Piggie 'in Season' For Too Long

[Rosie&Poppy's Mom]

Hi all just a quick one. Ive left a message for my Vet, but hes in surgery so it might be a while until he gets back to us.

One of my femael piggies seems to have been 'in season' for a couple of weeks now. It usually only lasts for a couple of days so we are getting concerned.

She is eating and drinking as normal and has no weight loss or hair loss. Other than the rumblestrutting and trying to mount her sister she is perfectly normal.

Has anyone had any similar experiences?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[piggyfan]

One of the reasons could be ovarian cysts. I suspected a piggy of mine had them as she was forever in season and had her spayed. She calmed down a lot after wards.

 

[sport_billy]

Agree with piggyfan. Increased mounting and dominance can be down to ovarian cysts, we've had 2 piggies with them. They can be diagnosed with an ultrasound or sometimes X-ray. Treatment can be hormone injections, they settled one of our previous girls seasons down, we were really impressed by them and our other piggie we just left them alone and the vet monitored them.

 

[klee]

I would agree with both S_B and piggyfan. It does sound possibly like ovarian cysts, one of my girls had them, although she didn't have any hormonal symptoms just hair loss.
Her cysts were very large so the vet could palpate them, she was treated with chorulon hormone injections which worked a treat and shrunk the cysts right down and her hair loss majorly improved.
Has anything changed with their environment? Sometimes this might cause a dominance debate, I normally find my girls rumble and chase when they are first moved back into their winter cage but they settle down fairly quick.

 

[Rosie&Poppy's Mom]

Thanks for all of your comments. In reading up a bit on various sites we agree that its probably cysts. Hopefully we can do the hormone treatment as Id hate for her to have an operation.

We havent changes much of their set up Klee. We just move around some tunnels and blankets to keep them entertained, but its all things weve been doing for them the last 2 years. Hopefully we can get her sorted when the vet gets back to us tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[klee]

Thanks for all of your comments. In reading up a bit on various sites we agree that its probably cysts. Hopefully we can do the hormone treatment as Id hate for her to have an operation.

We havent changes much of their set up Klee. We just move around some tunnels and blankets to keep them entertained, but its all things weve been doing for them the last 2 years. Hopefully we can get her sorted when the vet gets back to us tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your help!

I would say though, we were warned that hormone injections are not necessarily a cure for cysts although in many cases they do help, because of the nature of the oestrus cycle and hormones in guinea pigs they can reoccur so it may be something that would need several courses over the years.
Some pigs will have one course and then not need another, others may need more courses.

Rosie was diagnosed in May was treated and massively improved, she started to get symptoms again around September.