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Can anyone give me an idea what this growth might be on my piggy’s front paw? 🥺

Definitely thinking of you and your boy and hope everything goes smooth! I know it's scary but there's really no other option with a rapidly-growing lump like that, it needs to come off! Please let us know how everything went!
 
Thank you everyone so much for your kind words and positive vibes! They called me a few hours later to tell me that surgery went beautifully, and that he was awake and doing well! About 5-6 hours after that, I was able to go back and pick him up, and he did seem to be doing really well! The more the night has gone on, you can tell his pain medicine is wearing off, but I’m praying he’ll keep doing fairly well throughout the night and throughout this entire process. I’m so glad to have this over with, and have my baby boy back home. Thank you again to everybody for your advice and support!
 
CTWC said:
Just check with one of the experts on here if his pain meds are enough x
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If anyone does have any advice as far as this goes I would actually really appreciate it. He’s very lethargic this morning as I would’ve assumed, but doesn’t have much of an appetite at all. I syringe fed him about 10-15ml of Emeraid this morning as well as about 5ml of room temp/warm water, and the poop output is definitely lacking. I’m praying he will have some poops in the cage when I get back home in a couple hours. He is currently getting 0.3ml of metacam for 5 days. I gave him his first dose early this morning before the syringe feeding. I personally wish they would’ve given me something better as maybe he would be acting more himself and feeling a little better, but if anyone knows if this is enough, I would appreciate it. He weighed in at 1167g yesterday before the operation. Here is the photo of his tiny bandage too 🥺🥺🥺 my heart.
 

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abrennan110 said:
Here is the label for the metacam they gave me.
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That’s good. It’s the dog one.

So he’s nearly 1.2kg is that right?

I took my piggy Patrick (1.2kg) to the vets yesterday for a hay poke and they prescribed him dog loxicom (it’s the same as metacam) at 0.4 TWICE a day. Piggies can metabolise it very quickly. My vets are the local vet hospital so are very knowledgeable. Hope this helps.
 
weepweeps said:
That’s good. It’s the dog one.

So he’s nearly 1.2kg is that right?

I took my piggy Patrick (1.2kg) to the vets yesterday for a hay poke and they prescribed him dog loxicom (it’s the same as metacam) at 0.4 TWICE a day. Piggies can metabolise it very quickly. My vets are the local vet hospital so are very knowledgeable. Hope this helps.
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Yes he is! I was hoping they would have me give him something for twice a day for sure. I guess I could give him a little more if that’s the case and he needs it. I’m hoping we’ll be over the worst of it after today!
 
I wanted to come on here and update everyone again, but I also am in need of advice more than ever. Pepper got his bandage removed Wednesday, and has felt so much better since and is acting more like himself now that he doesn’t have this thick gaudy thing on his paw. His activity levels, appetite and poops have gotten continuously better with each passing day since the surgery, but even better after the bandage being removed. His stitches look great in my opinion and were scheduled to be removed Monday afternoon, but we changed our appointment to Tuesday morning instead after getting the dreaded phone call I was awaiting yesterday 😭. I did everything I could to remain optimistic, and I’m still trying to do so, but Pepper’s biopsy results came back showing that his mass on his paw was malignant after all, and the cells are showing osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer for those who are unsure because I was and I still don’t feel I know that much about it. My heart and mind and body went numb while I was on the phone with the vet receiving this news. I am absolutely heartbroken, and I don’t even know what to do from here other than trying to make sure my angel is the happiest and healthiest little bean that I possibly can. The doctor and I agreed to move our appointment to Tuesday morning since they will have more time that day to do X-rays on him to make sure that the cancer was only in the now-removed mass and that it did not spread at all. I need all of your prayers more than ever. I am so scared of losing my boy any time now after hearing this news. I am terrified, devastated, beyond anxious, beyond a mess… I’m praying from the deepest parts of my core that the X-rays show nothing has spread. Even though it is technically bone cancer, I guess it is highly likely to spread to the lungs, so I’m so unbelievably terrified of what my baby’s future might look like. I pray he still has a long, full, and happy life ahead of him, and I pray he at the very least makes it until his 5th birthday this September. I don’t know what to expect, but if anyone has any experience with this, please let me know. The internet makes it sound like this is extremely uncommon and only around 1% of guinea pigs have ever been diagnosed with this. The doctor also said she will have to do further research about this specific cancer in guinea pigs as well, and will get back to me by the end of next week with her findings. I pray to GOD that they were able to remove all of the bad cells and tissue, and that it hasn’t spread, but also that it doesn’t grow back or resurface anywhere else in his body if we get lucky enough to find out that it has not already spread. Please please pray for my precious angel. 💔😭🙏🏼💔🙏🏼😭💔
 

