LucyP
Forum Donator 2024/25
Hi all
Finding myself in a difficult situation with our lovely Betty. She is our 3-3.5 year old sow, who came from a hoarding rescue operation in the north west of England in 2019, where I was told dozens of pigs from one home were dispersed to rescue centres across the country for rehoming (some people on here I think may remember that?). We adopted her and her best friend Winnie in Oct 2019. They arrived ragged (bite marks in their ears etc) and nervous. Despite that they settled well and they now popcorn, squeak and chut chut chut their way around all day, and seem to be very happy piggies.
In her first 12-18 months with us Betty had numerous issues: fungal infections, URI and UTIs but thankfully all were eventually resolved with good vet care. The fungal issues were more stubborn in Betty than in Winnie. Betty can be a bit grunty/honky after she's eaten (she inhales her food at lightening pace) but that clears up once she's cleared her throat. She has a very healthy appetite and is just under 1.3kg.
After a rocky start, in the last year she's only needed the vets for haypoke and her routine check ups, and all has been good. However, we recently noticed she has two lumps, one under her left nipple, enough to make the nipple protrude, and the a smaller one near but not under her right nipple. They do not appear to be growing, I think they are smooth edged, there are no signs of infection, but when the vet squeezed her left nipple, there was a small amount of blood/fluid. She doesn't appear to be in pain but I know they can hide that well. Her mobility and alertness is good and her general check up went really well apart from that. But we know that kind of exam only shows you so much.
Our vet's inclination in these situations would be to remove the lumps, however, we are all aware that Betty had a difficult start to life and may have some underlying vulnerabilities. The last time she had a general anaesthetic (for scans and blood tests to do with her bladder), it took her days to recover, she barely moved, was totally spaced out ('the lights were on but no-one was home') and I was really worried she wouldn't make it. And that wasn't even following an operation, just some tests. She did bounce back from that after several days and we managed to keep her food intake going, so it was ok. but I am very aware of the risks of GA and quite nervous about that. So jumping into an operation decision feels risky in this case.
Another option is a fine needle aspiration but in the vet's experience, these are often inconclusive. She would be willing to try in case we got lucky and found out something helpful from that, and it would be done consciously. I am not sure I want to put Betty through that if it's not likely to tell us much, and it sounds like an uncomfortable procedure.
Another option would be for Betty to have a CT scan, which might give a clue to whether she would be a good candidate for surgery (for example it could detect if there are underlying lung or major organ issues). And in the worst case scenario (god forbid), if this is a malignancy we are dealing with, if the CT scan shows that it has spread to other parts of her body, the vet would not want to put Betty through surgery. The CT scan would be done under deep but not full anaesthetic so might feel slightly safer as a first step.
If the CT scan does not reveal a spread of anything nasty or suggest she has underlying issues, then the next step would be surgery to remove the lumps.
Having read up on many mammary cases on here and on the American GP site, I can see that more often than not, surgery IS successful, provided the vets are experienced, the surgery happens before the lumps have become problematic, the pig's general health is ok and the after care is good etc.
We have vet funds and time and we are happy to do any or several of those things but I am wondering about the most sensible approach/order of actions which gives Betty the best chance. If she wasn't felt to be vulnerable then we'd probably go straight for the operation, but her previous issues make us wonder about her immunity and general strength. Saying that, in herself she seems fine. She is an amazing pig who tells us what she's thinking at all times, loves her food and loves to explore and interact. Maybe we are over thinking the issue of her being a good candidate for surgery? I know age is on her side but I also get the feeling that a pig's general health/underlying strength is probably more important than their specific age?
I should add that our vets are recommended and experienced exotics and they have helped us brilliantly with various illnesses to date, so I am happy about that side of things and I do trust them. I also appreciate them thinking through the options with us rather than pushing one option or another on us as the only way.
I don't expect people to know exactly what to do, but would really appreciate if anyone has been through similar and may have words of wisdom. These are our first pigs and this would be the first operation situation we have found ourselves in. Betty is such a lovely pig and we just want her to be as healthy and safe as possible.
Many thanks and sorry for the long post!
