squeakly
Junior Guinea Pig
My last post was about a lump on Toby's underside around a month ago. I took him to see the vet, and she performed a health check. She said Toby was overall in good health apart from his feet, which have a slight case of bumblefoot, and she recommended an F10 cream to put on his feet. She also recommended a switch to fleece liner, as it is softer for his feet, and when i queried the recurring stuffy/creaky breathing he gets, she listened to his airways which she said sounded perfectly fine at the time, and then she asked me what bedding we were using. Turns out we're actually not meant to be using wood shavings, as the dustiness can irritate the airways. As for the lump, she also found a tiny second lump on his lower underside, and she took 2 sample tests of the big lump, and was supposed to take a third for the small lump, however she said it was quite difficult to collect much because of the size of it. She said the cells collected would indicate wether it is a cyst or a malignant tumour. She said the only issue is if it's just fatty tissue detected in the sample, because they can't be certain wether the sample has failed to pick up any other cells, and she said if that is the case the only way of finding anything out by that point would be to operate on it. She said that if it is cancer, that could explain the noisy breathing. The consultation cost me £57, and the sample test £198. We took him back to the vets today as when we got back from our holiday on Monday 22nd September, I discovered his left eye was cloudy and all his fur underneath it was wet. My mum had bathed his eye with water a couple of times before we went to the vets, and it already had started to clear up, but I took advice online that it needs to be seen to as it could be painful and could possibly get infected. The vet put an orange coloured solution in both his eyes, and said they could see the puncture, but said he wouldn't need any treatment as it seems to be healing by itself. The consultation this time cost £54. As for the lump, the test results came back as fatty tissue and they told us it's nothing to worry about. Toby is generally doing fine now, and he seems to be really happy and full of life even though he is currently on his own after we lost George. I didn't want to get him any new friends if his own health was in doubt. About the bedding, I have not yet switched, because I don't really know how it would work in a hutch like his which isn't really suitable for guinea pigs in terms of space and isn't big enough for fleece in my opinion. We have previously gotten by these 5 years with just letting the pair of them have as much free roam time on the garden as possible under supervision. I have told my mum to stop using the wood shavings but she has not yet as the hay can't soak up the urine on its own. There is also an issue my family have about the dirty fleece going in the washing machine. The only question I have is about the test results, should I come away with the answer they gave us today being nothing to worry about even though the vet said before they can't be sure if it's just fatty tissue or not? But feel free to give me additional advice about the other topics I've raised, as it will all be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read all this 