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Hi
What a terrible shock for you I am sorry for the diagnosis I have no experience at all but my heart does go out to you and of course you are both in my prayers 🙏
 
All I can say as wise people on here always do have at least one happy enriched day every day with him if you can we should do it with all of our guinea family as to them that's what counts they have no concept of days or life expectancy they just want to be fed, watered, happy and loved 💗🥰
 
Your handsome chap lives for today. He doesn’t know his diagnosis, nor would he care if he did! Love on him, spend time with him, to him that’s what matters.

He is in a loving home, that warms my heart! Often times these things really are out of our control. You got dealt this hand, you’ll make the very best of it ❤️
 
Thank you so much everyone for your kind words and prayers and support. It means the world to me and my boy 😭❤️🙏🏼. If anyone has any experience with anything like this, please share. I also am looking for any ideas that I may not have already thought of to make sure my angel enjoys the rest of his life to the fullest. I pray we still have years to come.
 
I thought I would hop back on here and give another update. Pepper did have pretty thorough X-rays done last Tuesday when we went back to get his stitches removed. The vet and I reviewed them together, as well as having them sent out to a radiologist for further examination, and the X-rays showed that as far as the naked eye can see, the cancer has not spread/metastasized at all. The relief I felt after hearing this was like no other 🙌🏼😭❤️. We are going to be doing follow up X-rays in about a month or so just to make sure everything still looks the same. The day of this appointment was Pepper’s first day off of his metacam since the operation and we wanted to try and see how he did without it, and if his appetite and the quality of his poops would further improve. His appetite and energy levels actually decreased without it, so after a couple days of this and trying to see if he would improve or atleast feel like himself without it, I called the vet and asked for more because he was eating less. He’s been back on it once a day for the past week and has been eating, but still not eating the way I hoped he would. His appetite prior to the operation was completely normal, and I miss seeing my boy eat all of his veggies and just being a normal little chonky food crazed piggy 😔. He has definitely lost quite a bit of a weight since the surgery as well, which has me beyond stressed out. His new post-surgery weight is being maintained for the most part with some fluctuation, but he’s definitely not where I want him to be. His teeth look good from what I can see and from what the vet was able to see without doing X-rays specifically on his teeth, but our next step if the scale goes down at all again will be to go back and get those done and make sure everything is okay in that area. If anyone has any advice on anything I’ve mentioned throughout this entire process, I’d be very appreciative. Also, if anyone has any ideas that I might not have thought of already to make sure that the rest of my boy’s life is as comfortable, happy and enriching as possible, I’d love to hear them. I’m praying for there to still be years ahead of us. 🥺🙏🏼
 
I'm so glad it hasn't spread, what a relief!
Perhaps he just needs the pain relief for a bit longer yet.
Hope he's feeling 100% better soon ❤️
 
I'm glad the x-rays look clean despite a scary diagnosis! Fingers crossed you got it all in time and this is all behind you now! Spoil him and give him lots of love just like you have been doing all along!
 
Freela said:
I'm glad the x-rays look clean despite a scary diagnosis! Fingers crossed you got it all in time and this is all behind you now! Spoil him and give him lots of love just like you have been doing all along!
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Thank you so much! Me too! More relieved than I ever knew I could be about anything in my life. I absolutely will! 🥺❤️
 
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