• 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

Lymphoma Diagnosis

Status
Not open for further replies.
VirgoViolets

VirgoViolets

New Born Pup
Joined
Jun 24, 2015
Messages
7
Reaction score
2
Points
55
I've just had the heart-breaking news that my 4 year old pig Peanut has lymphoma - diagnosed after a fine needle aspiration of several lumps Peanut had. The smaller ones turned out to be just fatty lumps, but the larger one under his chin and one to side on his chest have tested positive for lymphoma.

Peanut is showing no signs of being or feeling unwell, and he has had the lumps for at least a month at this point. I am meeting the vet tomorrow to discuss what, if any, treatment options there are. Does anyone know what possible treatments there are for lymphoma, what any side effects would be, how effective they are, and what the prognosis is? Just so I can go to the vets with as much information as I can.

I can't face putting him through anything whilst he's still perfectly happy and healthy, and not being affected by the lymphoma - but if he was to have treatment, would he stand a better chance if we started before he starts showing signs of illness?

I'm so confused and just shocked by this diagnosis :no: He's such a character and I'm dreading seeing him become a shadow of himself as the illness I guess will inevitably take control....
 
I'm really sorry. I am not 100% sure so others may have more experience but I think they can be operated on, however, there is a risk that once opened up it can make things spread. Otherwise it is palative care and keeping him comfortable with pain relief (or steroids) until the time comes to make a decision. It is a good sign he is not in pain though.
 
So sorry to read this - I have had experience of Lymphoma with one of our girls Treacle.

Give me a few minutes and I will try and write a detailed reply
 
The prognosis with Lymphoma as you can probably guess is not good.

We noticed Treacle had lost weight and found a lump under her chin. Upon closely inspection at the vets our vet showed us several other lumps around lymph nodes on piggies legs etc... Rosie was certain it was Lymphoma and told us the treatment options. We could slow the progress down with steroids or try Chemo. There is no way we could put an animal through Chemotherapy so we choose to try and give Treacle a little longer with us by steroid injections.
Rosie assured us that the Lymphoma Treacle had was causing her no pain and up until the night she passed away she was a very happy content piggy (apart from the few episodes of bloat) From diagnosis till Treacy passed was around 1 month, but her lumps where quite big.

I would certainly recommend steroid treatment via injections think Treacy had two shots. Sides effects are they lower immune system but we had no issues with infections from what I recall.
Appetite is higher as well, we feed her extra each day :) It was a very bitter sweet time as Treacy got used to coming out for extra feed and would sit on my chest eating hay when I lay on the floor with her

She was a piggy with bladder issues so we had to switch form Metacam to control this to an opiate painkiller and give a gut stim alongside it - Emeprid

Here is a link to Treacle's thread, I kept it updated with her progress.... Treacle has Lymphoma as you can guess it doesn't end happily. But I wouldn't have changed a thing with her treatment wise.

I am so sorry again and if you need to chat or I can help in anyway please just drop me a pm etc...

Lee
 
Thread active again..
 
Hi everyone, sought advice from another vets & this is what they said....

Lymphoma is very responsive to steroids and chemotherapy and with treatment can prolong her life. However you have to be careful as guinea pig are very sensitive to the effects of steroids. Chemotherapy is well tolerated but again can have some side effects. Steroids alone can control the lymphoma for about 3-6 months, with chemotherapy you can control the lymphoma for 6months-12 months or longer.

In the last 10 years, I have treated 3 guinea pigs for lymphoma. Unfortunately all of them did not respond to treatment but they were all very ill when we started the treatment. Your guinea pig is still healthy and I suspect would tolerate the treatment better.

The protocols I would use is combination of cytarabine injection with leukeran (chlorambucil) tablets and steroid tablets. Can you give oral medication to your guinea pig. Unfortunately the tablets can not be crushed and would need to be given whole. Treatment cost would be around £60-80 a month.

Now my thoughts are a.) that sounds like a huge amount of different tablets & injections? b.) that no one else had ever mentioned any of these treatments & c.) expecting a guinea pig to swallow tablets whole!? How is that even possible?

I'm even more confused as to what to do now, especially as my current vet still has got in touch with her suggestions as she needed to seek "more expert help"....
 
Personally I couldn't put an animal through Chemo... Seeing what it does to humans, I wouldn't willingly let an animal suffer it. But that is my personal decision

We just used single steroid injections so many weeks apart no Chemo.

I think you have to weigh everything up. I know it is hard, We came to the decision that there was no definite we could save Treacle and decided to opt for palliative care knowing she may have a few months pain free and happy. I couldn't have put her through something that made her last month miserable only to lose her - but that was our decision..

@Abi_nurse @furryfriends (TEAS) @helen105281 @Elwickcavies Amy ideas advice?
 
