• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Lump Behind Guinea Pig's Eye

Status
Not open for further replies.
Rainymango

Rainymango

New Born Pup
Joined
Jun 9, 2014
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
55
Yesterday as I was checking up on my guinea pigs in the morning, I noticed my smaller guinea pig, Mocha, had a lump behind her eyes that was not there the night before (or perhaps was not large enough before for me to notice?). I'm a new guinea pig owner, I got my older one just about two weeks ago and Mocha about 11 days ago.

UwonIb6.jpg


It extends from the back of her eye to where my finger is. You can kind of see some of her fur is not flat, but curving around the lump. It doesn't seem like it bothers her though. Visiting a vet quite expensive for me so I need to know if it's absolutely necessary. I'm so worried about her :x
 
Lumps should be checked by a vet... I would wonder if it is an abscess related to a tooth root. I've had pigs with abscesses on the jawline that became obvious with a swelling on the upper jawline, behind the eye and adjacent to the ear.
 
I was thinking tooth root abcess too.

Please can you confirm your location so that we can try to help. If it is a tooth root abcess it will be necessary to see a vet experienced with dental issues.
 
It does appear to be where Freela said it is.

yDBIGnw.png


Here's an image where I circled where the bump is. The earliest I can get to a vet is Tuesday, would that be a major issue? :x

I'm not from the UK, but I couldn't find a forum for Canada.
 
Freela is from Canada I think so may be able to help with vet locations?
 
What part of Canada are you in? I'm in Ontario, east of Toronto, and can recommend a good exotics vet in that area if you are anywhere near me.
 
Canada eh? I've got relatives in Vancouver. ;)
 
Rainymango said:
It does appear to be where Freela said it is.

https://i.imgur.com/yDBIGnw.png

Here's an image where I circled where the bump is. The earliest I can get to a vet is Tuesday, would that be a major issue? :x

I'm not from the UK, but I couldn't find a forum for Canada.
Click to expand...

How is her food intake? Is she eating and drinking? Is she losing weight? Weigh her daily to make sure she is maintaining. If there is weight loss, you may need to syringe-feed her either a critical care food or usual pellets mixed with water and made into a paste. One of the problems with tooth root abscesses is that they are painful and some pigs will stop eating or slow down eating enough that it impacts their health. She is fighting an infection, you don't want her to be deconditioned by lack of food going into this process.

My experience based on dental abscesses with two of my pigs: Make sure your vet has experience with guinea pigs and knows what to prescribe. It's a serious but treatable problem, but an experienced vet and aggressive treatment can mean the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome. The vet will most likely lance and drain the abscess and prescribe an antibiotic (Zithromax is supposed to be the best, but doesn't seem to be in common use in Canada for pigs. My vet prescribes chloramphenicol, which I've had good results with treating Sundae's abscess. A lot of vets just want to give Baytril, but although it's good for some ailments, it's not that great for abscesses.) The wound will be left open to continue draining. It's not a quick fix and will continue draining pus, so you will need to express the pus that forms and irrigate the wound. This can take a while, because the wound needs to heal from the inside out. It can take months (Sundae had her abscess op in late October and I was still cleaning and irrigating the wound in the spring! At this point, she still has an indentation where the abscess was, but it is no longer draining anything and doesn't need any care, though I still wipe it down and inspect it every few days. Unfortunately, there isn't really a quick fix other than meticulous cleaning/draining while it heals. During that time, make sure the piggy is eating and maintaining weight. It may still be sore to eat, so you may need to supplement until the piggy can eat on her own again.

Hope this helps a bit... it's great you've found the forum here, you will get great info from everyone here!
 
Freela said:
How is her food intake? Is she eating and drinking? Is she losing weight? Weigh her daily to make sure she is maintaining. If there is weight loss, you may need to syringe-feed her either a critical care food or usual pellets mixed with water and made into a paste. One of the problems with tooth root abscesses is that they are painful and some pigs will stop eating or slow down eating enough that it impacts their health. She is fighting an infection, you don't want her to be deconditioned by lack of food going into this process.

My experience based on dental abscesses with two of my pigs: Make sure your vet has experience with guinea pigs and knows what to prescribe. It's a serious but treatable problem, but an experienced vet and aggressive treatment can mean the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome. The vet will most likely lance and drain the abscess and prescribe an antibiotic (Zithromax is supposed to be the best, but doesn't seem to be in common use in Canada for pigs. My vet prescribes chloramphenicol, which I've had good results with treating Sundae's abscess. A lot of vets just want to give Baytril, but although it's good for some ailments, it's not that great for abscesses.) The wound will be left open to continue draining. It's not a quick fix and will continue draining pus, so you will need to express the pus that forms and irrigate the wound. This can take a while, because the wound needs to heal from the inside out. It can take months (Sundae had her abscess op in late October and I was still cleaning and irrigating the wound in the spring! At this point, she still has an indentation where the abscess was, but it is no longer draining anything and doesn't need any care, though I still wipe it down and inspect it every few days. Unfortunately, there isn't really a quick fix other than meticulous cleaning/draining while it heals. During that time, make sure the piggy is eating and maintaining weight. It may still be sore to eat, so you may need to supplement until the piggy can eat on her own again.

