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Burst cyst/abcess - do I need to do anything?

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Ree

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It's one thing after the other with my pigs at the moment!

If you're eating I apologise, this is grim, but today when I was bathing Heidi I found a pea sized lump near her bum, after nearly having a heart attack thinking she had cancer I took a closer look when suddenly the lump burst. :)>>> (sorry!)

It gets worse I'm afraid, natural instincts told me to squeeze the lump till there was nothing nasty left in there but do I need to do anything else now? Harry, one of my other piggies had an abcess and needed anti-biotics to stop it coming back and as I still don't really understand the difference between an absess and a cyst I'm assuming she needs the same?

Thankfully it caused her no pain whatsoever and she was quite happy to sit there while I poked and prodded her poor little bottom!
Any advice from you lovely people would be very much appreciated :)
Thanks x
 
Flushing it out was a good idea. Wash the wound with a saline solution. For peace of mind take the piggy to the vets. xx
 
It sounds like you're doing all the right things.

Difference between abscesses and cysts - abscesses are pockets of infection containing pus. Cysts are non-infectious (although can become infected after lancing/rupture) and contains a substance called sebum.

One way to help identify what type of lump has burst is the smell; the pus from abscesses smells very strong and distinctive - it's awful, you wouldn't miss it! Although the contents abscesses and cysts may look similar - described as a "toothpaste-like" substance - there wouldn't generally be a very strong odour from sebum.

Abscesses also tend to be identified by a general swelling of the area, an obvious swelling all around the hole, whereas cysts don't tend to have such swelling.

You shouldn't need to do anything to treat the cyst, just cleanse with the saline once or twice more then leave alone to heal. No cream/ointments should be necessary. :)
 
Hope you don't mind me bringing this thread up again. Have messaged Laura, then found this, so maybe you could reply here? It's a really good description. I took these two photos on my phone earlier of Wispa, looks like it had just burst, I saw the blood, then clipped some fur, and squeezed about 3/4" of the toothpaste out. There is not much swelling. No smell
First pic shows squiggle of toothpaste, Second shows hole after some cleaning. x
1.webp

2.webp
 
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Laura, I tried to pm you, and I tried to reply on FB, I think there are gremlins everwhere! Hope you can pick up from here.
Thanks. xx
 
Hope Wispa is okay, Jane.

Looks very similar to Pippa's cyst (she had hers on her side) but the gunk in Pippa's was a weird grey colour. She has a treatment of baytril and has been okay ever since.

It does sometimes still ooze greyish-toothpastey-gunk occassionally, but I guess (although not plesant to look at) stops it from refilling again x

Hugs to you and Wispa xx
 
Thanks, hoping it is just a cyst with the lack of foul smell (thankfully).
This is Wispa:
3.webp
 
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Wispa is beautiful. x)

Thanks for sharing the photos. I find it really helpful to see what people are talking about. Would be interested to know how she gets on healing wise.

Kisses for Wispa. xx>>>xx>>>
 
In my experience, cysts do not spontaneously burst - but abcesses certainly do....it's the inflammatory/gas build up from the bugs.

I have had guineas with horrible abcesses due to lynphadinitis that have burst spontaneously ..(I had no idea until I saw not only the piggie suffering form it but two of the others were covered in it and thought a male had somehow got into the cage) ......and they didn;t smell - but it looked like pistachio-coloured Greek yoghurt !

Judging from the pics as well, i think this is more likely an abcess than a cyst....

I would suggest a vets visit for some antibioitics as even if it is a cyst - it has probably become infected.

HTH
x
 
Vets appointment is at 2.10pm today, so hopefully have the little lady sorted soon. She is behaving no differently, eating and chasing her sister Twix around happily. xx
 
Thanks for adding the pics, I am even having problems with the forum this morning, this is the fourth attempt just to get onto the second page, hope it lets me reply!

My opinion is different from Pebble's, I am still inclined from description and pictures to say cyst. The toothpaste-like substance looks far more like Frankie's cyst did, than what any of the abscesses I have dealt with look like.

I may be wrong, so as I said on FB worth seeing the vet for the right diagnosis. Good luck. xx
 
Just back from the vet. It's lovely having a vet who wants to cuddle and play with my pigs. She loved Wispa and Twixie.
Wispa has a sebacious cyst. The vet squeezed a little more gunk out, but only a very little, she said I had done a good job cleaning it up. 5 days of baytril 0.6ml once a day. I already started the probiotics yesterday in anticipation of the baytril. She did say I could split it into two, but as I am away tomorrow and Thursday it is better I do it that way rather than trust OH with a syringe. If she does go off her food a bit I will change it to bi daily for Friday and Saturday. Do you think that sounds ok?
x
 
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