This golden hamster, called "Siu Kwai" (小葵), developed a large abdominal abscess and a cyst on her liver. The recommended treatment was the surgical removal of the abscess and the drainage of the cyst.

This 16-year-old chinchilla called "Bao Jai" broke its right hind leg three weeks ago. The fracture was treated with a Robert Jones bandage by the referring veterinarian, but unfortunately, the fracture didn't heal.

'Donut', this 1.5-year-old hamster came to see us with bloody vaginal discharge or bloody urine. The origin of the blood can be challenging to determine in these tiny rodents. The physical examination revealed a large, 4 cm diameter mass in her belly. We suspected that she might have a bleeding tumour in her uterus, but a tumour in the bladder could cause similar clinical signs too. Due to the constant bleeding, we recommended a diagnostic workup immediately followed by surgery to remove the mass. In order to identify the origin of the mass and to look for metastasis, we performed a contrast-enhanced CT scan. Giving contrast injections into the veins of hamsters is very challenging due to their size. Luckily, Donut was a big girl (190g), so we managed to give her the contrast material intravenously. The CT scan didn't find any metastasis, so we proceeded with the surgery. Every minute counts when dealing with tiny exotic patients because they can deteriorate very quickly. Donut was presented for the consultation at 10am; we did the CT at noon and successfully finished the surgery at 4pm on the same day.

Dental abscesses are widespread problems in rabbits. In this 3D CT, you can see the head of a bunny called "Toffee". Due to the third right mandibular cheek-tooth infection, he developed a huge, 4 cm in diameter, abscess on his chin. The treatment of these abscesses is often challenging, and multiple methods are described in the literature. I find the technique called marsupialisation to be the most effective. During marsupialisation, we remove the top of the abscess, create an opening as big as possible and suture the remaining capsule to the skin. If necessary, the severely affected tooth should be removed too.

Micro-orthopaedic surgery on a 270g rose-breasted cockatoo. This friendly cockatoo somehow broke its left leg while playing in its cage. Luckily, we managed to put the broken bones back together using the combination of an intramedullary pin and external fixation. We had to put a collar on him to protect the surgical wound from his beak. Hopefully, in six weeks, his leg will heal perfectly.

'Crop burn' is a common problem of hand-raised young parrots. If the hand-feeding formula is too hot, it can heat up and cook the tissues of the crop from the inside out. When the thermal burn is severe enough, the wall of the crop becomes necrotic, sloughs off, and the food leaks out. This is the stage when the owners usually notice the problem. These birds are always hungry because the food they swallow cannot reach their stomach. Before surgery, the bird needs to be stabilized and adequately fed. The feeding formula can be administered directly into the proventriculus via the hole on the crop using a long, metal feeding tube.