From: ...@yahoo.co.kr>
Subject: Hamster and Hedgehog anesthesia
To: judy@toapayohvets.com
Date: Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 7:16 AM
E-MAIL FROM SOUTH KOREA VET
Jan 5, 2010
Hello Dr Sing Kong Yuen,
Happy new year!
I'm very impressed "be kind to pet" of your homepage and operating small animal clinic in South Korea.
I have poor experience about exotic pets and especially anesthesia of them.
May I(as beginner) ask favor of you about pre-eminent experience at exotic medicine?
I have pyometra patient in hedgehog and scalp laceration at font head in hamster.
Could you recommend anesthesia protocol(inhalant and injectable) each.
Hamster with amputated leg by cage had been experienced irratic and deep breath, and death in anesthetic chamber. Other hamster was not maintained enough to do surgery with ketamine 40-120mg/kg only.
How do you evaluate anesthesia depth and deal with problems.
I have general patient monitor for heart rate with alligator clips and pulse oximeter.
Could I use it in rodent?
Do you usually use absorbable suture at skin and why ?
I appreciate you in advance!
Be happy and wealthy!
Keep Healthy!
Sincerely yours,
E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING
January 6, 2010
I am Dr Sing from Singapore, not from South Korea. My surgery is www.toapayohvets.com. I don't have hedgehog patient. The following applies to dwarf hamsters mainly. For Syrian hamsters, the same principles of close observation apply.
For sick dwarf hamsters needing surgery, I use isoflurane gas anaesthesia (plastic container) at 5% for around 1 minute, but close observation of the hamster is the key to success.
In other cases of healthy hamsters for tumour removal, I use Zoletil 50 as little as 0.01 ml IM as sedation. Then I use 5% isoflurane gas for less than 20 seconds and take out the hamster from the gas container to operate. If the hamster moves, I repeat the gas anaesthesia. Then I take it out to operate. Operation room must be warm to prevent hypothermia. If you have a cold operating room, you need to reduce the temperature or switch off the air conditioning during surgery. Hamster should be as dry as possible.
In this way, I maintain the surgical anaesthesia to operate. Most surgeries are less than 10 minutes. I have not used ketamine or other injectable anaesthesia except Zoletil on dwarf hamsters, so, I cannot share my experience with you.
Surgical anaesthesia levels are very difficult to assess in the dwarf hamster unlike in the dog and cat. Close observation of starting eyelid closure, movement and breathing rate is extremely important as there is a very high risk of anasthetic death if the vet does not know what he should observe or being too busy doing surgery.
You may need to have a very good veterinary assistant to help you observe the anaesthesia while you do surgery. But you should be able to know too when the hamster moves.
I don't know whether you can use pulse oximeter on dwarf hamsters. I use absorbable 6/0 or 7/0 sutures to stitch the hamster's skin so that owners don't need to come back for suture removal.
I hope this e-mail answers your questions.
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3 comments:
Dear Dr. Sing (Singapore),
I have a dwarf hamster (Campbell, I believe) that needs to be asleep for the vet to clip her teeth (because she is very high-energy) so that they do grow into the roof of her mouth, then into her brain. I am very worried because I do not know too much about the vet and you said that there is a high chance of death if the vet does not know what they are doing. I want to make sure that she is okay before, during, and after the process. Is there anything I should remind/ask the vet to make sure he does beforehand?
Thank you in advance!
P.S.: I am from Canada. If there is any big difference in methods, you do not need to reply, as I would like to be sure and love my dwarf hamster very much.
Dear Dr. Sing (and readers),
Sorry for the mistake in my recent comment.
Correction: "so that they do [NOT] grow into the roof of her mouth..."
Thank you for understanding!
Dear Dr. Sing,
To elaborate, my dwarf hamster is roughly 1.5 years old and I must split seeds for her to eat. She is still very feisty (that is why she must be asleep for the procedure (the vet typically does it when they are awake but they are afraid of hurting her)), so I believe she is healthy. She does not appear to be ill, and uses her wheel regularly. She has not had many changes in eating (besides the one stated above), and still drinks as usual. What are the chances (approximate guess is alright) of her surviving? Is it worth putting her asleep like this? Or should we leave her alone for nature to do its stuff (though I would rather not)? Or should we put her to sleep for good? We would be very sad if that last option had to happen. Will the problem come back? In how long? Will she be scarred for life? Does this happen to all (or almost all) dwarf hamster/rodents?
Thank you again,
Canadian citizen
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