Russian dwarf adrenal cancer question

[tonyshuman]

Hi, my 1.5yr old Russian dwarf was having some hair loss with pink skin underneath on the front and back of her neck area. I took her to my vet, who felt around and said she had a hard mass in the abdomen, approximately where the kidney would be. That mass, combined with hair loss led her to a tentative diagnosis of a cortisol-producing adrenal tumor, leading to something like Cushing's disease. This all makes sense from a biomedical standpoint (I am a scientist in this field).

An absolute diagnosis is impossible because you can't do a blood test on such a small animal. I could look into getting her ultrasound-ed at the nearby vet school/hospital, but even if a mass is identified, her chance of surviving surgery is not great.

My questions include:
1) When I hear about Cushings/cortisol-producing tumors in dogs and Syrian hamsters, it seems to present with hair loss on the flanks/hips/legs, not the neck. Has anyone heard of a hammie with this disease with hair loss on the neck?

2) Has anyone had a Russian dwarf hammie with this condition?

3) How do you tell if your dwarf hammie is in pain? She's always been very grumpy, so her attitude toward me is not a good sign. She seems to be happy and have high activity level.

4) Any other reason to have fur loss? The vet said if it were mites there would be scaliness/pus/etc. The skin is just thin and red-looking under there.

Here is my darling Petunia:


You can kind of see the fur loss here but this is an older pic:


I have moved her to a bin-style cage without all the tubes to protect her delicate skin.

[Die Fledermaus]

Another scientist! Pinky (Robin) is a Chemistry PhD and our dwarf expert here. I will PM her to make sure she sees your posts.

I assume you have seen the long Cushings Disease thread in the Rodent Health forum at the bottom of the main menu.

If you look back several years in the Hamster forum for Makeeda, or do a search, you will see her story about CD, and the lousy vet, and other info. And Petunia's condition looks NOTHING like the awful symptoms of Makeeda, which were so bad I don't remember if I posted a photo. I'd have had her euthanized if the first vet gave me proper info; the second one did. I busted the first one's chops with NYS, btw. And it involved the neck.

I never heard of a dwarf a dwarf with those symptoms. And I have reads THOUSANDS of posts.

If her attitude and actions and reactions change a lot, and she mopes and doesn't eat much, I assume she is in discomfort.

Fur loss in older hamsters of both common types is not unusual.

Please be sure to read the CD thread in the Rodent Health forum, and look for the Makeeda threads in Hamsters starting several years ago - it should take you only a few minutes to scan the titles of the threads and find it.

You may be over worried.

BTW, I have posted on RR about how busy I have been with many things including the Yankees, two PCs crashing, feral cat trapping, and much more. That is why I have not recently been on the Rabbit forum.

My own rabbit issues are detailed in the Rabbit forum, if you are interested.

[pinky]

So sorry that Petunia has this health issue--she's not that old. I've read about Cushing's in hamsters here and on another forum, and the victims are always Syrians. Dezzi's Meeks is an example; so is Hamwolf's Yuiko; DF, you've cited others.

If Petunia is still exhibiting high activity I'd guess that she isn't in pain, but one can never be sure. Is she eating, drinking, and peeing/pooping normally?

My Mallory had fur loss related to reproductive tumors. My Jayde's chest and belly fur seems to be thinning, but she is 18 months like Petunia is, and so it may be age.

I think it was a great idea to move her to the bin cage. Make a note of her activity level in the bin so that you can determine if it drops off over time.

[Die Fledermaus]

BTW, getting CD might be more genetic. It does not seem related to age at all.

I also took a youngster from a pet store with obvious CD. they wanted me to do what I could. I thanked them and did, but I told him the ham was OK - I wanted them to feel good about trying. of course, sadly, the ham soon passed.

[pinky]

Nov 11, 2009 1:10:51 GMT -4 Die Fledermaus said:

BTW, getting CD might be more genetic. It does not seem related to age at all.

DF, I think you misinterpreted what I said. I was referring to Jayde's hair thinning, not Petunia's, when I said "it may be age." Of course, what I wrote was ambiguous. Sorry.

[Die Fledermaus]

There you go!

[tonyshuman]

Thanks for the replies! I'm used to getting emails when people respond to my threads and I hadn't set that up here yet, so hopefully I can stay on top of things better now that I have figured out how to do that on this forum.

Petunia seems quite happy with her new cage. I've expanded it to two rubbermaid bins with wire lids, and a tube connecting them. One is mostly full of the paper bedding so she's loving digging in that, and the other is for the wheel, water bottle, etc. She seems alert, active, and happy, and has been getting some extra fresh food. The fur is still a bit thin on her neck, but doesn't appear to be getting worse. I guess I don't have to worry about anything unless she starts acting strange--even if she has CD, or some other cancer causing her fur loss, it doesn't seem to be affecting her greatly.