"The hamster has lost weight," a young teenaged girl commented when she came with her family on Christmas Day to bring the hamster home after 7 days of nursing and treatment. I did not reply nor felt the need to defend myself.

Sometimes, silence is golden for me. After all, the hamster had a very serious infection and the parents and 3 family members were happy to see a great difference in the health of the hamster. It was a miracle that he was still alive as most hamsters would develop a sticky wet skin-filled pus and skin rot. This hamster's bacteria would be a different type.

The various pustules and abscesses just reminded me of Corynebacterium in sheep. Some 40 years ago when I was an undergraduate in Glasgow University, I had to study sheep bacterial diseases. At the post-mortem room of the University, the lecturer showed us an ewe carcass with abscesses all over the lymph nodes, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleens. Solid abscesses like what I saw in this hamster's skin. The sheep's condition was called Caseous Lymphadenitis and the bacteria was called Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis.

Caseous lymphadenitis was a wide spread disease in mature sheep due to shearing wounds during my time at Glasgow. At abattoirs, such infected sheep carcasses are condemned. This bacteria also causes polyarthritis in sheep involving one or more leg joints. It produces pus about the joint and in this hamster, there were some abscesses around its joints too.

I wondered whether Corynebacterium in sheep is still a prevalent disease in the UK sheep industry in 2009? Farmers were advised to shear lambs first, disinfect the shears between sheep.

Singapore has no sheep farms although Muslims do import sheep from Australia. I have not done any veterinary practice on sheep for many years. Is Corynebacterium still present in sheep in Australia where most of our Singapore students are studying? Apparently this gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria is widely distributed in nature and are mostly not harmful. C. bovis causes mastitis in cows. C. diptheriae causes diphtheria in people.

Could this hamster be suffering from Corynebacterium? I google "Corynebacterium in hamsters". There was one Japanese laboratory report of Corynebacterium kutscheri isolated from the oral cavities of aged Syrian hamsters. See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1658468.

In private practice, it is possible to get the bacterial cultures done and make the owner pay for it. But laboratory testing would increase costs 10X the price of a new hamster.

As it is, the bill for treatment and 7 days of nursing was around $200 and may be considered by some owners to be too much. An additional laboratory cost may mean that this poor hamster will cost over $300 to be treated. So, he will not get any treatment again.

The vet has to be aware of the economics of hamster veterinary practice and try not to send tumours and bacteria for laboratory analysis in an effort to reduce veterinary costs for the hamster owners.

In undergraduate life, our professors recommend laboratory tests and all tests to reach a diagnosis. In real life, hamster and many pet owners in Singapore try to look for "inexpensive" vets. They discuss about veterinary charges in  internet forums. Inexpensive vets can't  perform, be productive or produce profits over the years. They will just have to do something else after a couple of years. He has to survive unless he is very rich and can ride out the first few "under-cutting fee" years to build up a good clientele and sustain their business model.     

With rising costs, it is extremely difficult to be a cheap vet in Singapore nowadays. New vets undercut my professional fees to get large numbers of patients. Older vets may need to retire to pasture if they can't compete on prices. Ironically, the more experienced the older vet is, the less demand for his services from many price-conscious pet owners due to under-cutting of prices by new vets. Competition is great for the consumer, no doubt about it. 

Beauty and youthfulness attract but experience is valued in matters of life  and death.  Add "cheap services" to beauty and youthfulness and this is a powerful marketing combination for a start-up veterinary practice.

One young vet starting practice was described as "eye candy" in the internet forum. Well, that is a USP (unique selling proposition) for this practice.  The picture of this vet was posted by fans. Fantasize and fantastic fans?  You are young only once, enjoy the fans but don't fall to temptations and be a "Tiger". I am not talking about "Tiger" beer.