I don't even know how to name that thing...

[Ginger19]

Oh please, not again.
Hi everyone, if you hadn't read me before I'm a spanish girl who joined in december due to a guinea pig with a suspected uterine tumor. She sadly passed away in a surgery because the tumor was an agressive one. Her's the thread Uterine tumor
Now, my other two guinea pigs are living a married life (I have a neuterd boy and a girl) and everything was right until today.
The girl, Shy, was diagnosed with ovarian cysts a year ago. I've been taking her to the vet every six month to check them. They haven't grown and they are quite small (as you know cysts could be HUGE in guine pigs). As sympthoms she only acts very dominant but not agressive and has hyperkeratosis in the nipples (crusty nipples) and hard areoles. I clean them twice a week with coconut oil and a gauze to avoid she clean them herself and hurt the skin as once happened. Since I did this the crustiness has been significantly reduced and her skin has a healthier look.
The past Thursday, cleaning them, I noticed that one nipple that always had a dark spot next to it had something hard in this dark spot. I insist, she always had this spot. But today, when I checked her this morning I notice that one pore in the dark skin spot was expanded and something dark and pointed was coming out from it. I freaked out.
I checked all her skin and I didn't find anything similar and I touch it and she didn't complain so she is not in pain. Is not swollen or red or anything, just that disgusting thing coming out.
She is the happiest and the craziest guinea pig I've ever known, she is super active and she popcorns three or four times a day, everyday (when put fresh water, clean the cage, give her a treat, ...)
I already booked a vet appointment for Wednesday morning, so I will keep you informed.
If someone has encounter something like this or have guinea pigs with cysts feel free to give me your experience.
Sorry for my typos, I'm not focus on grammar right now.

Here are two pictures, courtesy of Shy after almost 50 tries.

 

[DM 100321]

Sorry i have no clue what that could be. Here is a link to something that might help.

 

[DM 100321]

It discusses the problem you have briefly at the end, and it does name the problem. The vets is the right way to go, i can't diagnose anything.

 

[Claire W]

It just looks like she has a crusty nipple like you have mentioned which is a symptom of ovarian cysts. @alpacasqueak guinea pig has just been spayed as she had ovarian cysts and crusty nipples was a symptom.

But if you are concerned, please have her checked out by the vet

 

[Betsy]

@PotatoPig I don't think it's a good idea to panic @Ginger19 with that video. She is panicked enough already. The most likely thing is it's not a tumour. A vet visit is always advised and she has this booked. The vet will be able to tell her what is wrong with Shy and give her practical advice and/or medication(s) as to how to deal with the problem.

Please let us know how you get on @Ginger19.

 

[alpacasqueak]

It just looks like she has a crusty nipple like you have mentioned which is a symptom of ovarian cysts. @alpacasqueak guinea pig has just been spayed as she had ovarian cysts and crusty nipples was a symptom.

But if you are concerned, please have her checked out by the vet

Sorry your little girl’s got symptoms @Ginger19. I’d definitely recommend a vet trip too if you’re worried.
Here are a couple of pics of my girl Aliona’s nipples, they got very crusty in less than a week and was showing dominant behaviour with her cagemate Luigi (neutered boar) suddenly. No hair loss etc. My very good vet diagnosed her with small ovarian cysts due to her symptoms (she couldn’t feel large ones) and she was spayed last Tuesday, she’s done really well.
Here they are when I first spotted them -


And less than a week later, much more crusty and had grown in size a lot!


Could the black spot possibly be a bit of dirt/hay stuck in the crusty bit of your girl’s nipple?
Hope she’s ok and you can get her checked over by a vet, let us know how it goes

 

[Merab]

I’ve had 2 sows neutered with ovarian cysts.
In both cases everything went very well.
Hope your vet trip is positive.

Please don’t apologise for your grammar - your English is better than some native speakers!

 

[Ginger19]

First of all thank you to everyone who answer this thread and specially to those that try to calm me down. I really appreciate "cool heads" in this moments.
Ok, the thing has fallen. This morning when I was giving them their daily oxbow cookie, at picking her up to return her to the cage that thing was on the liner. There was no bleeding, no pain, nothing. The skin pore is like noothing happend not even extended.
On the liner I squeezed it and it has a greasy texture, so I'm thinking about a massive blackhead. I know they could be normal in hyperkeratosis and if skin is treated whith greasy stuff (like, coconut oil) so for now, I'm going to clean her crustiness with coconut oil and later with baby/pet wipes to avoid and excess of grease.
I contact with my vet later and he was agree with me and told me that if she is right and there is no other thing pointing out of her skin, she can avoid a vet appointment. Shy really hates her vet, she chatters at him just seeing him coming.
I know that the ovarian cysts should be removed but I recently lost Ginger and I'm not ready for (if anything went wrong) lost another piggie. She has a good quality of life, with no pain or severe sympthoms and her cysts haven't grown in over a year (and they are 3 cm and 1.7 cm wide, so they are small).
Obviously she will attend her next six month check in May (we're we always do a blood test, a x-ray and echography) and if there's something wrong before I won't hessitate to bring her to the vet.
Thanks again to everyone who worried about us. You are the most wonderful community we could have.

 

[Free Ranger]

Do you know I was thinking 'sounds like a massive blackhead' (because I have two teenagers) but I didn't suggest it, because it's a pig nipple and not a greasy head. I've learnt something new today! Good luck, little Shy ❤

 

[Eleanorh99]

Glad she's OK! My exotics lecturer (I'm a vet student) says that she'll only remove cysts if they're causing problems, if the guinea pig isn't showing symptoms then she'll just leave them. Hopefully her cysts will never really bother her and she can avoid surgery!

 

[Claire W]

My late Emma had an ovarian cyst but as it wasn’t causing her any problems and she was 6 years old at the time, we just kept an eye on it.

 

[DM 100321]

@PotatoPig I don't think it's a good idea to panic @Ginger19 with that video. She is panicked enough already. The most likely thing is it's not a tumour. A vet visit is always advised and she has this booked. The vet will be able to tell her what is wrong with Shy and give her practical advice and/or medication(s) as to how to deal with the problem.

Please let us know how you get on @Ginger19.

Sorry, I did not mean to cause panic. The thumbnail of the video looks really scary but that is not what I meant to do. Towards the end it did possibly mention @Ginger19 's problem (not sure though, again i am not a vet) and I think it is an interesting bit of info. It was really just the thumbnail that made it look horrible. Sorry again x

 

[Ginger19]

Sorry, I did not mean to cause panic. The thumbnail of the video looks really scary but that is not what I meant to do. Towards the end it did possibly mention @Ginger19 's problem (not sure though, again i am not a vet) and I think it is an interesting bit of info. It was really just the thumbnail that made it look horrible. Sorry again x

Don't worry at all, I'm a huge fan of Saskia of LAGPR and I have already seen the video before. Although I revisioned it when you posted it, it gave me some ideas but I'm still thinking that it was a masisve blackhead.
And yes, the thumbnail is... okey, really scary.

 

[alpacasqueak]

Oh I thought you’d been to vets! I’d definitely still keep an eye on her as the nipples do look slightly crusty to me, my pics above show how fast it can come on with a big splurge of hormones etc and my girl’s huge nipples and big change in behaviour to normal. I’m a pig stalker(!) with my pigs so I noticed very quickly there was a change with her, I’d definitely keep an eye