Is this a skin tag or a tumor? Should it be removed?

[whitecinnamon]

Hello,

This is my first time posting here and I hope the photo quality is good enough to explain my concern...

I have four guinea pigs and one of them is a almost 2-year old male. I have noticed a kind of a skin tag behind his right foot (or ankle probably) couple of months ago and it is pretty tiny and it has a circular or bubble-like top and it is attached to his feet. I have taken him to the vet and he suggested that it could be a tumor and prescribed something called "Metastop" to stop tumor spreading. He didn't remove it but suggested that we could tie a knot around it and let it fall on its own. However, I am quite hesitant and since exotic animals like guinea pigs are not very well-known by the vets in my area, I am unsure if this is the right diagnosis and treatment...

If needed, I can provide better pictures.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[PigglePuggle]

This looks a very small growth and would be an odd olace for a tumour to start.
Has the vet taken a biopsy, to look at the cells under a microscope, or send to a diagnostic lab, to confirm what this actually is? That is always the place to start if a lump may be a suspected tumour. Did the vet say why he thought this was a tumour? Or what kind of tumour he suspected?
Personally I dont think taking cancer medicines without a diagnosis is at all advisable, and certainly not if the lump is just within the skin/soft tissues- simply removing the lump, if it is confirmed by a biopsy to be a definite cancerous lump, would be a more usual option.
Are there any other vets you can see? I dont think the suggestions your vet has made here are at all what any of us in the UK would expect to be told, where we are lucky to have many experienced guinea pig vets...

 

[whitecinnamon]

This looks a very small growth and would be an odd olace for a tumour to start.
Has the vet taken a biopsy, to look at the cells under a microscope, or send to a diagnostic lab, to confirm what this actually is? That is always the place to start if a lump may be a suspected tumour. Did the vet say why he thought this was a tumour? Or what kind of tumour he suspected?
Personally I dont think taking cancer medicines without a diagnosis is at all advisable, and certainly not if the lump is just within the skin/soft tissues- simply removing the lump, if it is confirmed by a biopsy to be a definite cancerous lump, would be a more usual option.
Are there any other vets you can see? I dont think the suggestions your vet has made here are at all what any of us in the UK would expect to be told, where we are lucky to have many experienced guinea pig vets...

No to all of these questions unfortunetly. That is why I am second guessing everything he told me. He looked to it with a phone flashlight and said the apperance of the bubble part looks like a cauliflower (apperantly that is how tumors look in guinea pigs?) but he didn't look it with a magnifying glass or anything, just eye.
The medication he suggested is completely herbal and safe and it is to boost the immune system and stop the tumor metastasis but if this is not a tumor which I think it is not, I don't want to continue giving this pill. So far, I have given half...
He also said that he can remove it with a forceps and twist it until it is ripped out and remove it that way but I thought that could be painful for the piggy and location vise it would not be suitable for local anesthesia (also didn't get the impression he is going to numb him). He also said that the medication could make "the tumor" smaller and make it dissappear. He can remove it now but it could come back in other places without this medication.
I will try to take him to another vet hopefully this week. I just wished there are more experienced vets to go to and not the ones just try to push expensive medication without proper tests/diagnosis.

 

[Merab]

Can’t advise but wanted to offer support

 

[PigglePuggle]

I'm very sorry but either you have misunderstood what the vet has told you, or this person does not sound like a qualified vet at all I'm afraid.
There are no herbal pills that can shrink tumours or prevent them recurring if removed, in any species. And a small skin growth is unlikely to suddenly appear in another place if removed. And no doctor treating any person or animal can diagnose cancer by just looking.
I really am quite concerned that this person may not be a qualified vet...

 

[Claire W]

Please do NOT allow this person to remove the growth with forceps and no anaesthetic.

My late Eliza had a growth on her neck that had a cauliflower appearance. It was a wart that we were advised to leave well alone unless it grew (which it never did) I’m not saying that’s what your piggy has but it being a cancerous tumour seems very unlikely

I’m afraid I agree with @PigglePuggle and this person doesn’t sound like a qualified vet at all

 

[PigglePuggle]

Yes I would also agree with Claire that not all cauliflower like growths are cancerous. One of our guinea pigs has a small cauliflower like growth on her eyelid and we have asked 2 different expert guinea pig vets about this when she has seen them for other health issues, and both thought it was probably a small wart or benign polyp and neither of them thought it was a cause for concern.
But really having an experienced vet taking a tiny sample with a needle, after applying a local anaesthetic spray to the area, to send to a diagnostic laboratory, is the only way to be sure whether a growth is cancerous or not.