Last edited:
Just because we can, doesn't always mean we should! I personally would not be going the chemotherapy route with a guinea pig. In my work with cats, I have administered chemotherapy drugs, and cats do seem to cope better than the smaller pets, although they have needed further medication to help overcome the side effects of the chemo.

Maintaining good quality life over quantity of life is always paramount. A friend had a piggy who was diagnosed with lymphoma, and her piggy continued to live good quality life for a very long time.
 
I definitely don't want to go down the chemotherapy route. I was just hoping to find a vet that would be willing & able to give the prodnisone steroid injections as a treatment, but it seems like I'm not going to be able! I don't know where to try next...
 
VirgoViolets said:
I definitely don't want to go down the chemotherapy route. I was just hoping to find a vet that would be willing & able to give the prodnisone steroid injections as a treatment, but it seems like I'm not going to be able! I don't know where to try next...
Click to expand...

:( I am sorry, this is making a painful situation worse.

Have you tried the vet I sent you a link to?

Would the one you spoke to not be willing to just give steroids?
 
I am not sure Simon would go the steroid route when dealing with lymphoma either. I think it is because it affects the immune system, so making them much more likely to succumb to something else. When I see him next week I will ask him for his thoughts.

My friends piggy, the one I mentioned had a lot of good quality life after diagnosis, wasn't given steroids either, as she was treated by Simon.
 
Yes, the vet you mentioned emailed me with this reply...

I have never seen lymphoma in a GP in 30 years there are other problems that can cause swollen glands. If it is lymphoma steroids in cats and dogs buy you on average 4 weeks. Steroids are much more immunosuppressive in GPs than in dogs and cats and I am not sure the short term benefit outways the risk.

If it is lymphoma you could try contacting the Cambridge Cavy Trust they have a wealth of experience with anything GP related.

So I have now also contacted the CCT to see if they can help at all. If they can I will become a member so I can get an appointment there. My current vet said she'd be in contact today after looking into treatments & consulting those with more knowledge, but still not heard anything....
 
It sounded like the vet who suggested the variety of treatments would give the steroids in whole tablet form that need to be swallowed, which sounds completely ridiculous!
 
The thought of giving tablets whole to a guinea pig sounds odd... I give Angus his cystease capsules whole and he just crunches them up but that's pretty unusual and tablet tend to taste pretty vile so you'd probably have a hard time convincing them to do it...

I hope you get something sorted out, it all sounds like you are getting very mixed messages. You probably also need to decide before you get started on any treatment, what you will and won't do, before you have to make the hard decisions. It sounds awful but like @furryfriends (TEAS) says, it's often more about quality of life than quantity and just because a treatment is available doesn't mean it is the fair and right thing to do. If you decide what you want now then you can be strong in your decisions when things get hard and emotional.

Huge hugs, it's a rotten situation to be in and I really hope you find the right road for you and your special girl.... x
 
Sadly lymphoma is seen and referenced in Guinea pigs. The treatments available are all unfortunately very much on a trial bases as there is little research into treatment for it in Guinea pigs.

I would personally steer clear of steroids most of the time unless you are considering it as a last option, but often steroids will exsaserbate any underlying illness (especially respiratory issues) and will often do much more harm than good.

Veterinary chemo is much more different to the human type. We tend to use much lower dosages of things as pets don't understand why they feel so unwell post treatment and it's all about maintiaining the pets quality of life not just hitting them hard with chemo drugs. Any chemo would be on a trial bases and would not necessarily show results. It's a matter of opinion in this area to be honest.

Sorry I cannot add much more.

x

PS. We often give tablets to Guinea pig/rabbits etc, they can be crushed into water or can actually be given whole sometimes.
 
I have to say, after giving lots of thought to this over the past hour or so, if this was my guinea pig, and he/she had a good quality of life right now, then I wouldn't be opting for any treatment. I would rather they had a slightly shorter, but good quality life, than to try and buy a bit of extra time with the side effects this could bring. This is just my personal opinion and it doesn't mean any other way is wrong.
 
I used prednisone in tablet form when my Pebbles had Lymphoma. I just dissolved and syringed the drug to her. She responded very well to treatment, she was happy and healthy right up to her passing.

She lived for 6 weeks after diagnosis, would she have lived this long without steroids that's anyone's guess.

I didn't notice any I'll effects throughout her illness, she remained bright as a button.
 
She slowed down one night, I noticed she wasn't eating as quickly and by morning she was gone. It was very quick.

The vet did warn Steroids would lower the immune system.

The prednisone had to be ordered in specially. The drug it's self was around £80 for the tablets. I gave it daily to Pebbles, this worked well for us as meant we didn't have to visit the vet for injections.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top