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Lump on piggie

Jeniva

Jeniva

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Messages
226
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Location
Hertfordshire, UK
It's been a while since I've been here. I have two sows now, both rescues, mother and daughter. The youngest, Remy, is around 4 yrs old.
I noticed a lump on her a couple of weeks ago. The lump is on her side near to her back leg but slightly under her. It has no wound on it.
I took her to the vets and he put a needle in it to see what it was filled with. A lot of blood came into the needle but that was it. My options were to wait and see, remove it, biopsy it.

I've had quite bad experiences with pigs in ops and I hate how poorly they are from them. Probably doesn't help that I've had a fair few myself and it makes me feel awful.
She's been acting normal, eating normal, pooping and peeing normal.
At first the lump didn't bother her. But now when I'm feeling it she seems to flinch. It's not attached to anything and seems to just be in the skin.

I really don't know what to do.
I'm so reluctant to put her through removing it. I was hoping it was a benign fatty lump but I don't know.
She has no other lumps. I think it's grown since I saw the vet, but I can't be sure. I should have measured it.

Can anyone bounce some advice here and help me out. I want her welfare to come first. I also don't want to put her through hell for no good reason.
My last boar died a few weeks after having a castration...I am not very keen on piggies going under any more. And since that specialist vet failed to tell me he died for 2 days, I refuse to use them for ops. My local vet is more costly and less piggie experienced.
 
Jeniva said:
It's been a while since I've been here. I have two sows now, both rescues, mother and daughter. The youngest, Remy, is around 4 yrs old.
I noticed a lump on her a couple of weeks ago. The lump is on her side near to her back leg but slightly under her. It has no wound on it.
I took her to the vets and he put a needle in it to see what it was filled with. A lot of blood came into the needle but that was it. My options were to wait and see, remove it, biopsy it.

I've had quite bad experiences with pigs in ops and I hate how poorly they are from them. Probably doesn't help that I've had a fair few myself and it makes me feel awful.
She's been acting normal, eating normal, pooping and peeing normal.
At first the lump didn't bother her. But now when I'm feeling it she seems to flinch. It's not attached to anything and seems to just be in the skin.

I really don't know what to do.
I'm so reluctant to put her through removing it. I was hoping it was a benign fatty lump but I don't know.
She has no other lumps. I think it's grown since I saw the vet, but I can't be sure. I should have measured it.

Can anyone bounce some advice here and help me out. I want her welfare to come first. I also don't want to put her through hell for no good reason.
My last boar died a few weeks after having a castration...I am not very keen on piggies going under any more. And since that specialist vet failed to tell me he died for 2 days, I refuse to use them for ops. My local vet is more costly and less piggie experienced.
Click to expand...
It could be an abscess, according to my vet, the puss in a guinea pig abscess is usually too thick to come out in a needle aspiration. I also had a boar die after complications and infection from being neutered (despite two surgeries, syringe feeding, subcutaneous fluids, meds, and lots of love) so I was hesitant to get surgery when my little Anna developed a lump. After surgery, lancing and flushing for two weeks, and antibiotics she is all healed and back to her sweet timid self now. It’s hard to know what to do, especially when you are not sure what you are dealing with with the lump. My vet is very experienced with guinea pigs and was pretty sure from feeling it that it was an abscess. Are there any other guinea pig experts in your area? Piggies are such delicate animals, they do worry us so much!
 
Jeniva said:
It's been a while since I've been here. I have two sows now, both rescues, mother and daughter. The youngest, Remy, is around 4 yrs old.
I noticed a lump on her a couple of weeks ago. The lump is on her side near to her back leg but slightly under her. It has no wound on it.
I took her to the vets and he put a needle in it to see what it was filled with. A lot of blood came into the needle but that was it. My options were to wait and see, remove it, biopsy it.

