Advice On Cystic Ovaries Surgery

[chino]

Hi,

I have a guinea pig (Biscuit) who is 3.5years old.
For the past few months she has suffered hair loss which at first we were treating as if mites.
The last week or so this has worsened then 2 days ago I noticed she had lost a bit of weight.
She has been to the vets today and they have said she has got a couple of cysts on her ovary which is causing the fur loss. She also said on the scan they noticed that she has scarring on her left kidney and there is more fluid on the kidney than what was normal so she suspects the kidney isn't functioning correctly.
The vet has said surgery to spay and sort the cysts is an option but with the kidney being damaged, it would be a major risk as it could get damaged more during surgery or she potentially might not make it past a few days post op due to her kidneys failing.
The other option is managing the cysts with pain relief and letting her live out however long she has left. At some point the vet has said that the cysts will burst and that will be the end for Biscuit.
I honestly doesn't know what to do, if I didn't know about the kidney problems, then of course I would opt for surgery but I don't want to put her through all that to end up with the scenario of still losing her a few days later due to her kidneys packing in and knowing that her last few days were spent in pain, recovering from the operation. Equally, when something does happen to her, I don't want to be left wondering "what if I had just had the surgery done"?
At the minute, she is back home with her sister and Biscuit is on metacam and I have been told to put her on dual care to increase her vit c intake, vit c in water and on food and lots of high vit c veg.

I honestly don't know what to do for the best and would welcome any advice,or if anybody else has had the same situation, what would you do?

 

[Janey]

I'm really sorry that you and Biscuit are going through this. It's so difficult to know what to do in these circumstances as you obviously want the best outcome. Everybody is different and will take different things from each vet visit. However I'm unsure why the vet has advised you to increase her vit c intake - did they explain why? I'm also sure that vit c in water is not recommended as it can taint the taste of the water, so the piggy won't drink it, it also deteriorates rapidly and cannot really be monitored successfully as to how much vit c the piggy has had.

At the end of the day, the decision you come to must be one that you feel you can live with the best.

I'll tag @Wiebke for you.

 

[chino]

Hi, The vet said that having the cysts can "really take it out of a piggy" and the increased vit c aswell as the metacam should help her feel better.
Thank you for your response

 

[Wiebke]

Hi,

I have a guinea pig (Biscuit) who is 3.5years old.
For the past few months she has suffered hair loss which at first we were treating as if mites.
The last week or so this has worsened then 2 days ago I noticed she had lost a bit of weight.
She has been to the vets today and they have said she has got a couple of cysts on her ovary which is causing the fur loss. She also said on the scan they noticed that she has scarring on her left kidney and there is more fluid on the kidney than what was normal so she suspects the kidney isn't functioning correctly.
The vet has said surgery to spay and sort the cysts is an option but with the kidney being damaged, it would be a major risk as it could get damaged more during surgery or she potentially might not make it past a few days post op due to her kidneys failing.
The other option is managing the cysts with pain relief and letting her live out however long she has left. At some point the vet has said that the cysts will burst and that will be the end for Biscuit.
I honestly doesn't know what to do, if I didn't know about the kidney problems, then of course I would opt for surgery but I don't want to put her through all that to end up with the scenario of still losing her a few days later due to her kidneys packing in and knowing that her last few days were spent in pain, recovering from the operation. Equally, when something does happen to her, I don't want to be left wondering "what if I had just had the surgery done"?
At the minute, she is back home with her sister and Biscuit is on metacam and I have been told to put her on dual care to increase her vit c intake, vit c in water and on food and lots of high vit c veg.

I honestly don't know what to do for the best and would welcome any advice,or if anybody else has had the same situation, what would you do?

Hi! I agree that while a spaying operation at your girl's age should normally not be a problem, her kidney issues mean that any operation should only be as a make or break emergency option.

However, there are some non-operative alternatives that your vet can research:
- Draining: This happens directly through the skin and does not require a GA. It is not a permanent solution, so it would need repeating, but it is a valid alternative for sows that are too frail/old for a spaying operation and that have large ovarian cysts.
- Hormone injection therapy. The most commonly used in guinea pigs is chorulon/HCG. It is not cheap and may take two rounds of injections, but from our members' experiences it is a good alternative to a spay for hormone based ovarian cysts. Again, it does not require any anaesthetics.

Perhaps your vet is willing to refer you to an exotics specialist or do her research on this? it would help us if you please added your country, state/province or UK county to your details so we can give you better recommendations than having to keep our advice as general as possible. We have got members from all over the world. Please click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location. This makes it appear with any post you make and allows us to tailor any advice to what is available and relevant for you straight away. Thank you!

 

[chino]

Thank you for replying.
I have changed my location.
Normally I would use the cat and rabbit care clinic in Northampton but I thought the problem may not be quiet as specialist as this which is why I have used a more local vet (if that makes sense).

Nothing was mentioned about draining or hormone injections but she did say to call her if I want to talk through the option of surgery more so I guess she wouldn't mind discussing these.

 

[eileen]

the alfreton park vets are very good.i know that BARC rescue uses this practise.Ellie Whitehead is very good with guinea pigs.keyhole surgery is done here.maybe worth checking out.