeks ago. I read in the internet that newspapers are toxic to my hamster."

"The solution is simple," I said. "Go back to a tissue paper bedding for the next 4 weeks after I have given this hamster an anti-itchy injection."

"This hamster is overweight", I said.

"She just eats sunflower seeds," the lady replied. "She can eat sunflower seeds all day long. She was much fatter before and could not come out of her hamster house!"

The Yoga lady took out her handphone and showed me the video of her portly hamster stuck in the door of her hamster house. Struggling to come out but unable to do so.

"It is funny. I can see that her eyes pop out as she tries to squeeze out of the door." this video really brightens my day. At the expense of the poor hamster.







The video always made the owner laugh. She has this serene look and so it was not stressful to talk to her.

"Have you visited Myanmar?" I asked. I had a fun trip exploring the best of Myanmar in October.

She shook her head: "I went to India to visit my Yoga teacher." Few Singaporeans visit Myanmar.

A lady interested in yoga would explain why she looked serene. Yoga is very de-stressful or it could be her personality.

PROCEDURE
An anti-inflammatory injection subcutaneous was given to the overweight hamster after she has some gas anaesthesia. It was possible to restrain and inject this hamster without anaesthesia too but the catching may be too stressful.

The hamster went home without complications. A follow up would be good.

2. Dwarf hamster walks in circles

"Can the dwarf hamster hear if I cut off his cancerous right ear pinna?" I asked myself. "Is there another method to remove the fast-growing circular skin lump on the inside of his right ear without amputating his ear?" There was insufficient skin to stitch up if the 0.5 cm tumour was cut off from the ear. Besides there would be lots of bleeding into the ear canal and the hamster might not survive the bacterial infections.

The time-pressed young lady in her early twenties said: "Uncle, I have been very busy working for this company shooting documentaries. So I have little time. In the last 4 weeks, the ear lump grows so big."



Keeps walking in circles to the right. Head tilt in a hamster but otherwise normal.

The ear auricle has a fast growing heavy tumour
Skin tumours in older hamsters are common but this one has a tumour on his ear. Some 6 weeks ago, the young lady presented him with a head tilt to the right but nothing was seen in his outer ear. The hamster did look comical to the young lady and her best friend as the hamster kept walking in circles with the head tilted right. She took some pictures for me. She and her best friend had a great laugh at the poor hamster's expense.

I admit it was funny for the average person to see the hamster turning around in circles to the right and was unable to walk straight.

It was not practical to examine the hamster's middle and inner ear due to its small size and I prescribed some medication. Now, the big ear tumour had manifested on the medial aspect of the ear as a crumbly angry-looking tumour.

"What to do about this case?" I asked Jay Jay, a Myanmese veterinary technician who had some 10 years of experience in other small animal practices in Singapore. He was visiting me and as he was passionate about veterinary medicine and surgery, I discussed with him this unusual and uncommon case of a large tumour in the ear auricle and asked him what to do about it.

"Cut off the tumour from under the ear skin," Jay Jay replied. It was an obvious solution and could possibly be performed in the dog. Dogs can be given painkillers after the surgery and post-operation nursing can be done easily. But this is a dwarf animal. A dwarf hamster with the ear barely bigger than a German Shepherd's toe.

"It is easier said than done, "I said. "The tumour occupies more than 75% of the ear pinna. There will be no skin to stitch up." I said.

I explained further "After cutting away the tumour, there will be a very large hole. There will be lots of bleeding after surgery. How do you control or stop the bleeding? The blood will go into the ear canal and become infected. The hamster will become sick and start rubbing his sore ear."

Jay Jay shook his head. By discussion, we can learn from each other experiences. I have no doubt that he would make an excellent experienced veterinarian should he set up his veterinary hospital in Myanmar. In the meantime, it would be good to learn as much as possible from each other as veterinary medicine and surgery of various animals sometimes need solutions that are out of the box. .

The removal of the ear auricle's tumour was not a problem. The challenge was the post-operation complications. The owner naturally expects improvement rather than a sickly hamster with a large infected and itchy ear should the tumour be simply removed by cutting it off.

This was one of those times the vet has to draw his experiences from other species. As I used to do ear cropping in dogs till it was banned by the Veterinary Association, I thought this problem had one solution. Ear cropping. Or more precisely, ear amputation.

SURGICAL PROCEDURE

Gas anaesthesia. A mosquito forceps clamps the lower end of the ear auricle below the tumour. The scalpel cuts away the tumour. Below the forceps, I put 2 transfixing sutures (equivalent to a horizontal mattress suture).

I have left the sutures longer than usual for vets to see in the picture. There was little bleeding when the forceps is removed.

