Open Infected Wound On Chin

[Specialbeast]

Hi. 2 of my boys (Burt and Horris) had a massive fall out on Friday. They both drew blood. Fortunately I was home and came back into the living room after putting a wash on to find them rolling round in a ball trying to rip chunks out of each other. I dread to think what would've happened if I hadn't been there to separate them within minutes of the fight starting.

All but one of the wounds appear to be healing well. Unfortunately, despite me trying to keep them all clean, one of Horris' wounds has become infected. He has a hole under his chin which smells bad. There is no swelling and no puss comes out when I press around the area however I did remove a scab with white gunk attached.

I will be taking him to the vet in the morning but I wondered if anyone has any ideas about how I can keep it clean tonight? I have flushed it out with salt water. I am concerned that because of where it is, he will rest his head on poo/wee tonight and the infection will become worse.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Pebble]

You have done all the right things by washing out with saline etc.....most important now is to get him to the vets tomorrow for antibiotics and a thorough appraisal of the wound
Weigh him daily to monitor his weight and make sure he eats proiperly otherwise you may have to syringe feed.
Vet should also be asked to prescr4ibe pain relief (ie metacam) as well as abx
x

 

[Wiebke]

Hi. 2 of my boys (Burt and Horris) had a massive fall out on Friday. They both drew blood. Fortunately I was home and came back into the living room after putting a wash on to find them rolling round in a ball trying to rip chunks out of each other. I dread to think what would've happened if I hadn't been there to separate them within minutes of the fight starting.

All but one of the wounds appear to be healing well. Unfortunately, despite me trying to keep them all clean, one of Horris' wounds has become infected. He has a hole under his chin which smells bad. There is no swelling and no puss comes out when I press around the area however I did remove a scab with white gunk attached.

I will be taking him to the vet in the morning but I wondered if anyone has any ideas about how I can keep it clean tonight? I have flushed it out with salt water. I am concerned that because of where it is, he will rest his head on poo/wee tonight and the infection will become worse.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am very sorry for your fall-out! it must have come as a real shock for you!

You have done all the right things. It looks like the beginnings of an abscess and what Horris needs most is a strong antibiotic. We recommend zithromax as the most effective one, but you have to see whether your vet is prepared to prescribe it. The alternative would be a burst cyst of some sort, but that is for a vet to decide. It is good that you are having him seen tomorrow.

The trick when treating abscesses is that you need to work the scab off at least once or twice daily, keep flushing the abscess with a suitable disinfectant and to keep the wound open for as long as possible to make sure that any abscess can heal from the inside out. Any infectious bit of pus left inside can trigger a remaining pouch to refill and you are back to square one. It is unfortunately not at all pleasant, neither for you nor for Horris.
My Bedo has still not quite forgiven me for manhandling him after he managed to invade Maelog's cage and had a fight with him, which ended up with several bites on both boys. Thankfully, I caught the abscess as soon as it was blowing up and it healed off nicely on a week's worth of zithromax without any complications.

Please make sure that you monitor the weight and appetite. Antibiotics are often appetite dampeners or even killers. Give one pinch of probiotics 1-2 hours after the antibiotic to help boost the guts.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-hand-feeding-guide.115359/ (contains information on probiotics, too).

 

[Specialbeast]

Thanks guys. I'll monitor his weight and appetite as you suggest. I can safely say it hasn't affected his appetite so far. I've just given him a bowl of peppers and celery and he was climbing on my hand and removing a slice of pepper before I'd got the bowl down on the cage floor.

It has come as a bit of a shock to see them fight to be honest. They've lived together for over 2 years and although Horris would occasionally chatter his teeth and jutt his head towards Burt, they've never fought before. Maybe Burt has finally had enough of being bossed about.

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks guys. I'll monitor his weight and appetite as you suggest. I can safely say it hasn't affected his appetite so far. I've just given him a bowl of peppers and celery and he was climbing on my hand and removing a slice of pepper before I'd got the bowl down on the cage floor.

It has come as a bit of a shock to see them fight to be honest. They've lived together for over 2 years and although Horris would occasionally chatter his teeth and jutt his head towards Burt, they've never fought before. Maybe Burt has finally had enough of being bossed about.

Spring is often a difficult time for boars. Fall-outs amongst bonded adults are actually pretty rare, but they can happen. Sometimes, a blow-up can escalate within minutes if the wrong signals are exchanged. It is very gutting when it does. Sadly, they won't go back together after a fight like that.

 

[Specialbeast]

I would never trust leaving them alone together again anyway, I'd be a constant nervous wreck.

My other 3 boars (Punk, Vader and Clops) lived together until last May when Punk decided to take a chunk out of Vader's back. I tried and tried to reintroduce them and although Vader seemed ok, Punk was having none of it. Vader now lives alone and it looks like I'll have another 2 loner pigs now too. Never mind, it's a good job I like to sit and watch TV whilst giving cuddles every night as I guess I'll be doing it for a lot more hours now!

