Vets in the USA

Are so tremendously more expensive than in the UK! It was like 25 pounds for a vet checkup there. It was $85 here, for the hamster. Just for the look-over, a few weeks ago.

We just dropped little Lemon the elderly dwarf hamster off at the only vet we could find that would do pocket-pets to have his upper teeth trimmed. They have curved badly around in his mouth to the point that he is not able to eat properly and is losing weight.

It's going to cost me close to $200. They insist on anesthesia, which is pretty iffy on an old hamster, because they will only use a dremel tool to fix the teeth. (Our old vet in Calif charged us $15 and used a snippers.) This one says that there is a chance that the teeth will shatter if she uses a nippers. So she won't.

We've put it off as long as we could, as we are both really worried about the anesthesia. But it's to the point that it would be really detrimental for him to lose any more weight, and the teeth will keep growing up into the roof of his mouth and eventually kill himin a slow and painful manner.  So we either have just signed off for him to be made well or he will die under the gas today.

He was so happy to be in his traveling box, and excited, and licking our hands and wiggling and sniffing. We gave him a piece of popcorn to keep him occupied for a while, and then had to hand him over.

I feel absolutely awful. And will feel worse if he doesn't make it.

Are so tremendously more expensive than in the UK! It was like 25 pounds for a vet checkup there. It was $85 here, for the hamster. Just for the look-over, a few weeks ago.

We just dropped little Lemon the elderly dwarf hamster off at the only vet we could find that would do pocket-pets to have his upper teeth trimmed. They have curved badly around in his mouth to the point that he is not able to eat properly and is losing weight.

It's going to cost me close to $200. They insist on anesthesia, which is pretty iffy on an old hamster, because they will only use a dremel tool to fix the teeth. (Our old vet in Calif charged us $15 and used a snippers.) This one says that there is a chance that the teeth will shatter if she uses a nippers. So she won't.

We've put it off as long as we could, as we are both really worried about the anesthesia. But it's to the point that it would be really detrimental for him to lose any more weight, and the teeth will keep growing up into the roof of his mouth and eventually kill himin a slow and painful manner.  So we either have just signed off for him to be made well or he will die under the gas today.

He was so happy to be in his traveling box, and excited, and licking our hands and wiggling and sniffing. We gave him a piece of popcorn to keep him occupied for a while, and then had to hand him over.

I feel absolutely awful. And will feel worse if he doesn't make it.

Oh, that's just a horrid position to be in.    Really, really hoping to hear good news soon. All the luck to you.

Thanks.

The vet just called - they are putting him under in a few minutes. One of his incisors has grown completely around and is making contact with the roof of his mouth. They don't know if it's grown into it or not (we are hoping not). If it's broken the surface they will send home some antibiotics. Assuming he makes it. Her advice was what we pretty much knew already - it has to be done or he has to be put down. So at least giving him a chance with the procedure seems appropriate.

She will call us ASAP when they have finished to let us know what they found.

Poor little guy. Giving him a chance is all you can do.

Vet just phoned.

He came through with flying colors. We are to go get him at 1:00pm.   

The one tooth had grown up into his skull - they had a little difficulty getting it out. He is coming home with pain meds, oral antibiotics, etc., for the ulcer in the roof of his mouth where the tooth had gone in and is to go back for a checkup in six weeks. Only the one tooth was overgrown - the other was fine. She said she hadn't seen a case where just one tooth went wonky before, usually it's both.

She cautioned that this could occur again - I told her we understood the risk and were buying him some time. He's very old. So if he has to have it done again in three or four months, that's ok - he may not be here anyway by then due to his age. We certainly will be watching his teeth like mad and not allowing this to happen to him again.  They hide pain, being prey animals. We had absolutely no idea he was in any distress at all.

Vet just phoned.

He came through with flying colors. We are to go get him at 1:00pm.   

The one tooth had grown up into his skull - they had a little difficulty getting it out. He is coming home with pain meds, oral antibiotics, etc., for the ulcer in the roof of his mouth where the tooth had gone in and is to go back for a checkup in six weeks. Only the one tooth was overgrown - the other was fine. She said she hadn't seen a case where just one tooth went wonky before, usually it's both.

She cautioned that this could occur again - I told her we understood the risk and were buying him some time. He's very old. So if he has to have it done again in three or four months, that's ok - he may not be here anyway by then due to his age. We certainly will be watching his teeth like mad and not allowing this to happen to him again.  They hide pain, being prey animals. We had absolutely no idea he was in any distress at all.

I'm so relieved! 

So are we!

