Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Gillian Mostyn — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:25:32 GMT

Sounds fun! Welcome to the world of the weird and exotic! (And that's just the people!)

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 18:45:26 GMT

2nd op went even better - more stable anaesthetic, mass not as invasive and smaller. Nice quick recovery too

Rat spay next.....!

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 23:30:21 GMT

Original gerbil alive and doing well......same op planned on cage mate for tomorrow! I'll try and make it neater this time!

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:00:31 GMT

Thank you guys! Off work today but got a text saying gerbil still alive and well so very happy

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:44:04 GMT

You made it bleed! Poor ickle mite.

Seriously though....well done. These things are scary when they are unfamiliar, good on you for doing it! Looks like you did a great job. Little beasties deserve the same TLC as big beasties!

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Mark Rowland — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:52:34 GMT

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:25:41 GMT

Sorry, those pictures are tiny! Here's before and after....

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:19:10 GMT

Ok, gerbil still alive and minus lump so success so far!

Photos below. Definitely think I can improve on my technique if I do this op again but feel happy with the result. Did end up incising the muscle layer which was quite scary as the lump was so high, I was worried I was going to enter the thoracic cavity! But came together well and just hope it (or it's cage mate) don't open the wound up again - I'll be having nightmares about gerbil hernias! Also the wound is a little wonky Be nice!

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:03:27 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]Any experience with electrosurgery in small furies? Lowest setting still too high?[/quote]

Rats and rabbits OK. Never tried with a gerbil but it should be OK. It may well depend on the make of electrosurgery unit and the frequency it operates at.

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]small furies?[/quote]

Certainly can be

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Mark Rowland — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:50:25 GMT

I use Weck haemoclpis.

The small and medium size are most useful for the small animals. I tend that they soon pay for themselves with a mark up on the op. So for an op like this I may charge about £80 without the histo, my clients will happily pay £86 and I will use 2 clips. The applicators and clips are reusable and the clips can be applied to some dog and cat ops.

So for those practices doing a few exotic ops I would think that a few hunderd for some clips may be a better buy than an electrosurgical unit. If you have one it should work fine for the op.

Shortening surgical time when you live your life on the anaesthetic "edge" makes you sleep better.

Mark

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:37:20 GMT

[quote user="Mark Rowland"]Im talking about haemostatic clips....[/quote]

Ligaclips? Seen them in the Vet Instrumentation cat. £1 each for the small ones plus £250 for the applicator.

Times by 3 sizes.

I can see that they may speed things up a lot so pay for themselves with shorter surgical time but via increased consumables. They seem very dear.

Any experience with electrosurgery in small furies? Lowest setting still too high?

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:24:58 GMT

Excellent! Thank you so much. Will let you know how it goes :) Fingers crossed!

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Mark Rowland — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:58:02 GMT

Yep that should do it. The aim is to remove the gland entirely. Hope it goes well Mark

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:46:32 GMT

Thanks Mark!

So I 1) incise the skin in an ellipse around the base of the mass 2) clamp mass at base and remove 3) ligate any vessels with ? 4) close wound with PDS and glue. Sorry if I'm being completely thick here! Are these things likely to recur? Will doing it this way remove the gland as well?

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Mark Rowland — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:26:43 GMT

Metacam as well. Those fluids wiill be fine as a 1 off intraop. That is the typical presentation. You could even take the muscle below it and make a hernia that you can close if you wish. Im talking about haemostatic clips.... watch this space. Sutures with fine PDS will be ok otherwise.

Mark

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Busybee — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:16:19 GMT

Buprenorphine and ~50ml/kg SQ fluids? Will be on iso via mask. Surgical clips as in staples? We're limited in smallies equipment though may be able to nab some loupes so I can see the bleeding vessels!

I haven't got a picture unfortunately but it is large - about an inch across :( If this link works (I got the picture off Google) then it looks exactly like this but bigger....

Re: Gerbil with suspected sebaceous/scent gland tumour

Mark Rowland — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:59:11 GMT

Pain relief, intra op fluids. I usually incise the skin around the mass and either clamp the lot or use surgical clips for haemostasis, covering abs post op. Is it really big, can you post a pic. Its likely a neoplasm, they are very common in this location.

Goodluck

Mark