Enlarged kidney?

[Freela]

So I took my pigs in for relatively minor vet complaints today, and the vet incidentally found that Leela has a significantly enlarged right kidney. She said otherwise Leela looks completely well, but her kidney is significantly larger on the right. She said the left feels normal size, but may be rougher than normal, but it's hard to tell. It's apparently not painful, as Leela was not put out by the palpation at all. I'm just kind of taken aback, I would never have thought that Leela had any underlying problems, as she seems totally fine and healthy. Basically, the vet said it could be any number of things, from cancer to a benign mass to an infection to cysts to fluid buildup. She said she could refer for an ultrasound, as my vet doesn't do them, but it would cost about 800 dollars. She said that the only real treatment would be surgical removal of the kidney, which would again require a specialist, is very high risk on a little guy like Leela, and would run several thousands of dollars. Other than that, she gave her an antibiotic in case it was an infection and we go back in a couple of weeks to see if there is any difference. Does anyone have any insight into this? I'm very shocked... as I said, Leela is "only" just turning four, she seems totally happy and healthy, and I only took her in for eye drops, I had NO suspicion of anything else wrong.

Hadley, who is 6 years and 3 months, on the other hand, checks out great except for early bumblefoot on her front feet, came home with foot cream and antibiotics and feeling fine. SHE was the one I was thinking they might find an underlying issue with because of her age, not Leels!

 

[Siikibam]

I’m sorry you had that shock of enlarged kidneys. I have no experience but wanted to offer my support nonetheless. Fingers crossed the antibiotics may help. Hopefully someone with more experience will be along in good times.

 

[piggieminder]

Sending Leela healing vibes, I hope the antibiotics sort the problem out.
Sending you hugs, it's such a shock when that happens. They hide their illnesses so well.

 

[Wiebke]

Fingers very firmly crossed that the antibiotic will do the trick. Unfortunately there is only fairly limited treatment for kidney problems available.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Hoping it just an infection and Leela recoveries very soon. It’s such a shock when you find out in such unexpected circumstances.

I lost my Ted to a diseased kidney just before Christmas. He was nearly six and had suffered what we thought was his first ever UTI, the local vets gave him AB and it worked really quickly. He was back to his normal self in a couple of days. We then took him for his conscious dental to his dental vet 300 miles away and told him about the UTI and asked if he could give him a check up. He rang back with shocking news to say Ted had a painful mass on his right kidney. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was but suspected cancer or stones. he thought the UTI was wrongly diagnosed and it was in fact problem from that kidney, he thought it could be a stone entering the tube that drains into the bladder. He said we could have an X-ray but the outcome was pretty poor, the kidney would have probably needed to be removed, he didn’t know how the other kidney would cope and with his age the prognosis wasn’t good. We decided on palliative care. Poor Ted became poorly again less than a week after the vet visit, so we decided to have him PTS being the kindest thing for him

 

[Freela]

Thanks everyone. I have done some reading and realize that not much can be done for kidneys... it really is a quality of life thing. As of right now, we would absolutely not know that anything is wrong with her... she is perky, her weight is stable, she eats everything, and she seems absolutely fine. So we'll do the course of antibiotics and followup, and if there's no difference it's just going to be a matter of appreciating her for however long we can as long as she is happy and doing normal guinea pig things. Just such a shock, as she is only four and we really just wanted eye drops. If not for that, we would never have known and I guess would have discovered it a lot later in the process when she started being obviously unwell. I kind of wish I didn't know since there's not much I can do other than watch her for signs of changes and spoil her rotten.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Thanks everyone. I have done some reading and realize that not much can be done for kidneys... it really is a quality of life thing. As of right now, we would absolutely not know that anything is wrong with her... she is perky, her weight is stable, she eats everything, and she seems absolutely fine. So we'll do the course of antibiotics and followup, and if there's no difference it's just going to be a matter of appreciating her for however long we can as long as she is happy and doing normal guinea pig things. Just such a shock, as she is only four and we really just wanted eye drops. If not for that, we would never have known and I guess would have discovered it a lot later in the process when she started being obviously unwell. I kind of wish I didn't know since there's not much I can do other than watch her for signs of changes and spoil her rotten.

I’m so sorry my experience was not a more positive one for you x
Hopefully it’s just an infection that can be cleared up, but if not then I hope you have lots of time left to spoil her with love

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Our Tootie was found to have an enlarged kidney, about 4 months ago. It too was found during a general check over, whilst in for her regular incisor burr. She seems to be totally unaware of the problem and therefore we aren’t worrying about it, until it becomes something to worry about.

 

[Freela]

Our Tootie was found to have an enlarged kidney, about 4 months ago. It too was found during a general check over, whilst in for her regular incisor burr. She seems to be totally unaware of the problem and therefore we aren’t worrying about it, until it becomes something to worry about.

That's good to know! A lot of the cases I've been finding when trying to research were cases that were not caught until the piggie was actually sick. My hope is that this is an ongoing issue that has been present for awhile and that she can carry on normally for awhile with the more normal kidney. At this point you would certainly not know she has an issue... she is bouncy, eats everything, is excitable, runs around, popcorns, and generally is her normal happy self.