First time with syringes :S

[Beckit and Jedward]

So Mazzy found a lump on Twitch's neck last night, at first she wasn't sure so she asked me to check it, it was quite large considering it's size compared to the guinea's so I said that it's most likely a cyst (remembering the one Jeddy had when she was younger) but that we should take her to the vets anyway, because they may want to drain it due to it's size.

Bless her, Mazzy was a good girl, she woke me up nice and early to phone the vet and we got an appointment nice and easy and toddled off on the bus with Twitch to the vet.

She was SO good but I was right when I said they'd want to try and drain it. The vet thought it was a cyst so they tried draining with as small a needle as possible, and was so so well behaved, but they got no clear fluid OR puss. :...
Tried again with a bigger needle. Still nothing came out.

To cut a long story short, the vet isn't actually sure what it is, because there's no fluid and it's not bothering her in the slightest.

So she decided we'd try Twitch on anti-inflamatories and if it doesn't go down by next week (when we have an appointment for the cats anyway and can just squeeze her on at the end) we'll take her back for another check.

We've got Metacam. Since they have nothing licensed for piggies, but I remembered seeing other people on here talking about Metacam in the past, so tonight we give her her first dose.

And I have to admit, I'm a little nervous since I've not medicated any pigs yet and have NO experience with a syringe. :...

 

[piggyfan]

Oh I am really sorry to hear this. It is difficult to syringe feed a piggy. It can help if you get somebody else to hold her while you do it. I really hope the lump is nothing and she recovers soon.

 

[Beckit and Jedward]

We're going to pull the same routine we use for nail trimming. Mazzy's going to hold her while I do the rest. She was so well behaved with the vet so I'm HOPING she will be for us tonight. Whatever the case she's going to be getting a LOT of fuss later.

 

[piggyfan]

Good luck with it.

 

[Beckit and Jedward]

Thank you, I'll do my very best and spoil her with all her favourite veg when she's done.

 

[Poppy'sMum]

I found my piggy loved the taste of Metacam so I don't think you should have much trouble getting her to accept it. I am not sure why it was prescribed though if she isn't in any pain, I would have thought they'd give you antibiotics rather than a pain reliever?

What syringe have they given you?

What dose do you have to give her?

If it's a 1ml small syringe, then shake the medicine up a bit in the bottle & pop the syringe in, draw it up to the level required. Then you need to sit with her on your lap & gently pop the end of the syringe in her mouth, point it towards the inside of her cheek, NOT to the back of her throat, & syringe in a little at a time, give her a chance to swallow in between. Doing it slowly will prevent aspiration of the liquid.

Good luck, hope you find out what the lump is. It could be an abscess which may need removing, but further tests or biopsy will find out.

 

[Beckit and Jedward]

I found my piggy loved the taste of Metacam so I don't think you should have much trouble getting her to accept it. I am not sure why it was prescribed though if she isn't in any pain, I would have thought they'd give you antibiotics rather than a pain reliever?

What syringe have they given you?

What dose do you have to give her?

If it's a 1ml small syringe, then shake the medicine up a bit in the bottle & pop the syringe in, draw it up to the level required. Then you need to sit with her on your lap & gently pop the end of the syringe in her mouth, point it towards the inside of her cheek, NOT to the back of her throat, & syringe in a little at a time, give her a chance to swallow in between. Doing it slowly will prevent aspiration of the liquid.

Good luck, hope you find out what the lump is. It could be an abscess which may need removing, but further tests or biopsy will find out.

Mazzy's got the syringe and everything so I won't get a good look until later but we were instructed to give the bottle a good old shake before drawing any liquid up. She's still young so at half a kilo we were advised to give her the dose we would give a 1 kilo cat, as they have a higher resistance to it and we were told essentially guinea pigs need a double dose. It's just once a day so I'm hoping she won't make it too difficult, she's such a good girl though I don't think it'll really be a problem.

Thank you for the aiming tip, I was a bit baffled where to actually hold the syringe in her mouth, so I shall do that! I'm going to practice syringing water onto my hand before we give her any to make sure I don't do it too fast straight in her face.

I think the reason they didn't give antibiotics is because there seems to be no infection or anything, so they just want the "swelling" to go down. If it can really be called that. I'm not exactly a clever clogs though so I'm going by the vets advice on what to do, if it hasn't gone down next week I think they'll do some tests but I hope it's nothing too nasty. She's still only very little.