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Guinea pig wound

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daisy.s.w

New Born Pup
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My Guinea pig has a large lump on her side which is booked into be surgically removed on Wednesday with our vet. She had her pre op checks today, and I’ve been monitoring her all day.

She had a scab on the lump for the past week, today she has attacked it and pulled it off. We have an appointment to take her to the vet tomorrow morning, however in the meantime is there anything I can do?

The vet said not to bandage it, as she could get stuck and injure herself in the night. I’m really worried she will bite it again, and cause more injury.
 
Sorry I can’t answer but one of the health experts will be along.
I just want to say welcome to the forum and hope all goes well on Wednesday
 
Merab's Slave said:
Sorry I can’t answer but one of the health experts will be along.
I just want to say welcome to the forum and hope all goes well on Wednesday
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Thank you, currently we are sat up with her as she keeps biting at it. Waiting to see the vet tomorrow, and hopefully they can do emergency surgery
 
daisy.s.w said:
My Guinea pig has a large lump on her side which is booked into be surgically removed on Wednesday with our vet. She had her pre op checks today, and I’ve been monitoring her all day.

She had a scab on the lump for the past week, today she has attacked it and pulled it off. We have an appointment to take her to the vet tomorrow morning, however in the meantime is there anything I can do?

The vet said not to bandage it, as she could get stuck and injure herself in the night. I’m really worried she will bite it again, and cause more injury.
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Hi and welcome

Your girl's biting/nibbling at the wound means that she is painful/ in major discomfort in that area. There is not much you can do as piggies are past masters at wiggling out of it. Good that she is already booked for a lump-ectomy but it won't be quite an easy time until then unfortunately.

Your vet may give a painkiller. Do they think it is an abscess or a cyst?
 
They have booked her in with emergency surgery tomorrow, and we have antibiotics and pain medication to manage it until then. Fingers crossed she’s ok
 
daisy.s.w said:
They have booked her in with emergency surgery tomorrow, and we have antibiotics and pain medication to manage it until then. Fingers crossed she’s ok
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Good! That is a relief. Any lumps, once they reach the runaway stage should be dealt with ideally soonest.
Wishing you all the best for a smooth recovery.

Here are our post-op care tips: Tips For Post-operative Care
 
daisy.s.w said:
Update: she is waking up, and the vets said it was a cyst. Surgery went well, and hopefully the road to recovery goes well too! Thanks all for your best wishes.
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Glad that it was just a burst cyst. They can unfortunately grow to a large size, get infected and refill, so it is best to get them out. My Hafren was just short of her 7th birthday when her large cyst (under observation as we'd hoped to avoid an operation at her advanced age) promply put on a sudden growth spurt and burst while my specialist vet had his summer holiday break. Nevertheless, she made a full recovery when she finally had her op.
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The good thing about cyst removal is that your doesn#t have to go inside the body close to vital organs, so the recovery rate is generally very high and your girl should feel a lot happier in a couple of days when the healing process sets in; thanks to the fast metabolism of guinea pigs this is quite a bit quicker than in humans. ;)

Just follow the practical advice in our post-op guide if she is not eating at all; ideally you let her sleep it off, as long she is well enough to be out and about under her own steam and coming out to eat hay nad her veg/pellets. She will be feeling rather sore and a bit hungover tomorrow but she pick up from there by the day after.
 
Glad everything went well! One of my past pigs had a burst infected cysts removed from her lower back and made a speedy recovery in no time, with no future recurrences. Hope everything continues to go well!
 
Thanks everyone! Just a quick update / question, she’s eating but not as much as normal. Going to start with some critical care to help her keep the weight on, would you say this is a good idea? She needs encouragement to eat sometimes, which does worry me a little. However she is pooing and weeing, which is good.
She’s leaving her stitches alone which is great, and has her post op vet check tomorrow. She loves the anti inflammatory, but hates the antibiotics!
 
Make sure you weigh her daily so you can monitor hay intake more closely, and step in with syringe feeding if she is reducing hay intake and losing weight
 
Hello
Sorry to hear about piggie troubles
I’m sure the worst is over
I had a piggie who had very similar opp as yours
He was super fine after few days eating and melting my heart after xx
 
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