Dental Abscess under chin *warning: gross*

[coco&chanel]

My guinea pig Louie had a lump the size of a ping pong ball under his chin. I took him to the vet last week and they confirmed it as an abscess and gave me Baytril. The said it will hopefully shrink it to a size to operate/lance it.

Yesterday it burst on its own and an unsightly amount of pus has come out. I have noticed that Louie keeps licking/eating it if i can't get to it in time to wipe it. Is this normal and is this okay?

What should I do? Should I continue draining it/ using salt water and giving the antibiotics or?

 

[Betsy]

@furryfriends (TEAS) is the abcess queen but I'm not sure she's on the Forum atm. @Wiebke can you help please?

 

[Wiebke]

My guinea pig Louie had a lump the size of a ping pong ball under his chin. I took him to the vet last week and they confirmed it as an abscess and gave me Baytril. The said it will hopefully shrink it to a size to operate/lance it.

Yesterday it burst on its own and an unsightly amount of pus has come out. I have noticed that Louie keeps licking/eating it if i can't get to it in time to wipe it. Is this normal and is this okay?

What should I do? Should I continue draining it/ using salt water and giving the antibiotics or?

Hi!

Please see a more piggy savvy vet as soon as possible. Baytril is generally not strong enough to cut through a fully developed abscess in guinea pigs. Zithromax or a combination of zithromax and marbocyl is needed.
Recommended Guinea Pig Vets

Flush the abscess with a mild disinfectant solution 2-3 times daily. Saline solution, F10 disinfectant or hibiscrub can all be used for that. You want to ideally use a larger syringe with a needle tip to create enough pressure to get really into the various pockets of the abscess, which all need to heal from the inside out; the longer you can do this and keep the abscess open, the greater the chance that the abscess will not swell up again because of any infection remaining inside.

A good vet should be able to marsupialise the abscess (i.e. stitch the opening wider) and check for a potential tooth root abscess.
It is unfortunately a very gross and smelly process. In coming days you may need to peel off the scab over the opening first, which is not at all pleasant, but absolutely vital.

 

[Lady Kelly]

As with your last piggy who sadly passed away I would definitely recommend travelling for a more knowledgeable vets. Abscesses are sealed pockets of infection and piggy savvy vets would not expect antibiotics to shrink it without any other intervention. Sadly there is a much higher risk of infection if it's left to burst. The abscess needs stitching open so that it can be flushed daily and heal from the inside out.

Unfortunately unknowledgeable vets will always prescribe baytril as it's the only licenced antibiotic for guinea pigs but it is generally not enough to combat some of the common illnesses piggies have so something stronger needs to be prescribed and there are several other antibiotics that vets have successfully used off licence for piggies previously

 

[coco&chanel]

Thank you for the advice, I certainly will. Baytril has worked in the past for me, so I thought it would be suitable this time.

With my last piggy I did go to a guinea pig savvy vet which was in Northampton. Unfortunately despite my best efforts he did pass away.

The reason why I decided to go to a ("non pig savvy") different vets this time was because I had a pig with an abscess in the past and they successfully operated on it and treated it. (This was Coco who I still have now).

For ease and quickness I thought it was best to go to my local vets, but am disappointed with the vet I saw. I thought it seemed a bit unbelievable that Baytril would shrink an abscess!

Thanks again