Hematoma In A Guinea Pig

[Cocoteemin]

Coco is a neutered male abby, who is going to be 5 next month. He recently developed a hematoma on his right ear. I took him to the vets on Dec.16th and they drained 1/2 a mil of fluid/blood from his hematoma, it seemed to stay down for a week and a half, than filled back up suddenly on the weekend(Dec. 27/28), so I took him back to the vets yesterday(Dec. 29) and they drained 1 mil of fluid from his hematoma this time, the vets think since he doesn't have an ear infection or mites causing him to shake his head, thus causing the hematoma, that it may be do to a issue with his blood not clotting very well, do to possibly an immune condition or cancer. He still seems to be eating, drinking and pooping normally. He also still manages to keep up with his two younger female cagemates. Although he has been losing a bit of weight recently, which the vet noted.

I know its common for hematoma's to keep filling up, but does anyone else have any experience with a ear hematoma in a guinea pig.

I was also wondering if supplementing with additional Vitamin C or if maybe another supplement might help if it is a blood clotting issue?

Additional info about Coco: He had a cyst drained on his back in Jan 2011 and a possibly cancerous lump removed from his abdomen in July 2013, both which have not returned. So he's a lumpy, bumpy boy, lol.

 

[piggyfan]

Welcome to the forum. I will tag @helen105281 to help. She may not be online now but once she is she will reply.

 

[helen105281]

I'm really sorry but this is not something I know anything about. Hopefully someone will be along though who has experience of it, if not there is someone I can ask.

 

[Elwickcavies]

I have no experience in this area either, I'm afraid, but I'll see what I can find out.

 

[Pebble]

Hi there - no experience with a guinea pig haematoma.........however If the vet thinks there is a clotting issue then they might want to consider a Vit K injection. One of my piggies had interstital cystitis and bled copiously in his wee.......a shot of Vit K every now and then really helped reduce the amount of blood.
HTH
x

 

[Abi_nurse]

The usual cause of these things is an initial injury, weather by shaking the head or even bashing the ear on the side of the hutch is all able to start a small bleed in the ear. Haematomas are difficult to resolve, sometimes they require a surgery. The problem is that the space the blood or fluid keeps filling is not healing together, it's the bodies natural thing to do by filling a healing gap. However as the animal shakes the head or moves ears then small blood vessels get disrupted and start bleeding again. (Ears are very vascular so it's very normal for them to bleed a lot). Usually it's not a clotting issue as dogs have this problem often and we don't routinely give vitamin k. If your vet thinks it is then go by there advice, but they do take a while to heal.

Surgery sometimes requires any number of different approaches including pinning and sticking edges together. The easiest and simplistic idea (but messiest) is placing a small drain under the skin so that any blood can drain but externally and the internal area can then dry up and heal. This isn't always very helpful for owners as this means spotting of blood everywhere (and I mean everywhere as you can imagine when they shake their heads).

They do sometimes resolve themselves or reoccur even after healing. But in general they do often take a long time to heal.

Hope this helps.

x

 

[Cocoteemin]

Thanks to everyone who commented and to @Abi_nurse for the helpful post, sorry I didn't thank you guys and update sooner. It's been just over a month since Coco first developed the hematoma, thankfully it has reduced in size since his last vet visit on Dec. 29th. I made the decision to leave the hematoma alone to see if it would go down since it wasn't causing him any distress(he was more distressed at the vets) it's a slow process, but it's continuing to shrink. I know there's always a chance for the hematoma to start to fill up again/reoccur, but I'm hopeful it will keep going down. So far I haven't seen the "cauliflower ear" they say can happen in dogs and cats as a hematoma heals.

I don't know for sure if it helped or not, but I gave Coco: 25mg Vitamin C twice a day for a week/week and a half, than 25mg Vitamin C once a day for a few days, than 25mg Vitamin C once or twice a week there after.

 

[Abi_nurse]

Glad it's starting to heal. He might have a cute wonky ear once it's healed, sometimes they do.

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