I've had quite bad experiences with pigs in ops and I hate how poorly they are from them. Probably doesn't help that I've had a fair few myself and it makes me feel awful.
She's been acting normal, eating normal, pooping and peeing normal.
At first the lump didn't bother her. But now when I'm feeling it she seems to flinch. It's not attached to anything and seems to just be in the skin.

I really don't know what to do.
I'm so reluctant to put her through removing it. I was hoping it was a benign fatty lump but I don't know.
She has no other lumps. I think it's grown since I saw the vet, but I can't be sure. I should have measured it.

Can anyone bounce some advice here and help me out. I want her welfare to come first. I also don't want to put her through hell for no good reason.
My last boar died a few weeks after having a castration...I am not very keen on piggies going under any more. And since that specialist vet failed to tell me he died for 2 days, I refuse to use them for ops. My local vet is more costly and less piggie experienced.
Click to expand...

Can you get up the road as far as Northampton to see one the best piggy specialists in this country (including being one of the best operating vets)? They are a general vet clinic that are specialising in cats, rabbits and guinea pigs and see each species about as much, which is a lot more than normal or even exotics vets.
They have just successfully removed a large burst bleeding cyst in a nearly 7 year old sow of mine and see guinea pigs from all over the country for dental problems. It would be good to not leave a blood filled cyst, abscess or tumour for too long in my own experience. Hafren (by now 7 years old) may be oldest, but she is by not the only old or frail piggy of mine that has had a successful operation there - even if I have to go by train!
The Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic
 
I don't think it's an abscess to the honest. I've dealt with one before and the pus did come out when a needle was put in it. This seems to have a large blood supply.
Northampton is an hour and a half drive...

This all can't come at a worse time. Trip away this weekend and I'm meant to be putting down payments on moving house.

Aghhh. I don't know if I should be just monitoring her or get it removed. My local vets are OK but not specialised in pigs. The specialist I usually use is fantastic but the nurses and staff there are horrendous, as I said they failed to inform me of a dead piggie and had to chase the van down to get his body back! It was a nightmare so I refuse to leave any more pets there over night.
 
Jeniva said:
I don't think it's an abscess to the honest. I've dealt with one before and the pus did come out when a needle was put in it. This seems to have a large blood supply.
Northampton is an hour and a half drive...

This all can't come at a worse time. Trip away this weekend and I'm meant to be putting down payments on moving house.

Aghhh. I don't know if I should be just monitoring her or get it removed. My local vets are OK but not specialised in pigs. The specialist I usually use is fantastic but the nurses and staff there are horrendous, as I said they failed to inform me of a dead piggie and had to chase the van down to get his body back! It was a nightmare so I refuse to leave any more pets there over night.
Click to expand...

Northampton is an hour's trip for me, but I make it gladly for the knowledge that my piggies are in safe hands - and so do a number of forum members from your area, too!
@helen105281

Illness and emergencies ALWAYS happen at the worst of times in my long term experience! :(
For instance, Hafren's monitored lump promptly burst on the day after Simon and Kim Maddock had gone on holiday, so I had to see a local vet who panicked when the sebacious cyst suddenly started bleeding quite heavily when she expressed it (it turned out to be one with a fleshy bit inside and a thicker fleshy wall) and started talking about a likely tumour at the bottom of the cyst, so I had a bit of an anxious wait until the Maddocks were back at the Cat&Rabbit again and Hafren could be taken care of.
 
I will likely book her into my local next week for an op to remove it. They're expensive, but they aren't bad and their aftercare is very good for lots of follow up appointments. They're a 2 min walk from my house too. I do have faith they're competent enough. Unfortunately they are very expensive though. I used them for my hedgehog as well so they're used to my exotics.
I hope it's nothing too serious. She's her usual happy self still so at least she is not in discomfort at the moment. I'll pop into them after work today and see if I can book her in Tues for an op. I'm off work all Tues so I can be around for her aftercare.
 
It could still be an abscess. I have had a case where a lump was aspirated and drew nothing but blood, a week later it was operated on and was full of puss.
 
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