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I Don't Know What To Do.... Abdominal Tumour Diagnosis

annaa

annaa

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
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Location
Worcestershire/Herefordshire border
Hi all,
I've not been on the forum for a while, but I would appreciate a bit of help with my current dilemma.

Our gorgeous boy Pip passed some blood in his urine today, so I took him to the vets thinking he may have a uti or stones. Turns out he has a massive tumour in his abdomen that they think is malignant Surgery and a biopsy is obviously an option, but the vet didn't sound hopeful as they think it is probably agressive and likely to have spread. Feeling pretty awful as we have him out for cuddles everyday and we hadn't noticed it at all. He hasn't had any symptoms that we've noticed prior to today - he's been eating, drinking, running around the cage as he always has done. But when the vet was scanning him apparently he was in quite a bit of pain and they had to give him some metacam.
The vet's advice is that if we don't go for surgery the kindest thing to do would be to put him to sleep.

I've brought him home and he's seemed ok, possibly a bit more subdued than normal but still jumping in and out of the hay trays.

I just don't know what to do for the best. Part of me wants to go for surgery, but if it is as bad as they think then I'll be putting him through all that extra suffering for nothing. But making the decision to give up on him isn't easy either (compounded by the fact that it's my daughter's 7th birthday tomorrow and I don't want to ruin her day, but I dont want him to suffer if he's in pain for an additional 24 hours either)

We've also just aquired a new girl, Pumpkin, to make trio. We only did the introduction on Monday and she's really started to bond with Pip - he's the one she lies down next to and since he's settled down and stopped rumble-strutting and chasing her around the cage, she follows him everywhere. It's breaking my heart that she's going to lose him so soon.

And he is quite simple the BEST guinea pig we've ever had. He's so relaxed and confident and friendly.....and only 2
 
((((Hugs))))) You know him best. With Dozy I felt he had quality of life and was still enjoying life so we carried on until that wasn't there consistently. With Biscuit we are giving metacam and taking each day as it comes, she is still happy so we still continue.

We didn't operate on either as they were old, had they not been I suspect I may have, but I don't know really.
 
Awww that's awful news so sorry to hear that. I found.out my eldest has the C word too this week, she's currently undergoing chemo and steriods to control it.

Were on the second day after chemo now and she's still full of beans. Only concern is she has been having quite a bit of gas build up... Possibly due to all the Readigreen she's been eating oops.

Is your vet an exotic animal specialist and has any blood samples been taken?
 
Personally I think if the prognosis is uncertain I would opt for surgery and/or further investigation.
But it is a tough dilemma with no easy right/wrong answer. Sending you and Pip hugs.
 
annaa said:
Hi all,
I've not been on the forum for a while, but I would appreciate a bit of help with my current dilemma.

Our gorgeous boy Pip passed some blood in his urine today, so I took him to the vets thinking he may have a uti or stones. Turns out he has a massive tumour in his abdomen that they think is malignant Surgery and a biopsy is obviously an option, but the vet didn't sound hopeful as they think it is probably agressive and likely to have spread. Feeling pretty awful as we have him out for cuddles everyday and we hadn't noticed it at all. He hasn't had any symptoms that we've noticed prior to today - he's been eating, drinking, running around the cage as he always has done. But when the vet was scanning him apparently he was in quite a bit of pain and they had to give him some metacam.
The vet's advice is that if we don't go for surgery the kindest thing to do would be to put him to sleep.

I've brought him home and he's seemed ok, possibly a bit more subdued than normal but still jumping in and out of the hay trays.

I just don't know what to do for the best. Part of me wants to go for surgery, but if it is as bad as they think then I'll be putting him through all that extra suffering for nothing. But making the decision to give up on him isn't easy either (compounded by the fact that it's my daughter's 7th birthday tomorrow and I don't want to ruin her day, but I dont want him to suffer if he's in pain for an additional 24 hours either)

We've also just aquired a new girl, Pumpkin, to make trio. We only did the introduction on Monday and she's really started to bond with Pip - he's the one she lies down next to and since he's settled down and stopped rumble-strutting and chasing her around the cage, she follows him everywhere. It's breaking my heart that she's going to lose him so soon.

And he is quite simple the BEST guinea pig we've ever had. He's so relaxed and confident and friendly.....and only 2
Click to expand...