 

[Specialbeast]

Yesterday I forgot that today is bank holiday Monday. The vets isn't open so it will have to be tomorrow that I take Horris. I worked the scab off and cleaned the wound again this morning and I'll do it again later. He still seems fine in himself, eating, exploring etc.

Sorry for this gruesome picture but I just want to show what I'm dealing with to see if it helps with any advice. I have just used salt water again today but I wondered if anybody has every used an over the counter antiseptic, maybe bepanthen or something. I really want to do all I can for him today.

 

[Wiebke]

You are doing what you can; the rest needs to be done by an antibiotic. it looks very much like two infected bites, poor boy!

 

[Specialbeast]

I assume it's where the upper and lower teeth went punctured the flesh. To be honest, the bottom wound wasn't yellow or smelly but I worked the scab off and cleaned it out too, just in case. I just feel so useless. I will say that the top one looks a lot less gunky and was less smelly than yesterday. I hope that's a good sign.

 

[Wiebke]

I assume it's where the upper and lower teeth went punctured the flesh. To be honest, the bottom wound wasn't yellow or smelly but I worked the scab off and cleaned it out too, just in case. I just feel so useless. I will say that the top one looks a lot less gunky and was less smelly than yesterday. I hope that's a good sign.

I hope that it is a good sign, too. It looks very nasty, but you are doing all the right things and have hopefully caught it before an abscess could really take off and blow up very quickly.

 

[Flutterby]

Sending healing vibes. Poor little guy x

 

[Pebble]

Oh dear - That is an extremely deep and nasty bite wound in a very significant place - and yes shows that both Burt's upper and lower incisors penetrated Horace almost to bone depth either side of his lower jaw.
It also looks from the photo that his lower jaw may be slightly off-centre (i.e. the top incisors are not aligned properly to wear against the bottom incisors) which, once the tissue underneath swells a bit more, could affect his eating and dentition.

Well done on your quick response to limit infection by keeping the wound open and flushed. Obviously he needs to see a vet tomorrow to get some strong antibiotics and the area needs to be examined thoroughly to see if there is any underlying damage to the jaw bone/jaw alignment/jaw muscles that could effect his dentition in the future.

I'm tagging @furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary as she has a lot of experience in this type of situation where abcesses and dentition are involved.

I hope the wound will heal without complications - but urge you to continue to be vigilant given the location of the bite.
x

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Well done for dealing with these wounds so well. They do look very deep and you have clearly stopped them becoming majorly infected. My concern is mainly the location of the wounds and the fact that they could cause a dental problem, as even just a small amount of swelling can mean the jaw deviates out of alignment. How guinea pig savvy is your vet? I am just very anxious that your piggy gets the correct treatment, as you could potentially be dealing with more than one problem here. It is difficult to tell from the photo, but the teeth do look slightly out of alignment already. Please can you have a look at the incisors and see if they align with one another, and let us know what you see?

 

[Anya]

If you have Cutimed gel at home you should apply this on the wound as this will prevent the dirt get inside and keep the wound clean. Looks nasty but your pig will be fine. Just go to the vet for antibiotics. I had similar situation few months ago and now I have 5 pigs in separate cages.
Good luck at the vet

 

[Specialbeast]

I just managed to take this pic as I held a piece of lettuce up for him. His teeth look normal. I think they looked misaligned on the other picture because he wasn't exactly keeping still whilst I was cleaning the wound.

 

[Pebble]

Hi Anya
Just to make you aware as a new poster......
This forum does not promote or endorse self- medication of pets. It is illegal in the UK for anything other than an extreme emergency.situation.

Suggestions of products for owners to discuss with their vets are always welcome.

We will however "police" posts that advise/stipulate home treatment without
a) any substantiated evidence of the poster's veterinary qualifications and
b) scientific proof of the treatment's effectiveness in dealing with similar cavy issues.

Hope you understand
x

 

[Pebble]

Aww bless - Horace's lower incisors are nicely straight-edged. However his upper incisors are not occluding properly with his lower and have the "w" shape to them.
Ordinarily this probably would not be a problem.

However in our experience, many male piggies that develop dental problems have done so as a result of a (long-healed) jaw wound as a result of boars clashing and currently your Horace is a prime example of both the short-term (and also possible long-term) damage boars can do to each other.
Hope you don;t mind - we are not trying to scare you - merely contirbuting our personal knowledge and experience to enable you to ensure your boy gets the best possible care.
x

 

[Specialbeast]

I don't mind at all. I don't want to miss anything so the more things that I learn about that I can discuss with the vet tomorrow, the better.

As for the how pig savvy my local vet is...I can't say for sure. I've only used him once when Clops had to be operated on to have an abscess removed (an abscess he had when I got him). I'll take Horris tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

[Pebble]

We are aware there may be a piggy savvy vets in Liverpool but haven't tracked them down yet.
Otherwise we can suggest Aidan Rafferty at Ashleigh vets in Stockport Manchester

http://ashleigh-veterinary-centre.com/about-us/

221 Upper Chorlton Road
Manchester
M16 0DE
x

 

[Anya]

Pebble thx I understood I had the same problem and this what vet advise me to do before I can bring my pig.