Lump

Question
Hi Sheila  I recently took in a rather sickly hamster from a local rescue. I have him in a separate room from my others. I had him to the vet the day I picked him up,as he had almost like dandruff on his back area. It is coming off in large flakes and the vet wasn't sure what it was but the skin under neath looks healthy. Yesterday I noticed on the middle of his belly he has a fairly large shiny purple lump, not quite a cm across. I assume it's a tumor, but how do I now if it's from that polymovirus????? And if it is how is it spread?  Direct contact?? Airborn?? I have had hams with tumors before but they were under the skin not on the skin so this is new to me. HELP!  Thanks for you time.

Answer
Hi

Sorry to hear about your hamster.

Do you know how old he is?

Firstly the dandruff - is this mites?  Has he been treated with ivermectin to kill them?  If he is elderly or sick then they do tend to get over-run with mites very easily and their skin can be covered in dandruff.  Ivermectin is the obvious choice of medicine to treat them.  If his skin is dry/flakey and it isn't mites, then you could perhaps apply some aloe vera which might help sooth it.

Regarding the lump - this certainly sounds like a tumor.  Not all tumors are deep, they can be quite superficial.  If it is superficial, providing it isn't attached to anything, and depending on his age/condition, then surgery is an option.  However, as you are aware the anaesthetic can kill weak hamsters, and without seeing him it is hard to advise on this.  

Polyomavirus is highly contagious.  It is worth keeping his cage away from any other hamsters, and wash your hands between handling him.  Usually the tumors appear around their head, feet, and neck, although sometimes they get them on their trunk.  The tumors grow pretty quickly from a wart-like growth to a more shiny lump.  The tumors tend to be superficial, but can spread to internal organs.  I'm not sure if it is airborne as such, but any contact can spread it - from handling the hamster, or their urine.  The only way to be absolutely sure if this is polyomavirus would be to have the lump removed and sent to the lab for analysis.

I think you are in a difficult position - depending on his age/general body  condition surgery might be an option.  However, if this is polymavirus  you might find that no sooner have you had this tumor removed that a second or third one appears.  Therefore, surgery might need to be repeated.  Each time a hamster is operated on their immune system gets worse and other problems can arise.  I had a hamster, Alfie, with polymavirus.  Initially it was a lump near his eyelid and this suddenly got huge.  I decided that it needed to be removed otherwise it might burst and cause other problems.  About 6 months after removing it another lump was found on his leg, and a few days later when he went in for surgery a couple more lumps were detected.  They were all removed.  A short time after this he had a third operation to remove another lump.  Whilst in himself he seemed fine his teeth kept breaking and I had to feed him baby food for the rest of his life and keep trimming his teeth as they grew so unevenly. I put him on multivitamins to try and boost his immune system as he started to suffer a lot from mange etc. and overgrown toe nails. He went onto live a full life apart from this.  Age was however on his side in that his first operation was when he was about 6 -9 months old and he was in pretty good condition.

In terms of whether or not to attempt to remove the tumor definitely depends on his age/condition and how fast it is growing.  If it is relatively slow growing and he is elderly then something else might become more of a problem.  However, this tumor will be taking energy from him.

Apart from this how is he?  Is he bothered by this at all?  Is he eating/drinking normally?  Usually when a tumor is starting to form the hamster drinks a lot more, they can start losing weight as the tumor takes all the nourishment from it.  I would be tempted to photograph the lump so that you have a record of it and can monitor how fast it is growing.  Keep a close watch that he doesn't scratch or bite it that could then cause an infection.  If the lump comes to a head, then you know it isn't a tumor, but more likely to be a cyst/abscess in which case this can be drained, but the description you give sounds that it is more than likely a tumor.

If you hold the lump can you get your fingers all the way around it - does it appear to be joined to anything?  If it is aggressive and is growing rapidly, if there are no other signs of tumors, and if generally you think that the removal of it would improve his quality of life, then it might be worth considering surgery.  However, if the removal of it isn't really going to make much difference, if he is too ill in himself to survive surgery, then it would be worth leaving it and seeing what happens.  Your vet may be able to prescribe Metacam which is an anti-inflammtory pain relief so that at least you know he isn't in pain.  If it looks like the area has infected then he may need antibiotics, but I suspect that at that time you won't have many options other than surgery or euthanasia I'm afraid.

Sorry I can't say for sure what to do as it is so hard and frustrating not to see him - if only you lived near me!

I hope this helps you - please keep me posted on what happens.

Regards
Sheila