BIG HUGS

Diagnoses like these are the ones we all dread. Internal tumours can grow and spread to quite a large size without us noticing, and it is often too late. Any decision also depends on how much you trust your vet to pull off an op etc. as well as how much money you can afford to spend. :(

You have to make up your mind whether you want to risk an operation in a desperate attempt of giving Pip a chance but with the knowledge that he may not make it and that depending on the findings your vet may ask you for permission to not wake him up if the tumour has already spread. If it comes off, you would however buy him more time to live and enjoy his married life.

Or you can decide to let Pip enjoy his life and new love for as long as he is able to and to let him go on the day he stops eating and is looking off. Painkillers can help him to enjoy his life during this period.
Pumpkin likely knows that he is not well and is giving himher support and love; guinea pigs have a much keener sense and have often alerted me to an illness or problem by their behaviour towards a companion.

It is certainly not yet the time to have Pip pts right now.

We cannot tell you which decision to make; it has to feel right for Pip and for you. We all feel differently and our bond with our piggies is unique, so there is no right or wrong. I am sure that you are going to make any decision with Pip's happiness and wellbeing foremost in mind.
I know that it is not easy. Personally, I always try to go for the option that I know I can live with best afterwards when my heart and my head have caught up with each other again. Depending on the piggy, its personality and the individual circumstances, my own decision can vary. I have opted for surgery in some cases and in others to let the piggy live out its life as comfortably and happily as possible and then to send it to the Rainbow Bridge when the time had come.

Sadly we can never tell or control just how long a piggy has to live and what it is going to die from; all we can do is make their time with us a very happy one. By the sound of it, that is what you have done! ;)
 
((HUGS))- I'm so sorry. It's so easy to miss abdominal tumors, as they can grow inwards and often can only be felt if you really palpate the abdomen, which we aren't apt to do to our pets! It's always hard to decide between surgery or just watching and waiting for quality of life. There really is no right or wrong here. As you say he is behaving pretty normally, I don't think there is a huge rush to have him put to sleep ASAP (and especially not on your daughter's birthday!) Why not take that 24 hour period to think? I really can't say anything more than what Wiebke said above... please know there is lots of support here as you make this hard choice!
 
thanks all for your replies and the reassurance. I think I was concerned that he might be suffering, but not showing it and I was being unkind by letting my worries about how it would impact on my daughter seemingly take precedence over his well being in my deliberations of how to proceed. @Katie1988 - I take them to the Vets 4 Pets near us as it was the only practise in our area where I could find a vet that stated their specific interest in small animals and exotics. She has however now left.
I'm still feeling a little shell-shocked this morning, I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. I've been googling, and reading about others experiences on here but I'm not sure if that's helped at all. He's definitely more quiet and still this morning, possibly the scan yesterday has aggravated things so he is now more uncomfortable than he was? The tumour is on his right side pushing his bladder over to the left, which she said was really small.
I've given him some more metacam and will just have to see how he is over the course of today I guess.
 
One thing I have had with both cancer piggies is quiet days, sleepy days, but they have eaten and been friendly on those days - just spent a lot of time tucked up. Biscuit has a heat pad that is regularly heated (not hot but warm and reheated often) to ease pain and discomfort. Make sure any bed area has a wicking base (I used squares of vetbed changed a few times a day over a snuggle safe heat pad) and bits of fleece.
 
@annaa it's awful. All we can do is try and fight this with our piggies and make sure they are comfortable.

As long as you have a piggies savvy vet you'll be fine. It's just the none experienced vets just fob the cancer off and say there is nothing they can do. This infuriates me as there are options and they should be referring pets to a more specialised vet to assess the illness.
 
@annaa I'm so sorry to hear this sad news about Pip. I am in virtually the same situation as you - found out on Tuesday Dot has a tumour in her thyroid which has possibly spread to her lymph nodes (they can't tell). I've been in turmoil deciding what to do about it... still can't decide. My Dot is 4 (or thereabouts, we're not sure as she's a rescue) so I'm really in 2 minds about surgery for her. plus she's lost about 25% of her body weight over the past 3 months so I'm worried she won't handle it. Has Pip lost weight?
 
@Katie1988 I had no idea there was chemo for GPs in the UK...? My vet has not offered it... whereabouts is your GP's tumour? Dot's is in her thyroid so maybe thats why...
 
@annaa Yeah my vet has used chemo on other piggies and extended their lifespan. Although he could not give a definitive answer as to how long I have with Kiwi, he says every patient is different.

