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Swollen Lymph Glands

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Midge&Panda

Midge&Panda

Adult Guinea Pig
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Midge has had another set of x-rays today and the results were a bit mixed. There are no stones within the bladder which is good but she does have a thickened bladder wall. So we're carrying on with the nutracys, metacam and septrin. The other bit of news was that she has swollen/ inflamed lymph glands. My initial reaction was lymphoma but reading up on it could well be just an infection. The vet said its quite uncommon for it to be lymphoma but because she hasn't had a lot of experience with it she's going to do a bit of research and get back to us. In the meantime Midge is still Midge - very grumbly, being top pig and running the room. She's eating well but we are still topping her up twice a day to maintain her weight. Some information/ advice about swollen glands as well as the condition of her bladder would be good if anybody has any. Many thanks. xx
 
not sure about the glands but maisie has a chronic cystitis at the moment and she has the thickened bladder wall aswell. she's having cerenia and metacam to cover that side of things, and her antibiotic this time is marobcyl. she also has no stones and/or sludge so we're in the same boat as you really, trying to just get it under control and treated effectively. cerenia is an anti-nausea drug used for dogs commonly, but it's been found to be brilliant for piggy bladders now aswell. :)
 
We did biopsy in order to confirm lymphoma.We been told it is either infection or lymphoma.In case of infection as far as I understand some treatment available.In case of lymphoma our precious died over 73 days.
 
Putt had a thickened Bladder wall and long term cystitis she was treated with daily metacam for nearly a year to help with the pain and the inflammation. She would still go through phases of weeks of squeaking when she poo'ed but it did help. She was having Cystease daily too to try and help with the inflammation.
Hoping that the swollen glands is an infection not Lymphoma, Treacle died of Lymohoma last year so we have some experience of it and treatment options. But lets hope Midge's is just an infection. Lots of love to Midge and a hug to you x
 
biscandmatt said:
cerenia is an anti-nausea drug used for dogs commonly, but it's been found to be brilliant for piggy bladders now aswell. :)
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Wow, thanks for that snippet, very interesting will let our vet know she'll be interested in finding out more.
 
Sport billy, thanks for your reply. If you don't mind talking about it- if it turns out to be lymphoma what can we expect. Midge is 6 and apart from the bladder issues she's healthy.
 
Sorry to hear this.
Do you know whereabouts the swollen glands are situated? e.g. Near the bladder, somewhere else such as the neck or are they all swollen?
If she were my piggie I would be discussing with y vet getting A biopsy and microbial culture done as it would diagnose lymphoma and if it is an infection instead then provide an idea of the bug concerned and its sensitivity to antibiotics.

If it is lymphoma, then a course of steroids is often recommended to slow the spread...(that was what my Willow was prescribed) However it can leave a piggie sensitive to other infections. Reference her bladder issues etc - has a urine culture been done at any time? Marbocyl belongs to the same family of antibiotics as baytril - there are an increasing number of bugs that infect guinea pigs that are developing resistance to baytril/marbocyl/septrin ........so other alternative drugs often have to be considered at such as doxycycline, azithromycin....hence why my vet now cultures for any URI/UTI my piggies have before choosing what to prescribe. One of my bladder pigs (Maple) had no stones or kidney issues yet his bleeding was often cause for concern as he bled so much he had to be given Vit K injections. On post-mortem we were expecting to find a tumour but all they found was a thickened inflamed bladder wall where the cells had grown round tiny particles of grit.

I've been doing quite a bit of research into bladder pigs as I have quite a few. For one pig, Carson, we found his !squeaky wee! symptoms were alleviated by a bladder flush and he is still, two years on, doing very well. The protein in his urine is high suggesting his kidneys are involved in some way, and his wee has chalky deposits but i think bladder flushing can in some cases help prevent the build up of grit/sludge that leads to the chronic inflammation. Carson is also on a restricted diet where he gets no leafy veg - just celery, cucuber, carrot and baby corn (and grass and dandelions when in season) as we found every time he ate the fresh green veggies the squeaky wees returned the following day.

HTH
x
 
There were 6 glands felt, neck legs and my daughter thinks she indicated the 'bum' area. The vet is going to phone in a couple of days to discuss Midge further and depending on what she says I might suggest a biopsy. Diet wise she has limited baby leaf, romaine, cabbage, pepper, cucumber occasional carrot and corn. She has been getting regular grass but the painters have just decided to clean their boots and brushes on the garden ( that's a whole different story ) so grass and dandelions are a no-no ate the moment.
 
Midge&Panda said:
Sport billy, thanks for your reply. If you don't mind talking about it- if it turns out to be lymphoma what can we expect. Midge is 6 and apart from the bladder issues she's healthy.
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I don't mind at all. We got lots of support through the forum with it as a few piggies on here have had it.

We found a lump under Treacy's neck and took her to have it checked out, Rosie thought it was Lymphoma due to seeing it before and the other Lymph nodes being inflamed. We opted against a biopsy because Rosie was so sure. She assured us Treacle was in no pain, we went for palliative care with steroids as opposed to go for Chemo (as we couldn't have put her through it) W
We had Treacle for around 6 weeks after diagnosis and apart from her suffering with bloat (unrelated) at one point, she was as happy and active every day right up till the evening we had to have her PTS.
Treacy's thread is here if you want to have a read, we tried to add as much detail on treatments etc... there is no happy ending as you will know but it may help http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/treacle-has-lymphoma.103647/

I hope it doesn't turn out to be like that for Midge. If there is anything we can help with just let me know. x
 
@Pebble spoke at length to me about Treacle and was so helpful x
 
Hi M&P

I'm so sorry - I've only just seen your reply to my earlier posting.

Oh dear - that is a fair spread of lymph nodes that are inflamed so can understand you must be feeling very upset and trepidatious...however it does not rule out that this could be a more widespread (systemic) infection. BUT - it could also indicate leukaemia as an alternative to lymphoma (which is what we think Willow had).

I think you need to have a full and frank discussion with your vet about how important it is for you (both!) to actually have a definitive diagnosis or whether just to make an "educated guess" and treat accordingly.

This is a very upsetting and difficult time for you so I will send the rest of my post by PM.

Most importantly - sending you big hugs and my phone number!

x
 
I am very sorry that you are going through this and I really do hope that Midge just has an infection.

My Ena was diagnosed with lymphoma at just 3 years old :( With her, she had a lump the size of a walnut develop under her armpit which seemed to come from nowhere. I opted to have the lump removed and sadly it turned out to be lymphoma :(

We sadly had to have her pts the day we found out as due to the cancer, the wound in which the tumour was removed just would not heal and when Ena chewed her stitches open, we made the decision to let her go rather than have her restitched just for a few extra weeks with her.

It would seem that she had been living with it for quite a while before any symptoms shown. She barely had any but one thing I do remember is I had her on my stomach not long after we had been given the awful news and her fur had a waxy feel to it and was gritty (she was long haired).

I am afraid I can not offer any advise but just wanted to say that I am thinking of you and keeping everything crossed for an infection xx
 
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