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abcess

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Teenage Guinea Pig
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hello,

i got from a lovely festival yesterday having been away for 5 days. i bought loads of yummy veg for the piggies and gave teddy and muffin there first claw cut and they were really good with it! i checked them over for lumps and bumps and found muffin had a big lump behind his ear.

i took him to the vets because i had the day off and they stuck a syringe in it and loads of puss came out so they then made a small cut in it and squeezed out all the puss it looked like cream cheese it was discusting!

anyway they gave him so antibiotics and told me to squeeze the hole last night and this morning to get rid of anything that was left and i have to give him baytril for the next 5 days.

the only thing is i am away sat and sun so i am going to have ask the animal sitter to give him his baytril in his mouth. has anyone else had to leave this sort of job to someone else? i feel really bad about leaving him but we are going away for the weekend and it is has been booked for ages so i can't not go and i can't take him with me because i'm going to a drag strip.

thanks :)
 
Just make sure you show the pig-sitter what to do. Will they also empty the abscess contents?
 
i have been treating a piggie with abscesses and found it was easier to keep the wound open if i squeezed it three times a day, you make have to pay the pet sitter more for administering medications and i would check in advance that she/he is happy to do it.
 
thanks for the help guys.

i suqeezed the hole this morning and a bit of blood and goo came out. the vet said the hole should heal up really quickly as they only made a small cut.

i don't actually pay Graham any money to look after the animals we just give him bottles of wine instead!

he said that he has had to look after poorly animals before. i will show him what to do but i am just a bit nervous as Nobbles had an abcess under his chin last year (he was about 12 weeks old, Muffin is 10 weeks old) he had to go in for surgery to get it removed as the absess was so big. He was also castrated at the same time. he died a couple of days after surgery, even though when my boyfriend took him back for the check up after surgery and they said he was fine. i wasn't there when he died i was at a festival and as this is the same sort of time it happened last year i am a bit nervous that things might go wrong.
 
Oh crumbs why do our small furries always get ill just as we are about to head off on our hols!

Lots of useful advice already given, I would certainly give the pet sitter a call before you leave and ask them if they could call round so you can show them what is involved with Muffin's treatment. I would also be inclined to write everything down so that there is no confusion and leave the pet sitter with details of your vets, in addition to your contact numbers etc (sorry I like to cover all bases!).

Hope Muffin soon recovers from his abscess and that you manage to enjoy your break.
 
Hi,

I had an abscess issue with Ben a few months ago. The link to his thread is below.

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32797

My vet advised me to try and keep the wound open as much as possible so that it could be flushed out, therefore attacking the infection from the outside as well as with antibiotics from the inside. Ben is a fat piggy so the vet said just to keep an eye on how his stomach was behaving with the antibiotics and we'd go from there regarding probiotics. In the end, he didn't need them.
 
just been and had a look at your thread minty. i hope Muffin's wound doesn't take as long as yours has!

Muffin is 10 weeks old he is very small so i am hoping he will be ok. he is as good as gold! when i gave them their first claw cut yesterday he didn't flinch despite being the nervy one out of my two boys. in the vets he didn't squeal, he didn't try and bite he just sat there complacently while they poked and squeezed him!

when i gave him his baytril this morning he was as good as gold didn't flinch or anything. he just took his medicine like a good boy. he also left me squeeze the little hole that they made. i am a bit worried about squeezing it too hard though as i don't want to hurt him!

the vet only told me to squeeze the wound last night and this morning which i have done, but on your thread you seemed to squeeze the wound everyday.

i hope he gets better. he is fine in himself and is eating and drinking etc, but i just worry as he is alot smaller than Teddy.
 
It is a worry because you don't want to hurt them! But, as I understand it, if the infection gets deep it will form into little pockets of pus which are difficult to reach with antibiotics so it is best to squeeze from the bottom of the wound to see if there is anything more to come out. The wound will heal in no time at all, but it's important to make sure there is no infection left before it does.

Hope he gets better soon!xoxo
 
i gave Muffin his baytril this morning and noticed he had a bit of a lump again so i squeezed it and a load of puss came out that wasn't there yesterday. he did squeal a bit when i did this. i got as much out as i could but i still think there is a bit left in there.

i think i will phone up the vets today and see what they say

thanks for all your advice :)
 
i had that with tango where you think it is empty but you go back a few hours later and there is pus in there again, i think until you have been pus free for a while and there is no heat round the wound or a lump then i would keep trying to get the pus out

best of luck and enjoy your weekend away!
 
just phoned up the vets and they want me to bring him back in tomorrow. so he has an appointment at 9.30am they said they might have to anaesthatise (not sure about the spelling) him to make the hole bigger and flush everything out.

i am really scared about this as Nobbles died shortly after this surgery last year. he is so small so i hope he doesn't have to go through that.

fingers crossed
 
good luck for the appointment, i hope everything goes well and Muffin makes a speedy recovery x
 
just a quick update as i have been away this weekend. i took Muffin to the vets on Friday and they told me to pick off his scab everyday and squueze out the puss. they also told me to try Manuka honey as it is meant to help healing.

he looked a lot better when i got him out this morning to put his honey on. i think that Teddy is probably licking it off though! :))
 
hello,

well i decided to leave Muffin's wound alone today as it looked a lot better. how long do you think it takes for the scab to fall off? i decided not to pick it off this morning as i couldn't feel any lumps of puss.

thanks

Cat :)
 
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