It's been confirmed she has lymphoma, so her lymphnodes are infected
 
@stripeybeanie - so sorry to hear you are in a similar situation with Dot, it's so hard trying to decide what to do for the best isn't it? Pip has lost weight, but only 50g or so, and it hasn't been sudden. I just thought that Patch, our other girl who is a right fatty (1.2 kg!) and a super speedy eater was possibly stealing a bit too much of his food.
I'm just waiting for a call back from the vet who did the ultrasound.
 
Ultrasound is no good the vet needs to carry out a fine needle aspiration to check whether the lump is cancerous
 
Katie1988 said:
Ultrasound is no good the vet needs to carry out a fine needle aspiration to check whether the lump is cancerous
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Dozy had a needle aspiration as it was lymphoma, so easy to do without anaesthetic, but it wasn't appropriate for Biscuit as it was an internal lump - kidney. For Biscuit we had the choice of operate (and they would remove the lump and biopsy) or leave it and just enjoy every day as it comes and sometimes there comes a point when you decide that an anaesthetic is too much (she is 6 and even if we did remove the kidney her liver is enlarged so chances are slim). For us an ultrasound told us more than enough information to make this decision.
 
Dozy (the piggy in my avatar) was given a two week course of Baytril - which we didn't continue after the 2 weeks as I felt it reduced quality of life - and palliative care of metacam when needed. He lived approx. 3 months post diagnosis when I decided that quality of life was not what it should be and he was helped over the rainbow bridge. It was aggressive, within 2 weeks of noticing the first set of lumps all of his lymph nodes were swollen, however for a long time he was just lumpy but happy. He had good days, he had bad days.
 
Awww it's such a shame! Was chemo and steriod not an option? I keep frantically feeling the lumps to see if they have reduced but I can't tell. The vet said the swelling should go down by day 4, we are on day 3 currently.
 
I guess they'd need to do a biopsy before they could say whether chemo would be suitable? I don't know.
The vet has just rung me back, its a 3cm x 4cm solid mass that they can tell is very highly vascularised (they have doppler on thier ultrasound) with some large fluid filled 'pockets' around it. So it and the fluid is taking up a large space in his abdominal cavity. It's not encouraging :(
 
Awww @annaa sorry to hear this. Poor baby x I know it is a lot to take in. I straight away requested treatment based on the vets recommendation, if I didn't I would only blame myself for not trying and it being too late
 
Katie1988 said:
Awww it's such a shame! Was chemo and steriod not an option? I keep frantically feeling the lumps to see if they have reduced but I can't tell. The vet said the swelling should go down by day 4, we are on day 3 currently.
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He had terminal cancer, it wasn’t something I was willing to consider.

I hope your little one responds to the treatment.
 
If they'd recommended it we'd have done it, but they aren't. They have said that they will do the op if that's the way we want to go, but they feel it's high risk and if he gets through it the prognosis is like to be poor, given the vascular nature of the mass.
 
Wise words @furryfriends (TEAS). After a lot of deliberating and going around in circles we've decided we won't put him through the operation. We have booked him in tomorrow evening as I think he is in more pain than he looks. He's really unhappy at being picked up and grumbling a lot. I was hoping he would pick up after the metacam, but he hasn't. Not the choice I wanted to have to make, but I'm happy it's the right one :(
 
annaa said:
Wise words @furryfriends (TEAS). After a lot of deliberating and going around in circles we've decided we won't put him through the operation. We have booked him in tomorrow evening as I think he is in more pain than he looks. He's really unhappy at being picked up and grumbling a lot. I was hoping he would pick up after the metacam, but he hasn't. Not the choice I wanted to have to make, but I'm happy it's the right one :(
Click to expand...


((((Hugs)))) it’s such a difficult decision to make, but you know your piggy best.
 
I am so sorry annaa, a cancer diagnosis is an awful shock :( As far as I know Lymphoma would be treated differently to a tumour, the Chemo might help with Lymphoma but it wouldn't help with a mass/tumour. My Ziggy piggy in my pic died in Feb, she had a mass in her chest which caused her to have heart failure, we had her on diuretics & heart meds for 6 months which prolonged her life a bit & made sure she wasn't in pain. She lived life to the full up to the day she passed away naturally at home. Pain relief is key, your vet can prescribe Metacam & Tramodol, a low does twice a day should help him, maybe increase the dose if he looks uncomfortable or has a weight loss. The main thing is to treasure whatever time you have left with him, as every day is a precious memory :)
 
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