Lucy
Finding myself in a difficult situation with our lovely Betty. She is our 3-3.5 year old sow, who came from a hoarding rescue operation in the north west of England in 2019, where I was told dozens of pigs from one home were dispersed to rescue centres across the country for rehoming (some people on here I think may remember that?). We adopted her and her best friend Winnie in Oct 2019. They arrived ragged (bite marks in their ears etc) and nervous. Despite that they settled well and they now popcorn, squeak and chut chut chut their way around all day, and seem to be very happy piggies.
In her first 12-18 months with us Betty had numerous issues: fungal infections, URI and UTIs but thankfully all were eventually resolved with good vet care. The fungal issues were more stubborn in Betty than in Winnie. Betty can be a bit grunty/honky after she's eaten (she inhales her food at lightening pace) but that clears up once she's cleared her throat. She has a very healthy appetite and is just under 1.3kg.
After a rocky start, in the last year she's only needed the vets for haypoke and her routine check ups, and all has been good. However, we recently noticed she has two lumps, one under her left nipple, enough to make the nipple protrude, and the a smaller one near but not under her right nipple. They do not appear to be growing, I think they are smooth edged, there are no signs of infection, but when the vet squeezed her left nipple, there was a small amount of blood/fluid. She doesn't appear to be in pain but I know they can hide that well. Her mobility and alertness is good and her general check up went really well apart from that. But we know that kind of exam only shows you so much.
Our vet's inclination in these situations would be to remove the lumps, however, we are all aware that Betty had a difficult start to life and may have some underlying vulnerabilities. The last time she had a general anaesthetic (for scans and blood tests to do with her bladder), it took her days to recover, she barely moved, was totally spaced out ('the lights were on but no-one was home') and I was really worried she wouldn't make it. And that wasn't even following an operation, just some tests. She did bounce back from that after several days and we managed to keep her food intake going, so it was ok. but I am very aware of the risks of GA and quite nervous about that. So jumping into an operation decision feels risky in this case.
Another option is a fine needle aspiration but in the vet's experience, these are often inconclusive. She would be willing to try in case we got lucky and found out something helpful from that, and it would be done consciously. I am not sure I want to put Betty through that if it's not likely to tell us much, and it sounds like an uncomfortable procedure.
Another option would be for Betty to have a CT scan, which might give a clue to whether she would be a good candidate for surgery (for example it could detect if there are underlying lung or major organ issues). And in the worst case scenario (god forbid), if this is a malignancy we are dealing with, if the CT scan shows that it has spread to other parts of her body, the vet would not want to put Betty through surgery. The CT scan would be done under deep but not full anaesthetic so might feel slightly safer as a first step.
If the CT scan does not reveal a spread of anything nasty or suggest she has underlying issues, then the next step would be surgery to remove the lumps.
Having read up on many mammary cases on here and on the American GP site, I can see that more often than not, surgery IS successful, provided the vets are experienced, the surgery happens before the lumps have become problematic, the pig's general health is ok and the after care is good etc.
We have vet funds and time and we are happy to do any or several of those things but I am wondering about the most sensible approach/order of actions which gives Betty the best chance. If she wasn't felt to be vulnerable then we'd probably go straight for the operation, but her previous issues make us wonder about her immunity and general strength. Saying that, in herself she seems fine. She is an amazing pig who tells us what she's thinking at all times, loves her food and loves to explore and interact. Maybe we are over thinking the issue of her being a good candidate for surgery? I know age is on her side but I also get the feeling that a pig's general health/underlying strength is probably more important than their specific age?
I should add that our vets are recommended and experienced exotics and they have helped us brilliantly with various illnesses to date, so I am happy about that side of things and I do trust them. I also appreciate them thinking through the options with us rather than pushing one option or another on us as the only way.
I don't expect people to know exactly what to do, but would really appreciate if anyone has been through similar and may have words of wisdom. These are our first pigs and this would be the first operation situation we have found ourselves in. Betty is such a lovely pig and we just want her to be as healthy and safe as possible.
Many thanks and sorry for the long post!
Lucy
Crossing everything for you the lumps were nothing to worry about when biopsies are done, at least they’ve gone now!
x