Male guinea pig lumps

[benny&spencer]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and new to forum's in general but felt compelled to put my concern out there to see if I could better understand something I've found with one of my guinea pigs.

The pig in question is a male approximately 3yrs old, he is a short haired pig (possibly a standard self but has a white crest on his head) and recently, we have noticed lumps beginning to show. He has one about half the size of a pea on his back (which I suspect is a sebaceous cyst) which I'm not too concerned about but the one that is worrying me is a large lump under his left side rear leg (on his underside). The lump is about the size of a walnut but doesn't appear to have gotten any bigger recently. We took him to the vet but he didn't appear to know what it was...? and said it was really down to us on whether we wanted to pay the £200 fee to operate and get this removed. He did however say that this wouldn't guarantee his other lumps wouldn't grow just as big and also require removal.

Our piglet doesn't seem to be in any pain and is still very mobile but there seems to be nothing on the web about cysts / lumps this size in male guinea's? I've read about Ovarian Cysts but this obviously applies to sows.

Does anyone have any experience of this in a male piglet and if relevant, what happened / what did you do / what was it?

On the one hand, I'm tempted to have it removed by the vet but am obviously concerned about him going under anaesthetic or the wound becoming infected but on the other, I'm tempted to leave him as he appears to be in no discomfort. I really don't know.

Thanks for your advice.

Lee

 

[rw3399]

Hi Lee. This is just a personal opinion but if you think the lump hasn't got any bigger or is not causing your piggie to have pain or mobility problems then I would leave it well alone. It may just be a fatty lump. Hope the link below can help in some way. If you open the link and click on the type of lumps listed on the left hand side there are some pictures which may also help.

http://www.guinealynx.info/lumps.html

 

[sue 1974]

hi i have a male that started with one lump underneath at the side of both front legs. They were only small, my vet also said didn't know what they were but an operation was an option.

I decided against this as he was already castrated and didn't want to put him through a GA twice. Well the lumps did get bigger but only a little, they seemed to have stoppped growing now, he is in no pain and moves fine. He has come up in another 2 lumps similar, so was just as well i didn't get him operated on.

 

[sharonS]

Sounds as if this vet is quick to rip you off or has given you an over priced quote cos he doesn't want the work. I have just had a guinea pig speyed cos she was found to have ovarian cysts and the total bill was only £70. I would see if you could find yourself an exotic vet, who are more knowledgeable with small furries who will probably give you a definate diagnosis as well. Good luck, hope you can get your little fella sorted soon. Sharon.

 

[MrsM]

both my boys had lumps (on back), one had one the size of a marble the other one had one the size of a golf ball. The larger one had to be removed because it ruptured and I was concerned that as we were leaving for the holiday, being left to heal on its own, there was a small chance of flies lying their eggs in the wound... the second one also was removed becuase there was some loss of pigmentation on the skin over the lump and the vet didn't like the ook of it. However, those happened 6-8 months after we had them first checked and the vet siad they could happily live with them provided they didn't change shape, size or texture.
Hope this helps.

 

[benny&spencer]

Hi all,

Thank you very much for taking the time to post replies to this thread. My wife and I have had our two boars since we moved into our first house and they really are a delight (and are extremely pampered...they live indoors with us!) so lumps on the younger one are a real concern for me. We check him on a regular basis but he appears to be none the worse for the larger lump on his underside; he's eating, drinking, moving about and resting just fine so I'm likely going to keep a close eye on things and take it from there.

SharonS - Good advice re. the vet - we've taken our piglet to two vets now - in different areas - and neither seemed to know what the lumps were and both vets gave vastly differing fees for an operation (can't understand why so different for the same procedure?) so may have to consider a specialist vet who deals more with small, furry animals.

Many thanks.

 

[susie_q]

Vets have different prices because they may use different drugs, different techniques, and different mark ups (and different salaries, as even vet nurses can have different levels of qualification)

As for the lumps - one of my boars has a lump on his rear, and my vet decided to have a poke at it with a needle to see what it was. It was a clear liquid so it was a cyst, probably formed due to an ingrowing hair. Maybe suggest this to your vet? (pus would indicate infection/abcess, blood a tumor)

But as most said, if the pig doesn't seem to be in a y pain concerning the lump, and it's not growing at an alarming rate, leave alone!