The young woman said
to me when I answered the phone: "I have decided to have
the lump taken out by Dr Julia. Last week, he had been
given antibiotics but the lump is still present."
"When can you bring the Roborovski hamster to the
Surgery?" I asked.
"After work. It will be after 8 pm."
I was still working at this time and so I decided to
operate together with Dr Julia and my assistant Min.
The instruments were prepared. "Put the hamster into the
container and count 1 to 5," I said to Min as he
inserted the endotracheal tube into the container. Min
is not used to count loudly as this counting aloud is
not part of his culture. "Start counting," I have had
told Min that he has to do as instructed as this is part
of the procedure for anaesthesia of dwarf hamsters.
Otherwise, he may as well be his own boss.
"Accept instructions from your boss when you are an
employee rather than do your own thing. When you become
the boss of your practice, you expect your employees to
follow your instructions. Otherwise, how can you trust
your employee when you are not around? "
It takes time and patience to change the mindset of the
average younger employee as they have their own ideas of
doing things "better". This is the culture of the young
ones and I accept this is the new world.
Now Min said aloud solemnly in his gruffly voice:
"One... two...three..."
Dr Julia burst out laughing and so he stopped.
I said: "5 seconds of the 5% isoflurane anaesthesia is
enough. Take the hamster out of the container to
operate. If the hamster moves, repeat for another 5
seconds. The Roborovski is a very small hamster compared
to the average dwarf hamster and so you have to be very
careful. It is very hard to see whether he is sleepy or
not as he is an active speedy fellow."
There was no problem. Dr Teo extracted one big fatty
tumour. I said: "Stitch up with the 6/0 absorbable
suture now!" It was a big tumour of 0.5mm x 0.5mm x
0.3mm. The surgery must be quickly completed as repeated
gas anaesthesia will kill this hamster.
But it was not complete. Min said in his muffled voice:
"There is one more lump,"
I was surprised as the fatty tumour had a twin. This was
taken out and the skin quickly stitched with four
interrupted sutures. The hamster woke up and walked like
a drunk. I quickly had him put into the cage, just in
case he rocketed off the operating table and fell on the
floor. Roborovski hamsters don't walk. They sprint. This
was a two-year old, much beloved by the young couple.
Still, the vet must be alert as old does not mean less
speedy as in an old man compared to a young one.
Anaesthesia in Roborovski hamsters needs to be very
careful. The easy part is the surgery if the tumour can
be shelled out as in this case. The couple came back at
9 pm and took the hamster home. This was a happy ending.
Laughter is the best medicine but in hamster
anaesthesia, I discourage any jokes or chatter as there
is a great need to focus on anaesthesia.
Every hamster that
survives the surgery builds up the reputation of
Toa Payoh Vets as the place to go for hamster surgeries.
Unlike the Singapore hospitals where you have a
specialist anaesthetist and a specialist surgeon, the
vet is both and many deaths on the operating table are
due to a lack of focus by the assistant. So idle chatter
and jokes are out if the vet and his assistant is doing
anaesthesia and surgery and serious about getting
excellent surgical outcomes.
No point having a perfect surgery done when the patient
has had died on the operating table. The only outcome
the hamster or any pet owner wants is a pet alive and
going home, not a dead one. So I have been very careful
about anaesthesia in my 30 years of practice.
TOA
PAYOH VETS
