Senior sow sudden changes downstairs

[GuineaDobbin]

Hi folks, I've been away for work a few days and come home to ine of our senior sow presenting a bit differently to how I left her.

Rachel came to us at the end of last year for palliative care in her last days. She is still going strong and even gained a little weight once we got her loxicoom dose dialled in!

When I picked her up just now, herr ripples were noticeably enlarged and had a crusty spot on each facing inwards. Her genitals were also swollen, but a normal colour. She doesn't seem to be in discomfort, except when I was checking her nipples.

This has shown up in three days, which is quite rapid for the size of change! Any ideas on causes?

 

[Truffolo]

Brave Rachel, I hope it is something that can be treated. Bumping and sending wishes for healing

 

[Wiebke]

Hi folks, I've been away for work a few days and come home to ine of our senior sow presenting a bit differently to how I left her.

Rachel came to us at the end of last year for palliative care in her last days. She is still going strong and even gained a little weight once we got her loxicoom dose dialled in!

When I picked her up just now, herr ripples were noticeably enlarged and had a crusty spot on each facing inwards. Her genitals were also swollen, but a normal colour. She doesn't seem to be in discomfort, except when I was checking her nipples.

This has shown up in three days, which is quite rapid for the size of change! Any ideas on causes?

Hi

Please have her seen by a vet as soon as possible, in case she has pyometra, a potentially fatal infection of the womb lining which can spread through the whole reproductive tract.

I am very sorry. Your description is ringing some alarm bells with me because I lost my Heini that way. It can suddenly take off and spread very quickly through the reproductive tract.

 

[weepweeps]

Good luck Rachel

 

[GuineaDobbin]

Oh my, thank you for the warning! She seems fine in herself, just one weird poo the other day. Will get her to our vet asap

 

[GuineaDobbin]

Vet has scanned her, and looked her over. A new practitioner to us but as she is under a very cavy-savvy vet I think she can probably be trusted.

Vet thinks ovarian cyst, no signs of pyometra. She did a scan and said the womb is looking fine but her left ovary has a large fluid filled lump, probably cyst.

She said we can try an implant, apparently the exotic vets here use them quite regularly though there is not much research on them in guinea pigs

She says for now same dose Anti inflammatory 2x a day for 3-5 days depending on how she is.

Implantation cost £25.63
Small implant £129.94

Has anyone had experience of this treatment for cysts? It seems very new, we have had injections before and hysterectomy operations, but the former never worked (3/3) and she is a bit elderly for the operation.

ETA Our very cavy-savvy vet is using them now.

 

[Truffolo]

This is very interesting. If you start a dedicated thread there might be more responses. It's a very informative discussion on something that might be new to many people, thank you for sharing it with us

 

[Eriathwen]

I have used the implants but not for cysts (I assume they're offering suprelorin), personally I used them to balance the hormones of a spayed intersex piggy.

However I had an almost 9 year old piggy who developed quite strong behavioural changes due to ovarian cysts that we considered using the implant with as she wasn't a candidate for surgery at all, due to multiple other health issues. My vet reached out to the exotics specialist we use who advised that it would likely make the cysts worse, so we didn't go with it.

The 2 options are, hormonal cysts that may be made worse, or non hormonal fluid filled cysts that won't react to the hormone implant, which is why ive not used them in replacement for surgery since. If your piggy is acting completely normal in every other way, you might be looking at non hormonal ones.
The exotics specialist has written books and teaches other veterinarians so I trusted her judgement even if it was a frustrating answer as the implant would have solved an awful lot of issues had it been worth trying, but we couldn't risk making her worse.

 

[Wiebke]

Vet has scanned her, and looked her over. A new practitioner to us but as she is under a very cavy-savvy vet I think she can probably be trusted.

Vet thinks ovarian cyst, no signs of pyometra. She did a scan and said the womb is looking fine but her left ovary has a large fluid filled lump, probably cyst.

She said we can try an implant, apparently the exotic vets here use them quite regularly though there is not much research on them in guinea pigs

She says for now same dose Anti inflammatory 2x a day for 3-5 days depending on how she is.

Implantation cost £25.63
Small implant £129.94

Has anyone had experience of this treatment for cysts? It seems very new, we have had injections before and hysterectomy operations, but the former never worked (3/3) and she is a bit elderly for the operation.

ETA Our very cavy-savvy vet is using them now.

I am glad that it is not pyometra; swollen genitals are often the first sign. Pyometra is much rarer in well kept piggies but it can happen and it is fatal once too far developed, hence my first post.

The hormone implant method has been used in the USA for quite a number of years now in preference to injections, which were the rpeferred UK method but since success has been somewhat haphazard with the hormone injections (as you report yourself) they seem to have gone out of use again.

The problem with ovarian cysts is that not all cysts are hormone based. In old age, large fluid filled non-hormonal cysts (i.e. 'silent' non-symptomatic cysts) become more common although hormonal cysts can happen later in life.
A few cysts can turn cancerous; these often turn out to be connected with bleeding but I think we have at least one feedback where hormone treatment of some sort managed to stabilise ones of those cysts.

What I cannot comment on is the success rate of implants compared to hormone injections as we don't have the full picture (we've seen too few cases for them to show any trends) but we have had some positive feedback mainly via US members. Perhaps you may want to use the search option on our extended top bar for 'implant' or 'implants' to get a bit more of an idea yourself. Keep in mind that feedback from more recent years reflects the current stand better.

 

[GuineaDobbin]

Thanks for the feedback folks, much appreciated!

I wasn't personally at the appointment, but will book in with our top Cavy-man to discuss options and get details and figures.

She seems fine in herself and I'll inspect her regularly until we can book that in.