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Cyst or abscess?

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Zofia

Zofia

Junior Guinea Pig
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Morning,

Eric had an abscess a year ago at the site of his castration - he was intolerent to the suture material used. We managed to clear this up eventually and it has not reoccured.

Yesterday I found a lump above his left nipple. It is hard, pea sized and moves under the skin. He does not appear to be uncomfortable.

The abscess was central and directly above his boy bits.

I've got a vet appointment tomorrow. Is this likely to be a recurrence of his abscess or a cyst? I do not know Eric's age - only that he is likely to be 2+, probably quite a bit older than 2 from looking at him.

Thanks.
 
"Lumps" are quite frequent in guinea pigs.

Here is a link to a list of what it could be:
http://www.guinealynx.info/lumps.html

I wish you the best for your boy on his visit to the vets. I don't think that it is a return of the abscess or anything related.
 
It could be a normal cyst, however the location is common for mammary tumours. Don't panic at this thought - almost all tumours are benign and mammary tumours are not uncommon.

It's worth seeing if the lump can be examined, if the vet can find out what the lump contains; a cyst typically has a toothpaste like substance inside. Good luck at the vets tomorrow!
 
It is not very common to find a sebaceous cyst in that location. From your description it is unlikely to be associated with the mammary gland. I would suspect something like a fibroma, these are very common, benign and in most cases do not require removal unless they become quite large.
 
It's a mammary tumour.

The vet wants to wait a week to see if it gets bigger because she says that bad lumps get bigger quickly so they'll get a better idea what they're dealing with.

Next week she proposes to get my normal vet (he won't let anyone else operate on Eric because he's one of his favourites!) to remove the whole gland and surrounding tissue.

I think he'll be ok - Simon's a very good vet and Eric weighs 1500g so has plenty of reserves for being ill. I think being chunky will help him under the anaesthetic. Also he has been anaesthetised a few times when he had his abscess and was absolutely fine, despite having lost 200g at the time.
 
I'm glad you have a diagnosis, good luck for the treatment! Just out of interest, someone else on here has a superb vet also called Simon - which area/practice did you visit?
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
I'm glad you have a diagnosis, good luck for the treatment! Just out of interest, someone else on here has a superb vet also called Simon - which area/practice did you visit?
Click to expand...

It's Gatehouse Veterinary Group in Allerton/Bingley/Haworth West Yorkshire.

Simon's saved many of my rabbits and Eric from near certain doom on a few occasions. He's currently battling a rather nasty abscess in my rabbit Ted's jaw. He said that most people would have given up by now but it is slowly getting better thanks to aggressive treatment. It's cost me £1000 in the process thanks to numerous operations under GA but it's worth it for my Ted!
 
You can;t place a cost on some pets, I spent (mum did)over £1000 on a rabbit of mine having a good vet is a godsend!
 
I spoke to the vet again today. I decided I didn't want to wait a week to see if it gets bigger so Simon's operating on Monday. I'm a bit worried but I guess he's best of without the tumour so I'll just cross my fingers all day on monday!
 
Zofia said:
Morning,

Eric had an abscess a year ago at the site of his castration - he was intolerent to the suture material used. We managed to clear this up eventually and it has not reoccured.

Yesterday I found a lump above his left nipple. It is hard, pea sized and moves under the skin. He does not appear to be uncomfortable.

The abscess was central and directly above his boy bits.

I've got a vet appointment tomorrow. Is this likely to be a recurrence of his abscess or a cyst? I do not know Eric's age - only that he is likely to be 2+, probably quite a bit older than 2 from looking at him.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
how did you clear the absess has my boar was done 3 wks ago and he had a absess 1 side was drainned and then it came on the other side we are struggling to get rid of it he is on antibiotics he has been on baytril for 2 and a half weeks now he is on terrimiycin sorry **** spelt wrong not got the bottle in front of me...:))
 
Zofia said:
It's a mammary tumour.

The vet wants to wait a week to see if it gets bigger because she says that bad lumps get bigger quickly so they'll get a better idea what they're dealing with.

Next week she proposes to get my normal vet (he won't let anyone else operate on Eric because he's one of his favourites!) to remove the whole gland and surrounding tissue.

