Trying to heal a cyst...

[Nilesandfrasier]

Hi all,

I've got a piggie (5 year old boar) that was brought to me from a horrible home back in December. He was absolutely covered in massive cysts, some of which had big open wounds from bursting. It was very gruesome... One was as big as a golf ball, poor thing!

So piggie goes straight to vet, who puts him straight on antibiotics and sorts him out... All his cysts are now totally healed, except one on his bum. He couldn't really reach the others to scratch, but this one is in prime position for scratching and biting. He'll go 2 weeks, the would will be 99% healed, and then the little monster will scratch right through all the healed bits and bang, it's an open 1cm round wound again.

We've talked to the vet and he just said to persist, and we have saline solution to clean any scratches and metacam for pain. There's never puss or weeping, it's a clean wound and there's no infection, he just will not leave it alone! This piggie has been through the wars, he's got missing toes, and about 6 healed open wounds, but this one cyst wound is just his target. The vet doesn't want to stitch it because he'll just pull them out, and it's healing naturally really really well until we have another big scratch.

Anyone had anything like this before? He's an old piggie, so I want to avoid the trauma of stitches if I can, and it's always clean and not infected. He lives alone too, so other piggies aren't involved. Any ideas on how I can help him heal?

 

[PigglePuggle]

Talk to the vet about manuka honey to put on the wound, it is very good for shrinking and healing open wounds that can't be stitched but are quite big- it worked wonders on our skinny pig Tallulah after she had a weird allergic reaction to her sutures and ended up with a giant hole in her neck after abscess surgery! Also check your boy has enough pain relief so he will be less inclined to nibble his wound x

 

[Lady Kelly]

What metacam have you been given - dog or cat strength? And at what dosage? They shouldn't need a high dose of it but having some twice a day rather than once for an example might help keep him comfortable while it heals. When my late Donald had an abscess under his chin he had surgery but afterwards opened it up a couple of times and I think it was probably due to itching as it heals. Once he started having the metacam twice a day he interfered with it less often allowing it to heal