48 hours later, the busy lady owner whom all Singapore mothers will love to have as a daughter-in-law as she is has a bubbling personality, fair complexion with big-eyes and forever a chatterbox phoned me: "When will the stitches need to be removed?"

2 long transfixing sutures are deliberately left longer than usual for educational purposes

The owner made an Elizabeth-collar out of card herself to prevent the hamster scratching the operation site.
"The stitches will dissolve by themselves in 14-28 days. You can cut the stitch shorter as I had left them long for photography. Is the hamster irritated by the stitches? Is his ear bleeding?" I asked.

"I made an Elizabeth collar out of a card and he had to wear it," she replied. "He did not bother with the stitches and he has no bleeding in his operation area."

"Is his head still tilted to the right?" I was happy to receive good news.

"Yes, yes...yes" the girl's bubbling reply rippled over the air. "But he is much more active now that there is no heavy ear."

It was great to know that this hamster had no reaction. Antibiotics were given post-operation and this lady would take time to care for the hamster.

"How about doing some artwork for my anti-fungal shampoo label?" I asked her as she has experience in the graphics software and was able to perform. This would be a barter trade as I did not charge for the hamster's anaesthesia and surgery as she had just found employment and the previous photographer employer did not pay her the $500 salary for a long time.

"Uncle, I know your shampoo label is so clinical. So plain and boring. I work long hours doing documentaries and advertisements for this company. When I am free, I will do it."

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. There are so many more pleasant things to do with her spare time. This is my common observations of Singapore youths.

Besides, she is a very busy multi-media graduate earning a living by working very long hours. She earns little and has to keep up with the high cost of living Singapore. So I did not charge her for the recent hamster surgery although she wanted to pay me some money.

On my side, it is extremely difficult for me to find a graphics designer to make my anti-fungal shampoo label look well designed and good to look at. I cannot find the graphics designer and cannot afford those working in companies.

Well, it is back to the simple plain and boring anti-fungal shampoo label till this girl-next-door can spare the time for me. Or she may need to barter her graphics design expertise for veterinary surgery another time.








REFERENCES:
Types of hearing loss in human beings
(Calls to regulate sellers of hearing devices
Straits times, Oct 16, 2008, Home, Page B3)

1. Conductive Hearing Loss - Blockage of sound waves to reaching the inner ear.
2. Sensorineural Hearing Loss - Nerve deafness.
3. Mixed Hearing Loss - Damage to outer, middle and inner ear.

In this hamster, it is hard to know whether he can hear or not as it is not practical to test him. Obviously no hamster wears hearing aids.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

1. Hamster surgery at Toa Payoh Vets

TOA PAYOH VETS - DOG NEUTER PROCEDURES
toapayohvets.com
Focus: Small animals - dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits
Date: 18 November, 2007


REMOVAL OF SKIN TUMOURS/LUMPS IN A HAMSTER AT TOA PAYOH VETS

WHAT TO EXPECT.
The veterinarian removes the tumours/lumps in the hamster skin. Usually the hamster needs to be anaesthesized if the tumour is large.

WHAT TO DO BEFORE.
Make appointment 6254-3326, 9668-6469 for surgery. The pet must be healthy and not obese (if possible). He is active and has an excellent appetite. Clean up the hamster if possible and/or let him have a sandbath 2 days before surgery. Bring the pet to the surgery at 9 a.m.

Don't give food and water after 8 p.m the day before the surgery and in the morning of the surgery date. Make sure the hamster is active.

WHAT TO DO DURING.
The hamster is put into an anaesthetic container. General anaesthesia using gas. The skin tumours/lumps are cut off. Stitching may be done but the hamster usually bites them off. As much blood is cleaned off as possible.

WHAT TO DO AFTER.
The owner takes the hamster home at around 5 p.m/prior arrangement. Make sure that the hamster is kept in a clean cage with towel papers for at least 7- 14 days till the wound heals. Check the wound daily for signs of itchiness or infection. Use a facial cotton or tissue soaked in clean warm water and wipe away any blood clots. Replace the towel papers as bedding daily.

The stitches on the skin, if not bitten off by the hamster, will dissolve after 14 - 30 days. There is no need to return to the surgery for stitch removal. Consult the vet promptly if the hamster is not eating or active or he keeps licking the wound from day 3. The phone number is 9668-6469.

POSTPONEMENT OF SURGERY.
If the hamster is not in a good condition, the hamster is warded for observation and treatment for 1-3 days before surgery is done.

DR SING'S CASE STUDIES


1. http://www.kongyuensing.com/animals/20080105Hamster_Skin_Tumour_ToaPayohVets.htm

2. http://www.toapayohvets.com/sinpets/040927hamster_risks.htm

3. http://www.toapayohvets.com/sinpets/040927hamster_risks.htm

4. http://www.toapayohvets.com/surgery/050609hamsters_ToaPayohVets.htm