I think he'll be ok - Simon's a very good vet and Eric weighs 1500g so has plenty of reserves for being ill. I think being chunky will help him under the anaesthetic. Also he has been anaesthetised a few times when he had his abscess and was absolutely fine, despite having lost 200g at the time.
Click to expand...
my guinea also lost weight he was 1300g on the day of his neutering 3wks later and absess later he is now 1046g
 
clairelove said:
how did you clear the absess has my boar was done 3 wks ago and he had a absess 1 side was drainned and then it came on the other side we are struggling to get rid of it he is on antibiotics he has been on baytril for 2 and a half weeks now he is on terrimiycin sorry **** spelt wrong not got the bottle in front of me...:))
Click to expand...

My vet had to be quite aggressive - it was the suture material that was causing the infection so the vet had to remove any sutures that had not dissolved. They also put baytril directly in the wound.

We gave baytril and bathed with hibiscrub every day.

All you can do is drain them as soon as you spot them and keep giving antibiotics.

Hope he's ok.
 
I dropped him off at the vet this morning for his mastectomy. I'm really nervous now about how he'll fare under anaesthetic.

I'm going to call at lunchtime to find out how he is.
 
He came through the op ok.

They operated at about 3pm yesterday. Simon just removed the lump rather than the whole gland because he wanted to minimise the time he was under. I kept pestering Eric to eat last night (funnily enough he only wanted sweets rather than veg!)and he had some breakfast this morning but he's still a bit groggy. Is this normal?

Now I'm worried that he'll have a reaction to the stitches like he did when he was castrated. I had a look at the wound this morning and it's a little lumpy - do you think this is just inflammation and scarring, or is it likely to be infection?

He's going back tomorrow for a check.

I've asked them to send the lump away to be analysed so we can find out if it's benign or malignant, they said it'll take about a week. I'll be happier about Simon only doing a lumpectomy if it turns out to be benign.
 
Some pigs do seem to remain a little unsteady for up to 24 hours after surgery, although most should be back to normal very quickly. As long as he's eating and can move about a bit, he should pick up very soon.

If you are worried about a reaction to the stitches, ask the vet was suture material was used. Catgut/chromic sutures are the ones that commonly cause reactions.

A little bumpiness along the wound and around the stitches is normal, the inflammation should recede fairly quickly and the edges of the wound will heal fairly rapidly.

Good to hear he's doing okay at the moment, fingers crossed he is his normal self by tonight, and good luck at the checkup tomorrow. :)
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
Some pigs do seem to remain a little unsteady for up to 24 hours after surgery, although most should be back to normal very quickly. As long as he's eating and can move about a bit, he should pick up very soon.

If you are worried about a reaction to the stitches, ask the vet was suture material was used. Catgut/chromic sutures are the ones that commonly cause reactions.

A little bumpiness along the wound and around the stitches is normal, the inflammation should recede fairly quickly and the edges of the wound will heal fairly rapidly.

Good to hear he's doing okay at the moment, fingers crossed he is his normal self by tonight, and good luck at the checkup tomorrow. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks,

Suture material was monocryl.
 
I tried researching a bit on monocryl and I *think* it's one of the better ones. Can't be sure, most of it reads as gobbledegook for me, but the bits I did understand seemed to point to it being one of the preferable suture material!

How is he this morning - hopefully more like his normal self?
 
Monocryl is a resorbable suture material with anti-microbial properties.
The bumpiness along the suture line depends a lot on the suturing ability of the surgeon!
A neat incision line can often be healed in around 24-36 hours.
The one thing you want to avoid when suturing is to have any one section under a lot of tension, this can lead to the wound reopening. Some development of scar tissue may occur, but this tends to disappear with time.
I must go and practise my suturing on some clothes!
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
I tried researching a bit on monocryl and I *think* it's one of the better ones. Can't be sure, most of it reads as gobbledegook for me, but the bits I did understand seemed to point to it being one of the preferable suture material!

How is he this morning - hopefully more like his normal self?
Click to expand...

He's much better now - going for a check up tonight. I built the frame for the new c&c cage I'm making them last night and he seemed very cheery prancing around his new space. It's going to be 5x2 grids, looks huge! i'm collecting the correx tonight hopefully. He just did laps for the whole time he was in there so I guess he's feeling better.
 
I got the histology results and the lump was a fibrolipoma. I think that's good news.
 
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