Hope this helps a bit... it's great you've found the forum here, you will get great info from everyone here!
Click to expand...

I only got my guinea pig a while ago and she never ate that much to begin with. I haven't really noticed a difference in how much she eats. I'll weigh her to make sure she's not losing weight.

I've got a vet appointment but the earliest I could get was Thursday. I looked around online and decided on the Vancouver Vet Hospital. I called them and asked if their vets have guinea pig experience and they say that some of their vets do. Thanks for the advice, I'll keep you guys updated!
 
I take it from the location of the vet hospital - you live in Vancouver?
 
My Uncle and his family emigrated to Vancouver in 1973. He was a bridge engineer before he retired. ;)
 
I took Mocha to the vet today. She says it's likely an abscess but could not confirm it 100% because there was quite a bit of food in Mocha's mouth and it's close to Mocha's eye so she was worried about poking around it. She gave me these little tablets that I should crush and mix in with fruit juice, and feed with a syringe (that she provided) as well as these other syringes that I should also feed once a day.

The thing is, the syringes she gave should be fed while Mocha has eaten while the tablets should be fed while Mocha is on an empty stomach. Do you know how exactly do I get Mocha to have an empty stomach? She kinda just eats when she wants/needs/pleases... I don't want to starve her.
 
Any clue what's in the syringes? Are they antibiotics? Pain meds? Abscesses usually need some sort of treatment above and beyond oral meds. They lack an enzyme that makes pus watery and easy to reabsorb- oral antibiotics often won't do enough to move all that thick pus out.

As far as empty stomachs go, guinea pigs are generally kind of opportunistic grazers. You would have to take the food out for a portion of the day, but that's not always the best solution for pigs. Maybe take food out overnight and give meds first thing in the morning?
 
I am a bit concerned about the whole empty stomach issue as a pig should always be eating and so should never have an empty stomach and I would not be happy about taking away food.

As Freela has said, do you know what the tablets are and is she on any pain meds? Zithromax is usually the best antibiotic for abcesses. Am tagging @furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary who has experience with abcesses. It may even be an idea for your vet to speak to Simon Maddock (vet in Northampton who treats lots of abcesses) if the time difference allows.
 
The syringe's rx is: Metacam oral susp per ml and the instructions are "Give contents of one entire syringe by mouth every 24 hours until finished. Give with food."
The tablet's rx is: Baytril 15mg Tabs and the instructions are "Give 1/3 tablet by mouth every 24 hours until finished. Give on an empty stomach. Crush tablet and mix with fruit juice."

The vet says to make another appointment in a week to see how she's doing.
 
Ok, thank you, there is not usually a need to give Baytril on an empty stomach, but you will need to give probiotics at least an hour after each dose. The Metacam is pain relief.

I have just thought that if your vet cannot speak to Simon in the UK he could talk to Freela's vet. Unfortunately Baytril may not be effective enough but it is often the antibiotic that vets start with.
 
Do you know what kind of "fruit juice" I should be mixing it with?
 
Even with the very best antibiotic for abscesses, and unfortunately Baytril really isn't a good one, you would still need to have the abscess lanced and drained. We deal with a lot of abscesses here at the sanctuary and have found that Zithromax (azithromycin) is the very best and we have had fantastic results in most cases. If your vet wanted to get in touch with our vet here in the UK I can provide an email address if that would make it easier, due to time differences.
 
I've given Baytril for UTIs without ever having a need to give it on an empty stomach. I am wondering if that is the instructions for dogs or cats that has simply been passed onto guinea pigs even though it doesn't necessarily apply to them. I wouldn't worry about the empty stomach, although a probiotic might be a good idea. Some pigs do get stomach upset/diarrhea from Baytril, but it seems to depend on the pig (one of mine got diarrhea from it, but two of them were okay.)

I am pretty dubious that Baytril orally will do anything to clear an abscess, and based on past experience would be reluctant to go forward with surgery without being on a much stronger antibiotic. But in the meantime while you wait and see, make sure she is still eating and maintaining her weight. Abscesses can hurt and make pigs go off their food? How is she in terms of behaviour? We could tell Sundae was uncomfortable- she would hide a lot and fluff out her fur and generally give signs of being uncomfortable, besides not eating.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top