That's the thing with hamsters - they scarf up seeds into their pouches so you think they're eating. His food was disappearing out of his food bowl every day. I just totally cleaned out his cage and found out where he had been carrying it off to. He's going to be a little upset when he comes home to fresh bedding and no huge stash! (I left him some stinky bedding and a small stash to carry him over....)

He has had quite a number of chew toys, none of which he has used. I wonder if that tooth has been preventing him from gnawing properly?  I just daubed a bit of butter on his seed log (a chew log) in the hopes that he'll lick it off and then gnaw at the seed log itself. Although he may not feel like gnawing much today. (Or he could have the munchies - he is stoned right now, after all!)

Anyway, with old hamsters it is not uncommon for them to lose weight and slow down. He was otherwise alert and affectionate, and nothing seemed amiss that couldn't be attributed to normal old age - cateracts, moving more slowly, sleeping more, that kind of thing.  I wouldn't have caught this except that I had asked the daughter a few times to check his teeth and she couldn't get a good look at them, but thought they were fine. Finally we were able to pin him in such a way that we could see into his mouth from the side and we both spotted a tooth that seemed to be curved that should have been straight.  If you'd have looked in his mouth from his right side, all was good. It was only looking in from the left side of his face that we spotted the problem. Even the vet couldn't tell until Lemon was in happy-gas-land how bad it was. Poor little guy.  Well, he should be feeling much better now. They said he was begging for treats already. 

Geez, this bill is gonna sting, too, with the pain meds and the antibiotic on top of the vet exam and procedure supplies. (sigh) Thankfully I got part of my IRS tax return last week. That oughta just about cover it.

If I ever take my last trip to the hospital I want it to be in a Dunkin Donuts box. 

Oh, the little dude is soooooo baked!  He's staggering around, happy and licking us, but wobbly as hell. We opened the cardboard box up when they brought him out to the car to give to us and he was like "oh hi! i love you. who are you? who am I? oh, look, bedding! whose foot is that? (his), etc."

We've put him back in his digs and he's found the water dispenser and is kind of hanging out by it right now. He's bathing incessantly - probably because he smells like hospital antiseptic! (It's not a great smell.)   He gets to have pain dope every day for the next six days, and antibiotic twice a day for six as well. We've got a heck of a lot of syringes in little bags.

So our little stoner hamster is back home.   

Cost me $209.

Ooooh, what a cute little man!!  I'm so glad that the procedure went well for him.  I had to do that with my little ones when they got older; it's tough.

I'm loving the mental image of your stoner hamster. 

Stoned hamster is a happy hamster this morning. He took his antibiotic (Baytril) with absolutely no problem at all this morning - he seems to like it. Have to give him his pain meds in a couple of hours. He's definitely more active and alert today. I think the pain meds are also helping with his arthritic butt. (Poor old thing has creaky hips.) I haven't seen him zooming around through his little plastic tubes like that in weeks.

He's had a bit of a soft Mexican cheese and ate it rather greedily. (Didn't want to give him anything too hard yet, due to the wound on the roof of his mouth.) Will make him some boiled carrot a bit later, with a bit of oatmeal. Maybe there will be some greens that I can pick at the allotment ( it's been raining pretty steadily all week so I haven't been over there to check on it for a few days - need to go there today rain or not.) Hopefully by tomorrow he can start eating small seeds again. 

All-in-all, he seems well on the way to being mended and is his happy little self again.

Great news! 

What a wee cutie! It's the little ones that steal our hearts the most! Glad he's doing much better!!

Thanks, so are we. He was so lethargic before. Now he's back to his old self. I was making tea a few minutes ago and looked over to see him hanging from the bars on the top of his cage! (He wanted attention.) I had taken the ramp and the landing out of the cage to keep him from being able to get to the bars. The bottom of the cage is about 6 inches tall of see-through plastic. He's figured out how to get to the bars anyway, and now has the strength to haul himself up there again. I guess I'll put the landing and the ramp back up, although he seems to enjoy the plastic tubes I put in there instead.

He was able to push away the syringe of antibiotics today several times [insert little hamster voice going "nooo nooo nooo"] before taking his meds. So he's strong enough to have a little fight in him again.  It's really good news. He has one dose of antibiotic left, and we just gave him the last of the pain meds.

He also likes kale, which is convenient. But he doesn't seem to understand the purpose of chew toys or hard food, which is a problem as his teeth will continue to grow and need to be worn down. Have tried everything I could find to get him to chew on things, no luck though. Hoping to not have a repeat of the need for the vet to use a Dremel tool on his teeth!