management of bleeding lump

[dee10535]

Hello, my guinea pig has a small lump that is either a soft tissue sarcoma or a long-term inflammatory response (like a granuloma). We decided not to do anything, and there is no evidence that if it is cancer, it has spread anywhere yet. The lump actually is chronically scabbed over, but sometimes it bleeds. My guess is that my guinea pig is scratching or biting at it. The vet's only suggestion is to remove the lump surgically, but even if I did just the removal with no biopsy, I am likely looking at five hundred dollars at a minimum. I have spent over five hundred dollars so far on her care, including a current respiratory problem she is suffering (windpipe problems/possible bronchitis). The vet offered me to apply for some payment plan program but I told them that the problem isn't that I don't have the money right now (I do), it's just that I cannot take another huge dent in my savings like that after already spending so much. The lump itself isn't growing, so really I just need to figure out how to prevent it from bleeding, or if that fails, make sure it's minimal. I thought the best bet would be to cover it somehow so she couldn't get to it, and to prevent it from bleeding too heavily, but the vet says it's virtually impossible to bandage a guinea pig. Is this really true? There's no way to wrap it at all? The only other thing I can do at this point is rinse the area periodically to keep it clean, and apply silver sulfadiazine cream to stave off infection.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, my guinea pig has a small lump that is either a soft tissue sarcoma or a long-term inflammatory response (like a granuloma). We decided not to do anything, and there is no evidence that if it is cancer, it has spread anywhere yet. The lump actually is chronically scabbed over, but sometimes it bleeds. My guess is that my guinea pig is scratching or biting at it. The vet's only suggestion is to remove the lump surgically, but even if I did just the removal with no biopsy, I am likely looking at five hundred dollars at a minimum. I have spent over five hundred dollars so far on her care, including a current respiratory problem she is suffering (windpipe problems/possible bronchitis). The vet offered me to apply for some payment plan program but I told them that the problem isn't that I don't have the money right now (I do), it's just that I cannot take another huge dent in my savings like that after already spending so much. The lump itself isn't growing, so really I just need to figure out how to prevent it from bleeding, or if that fails, make sure it's minimal. I thought the best bet would be to cover it somehow so she couldn't get to it, and to prevent it from bleeding too heavily, but the vet says it's virtually impossible to bandage a guinea pig. Is this really true? There's no way to wrap it at all? The only other thing I can do at this point is rinse the area periodically to keep it clean, and apply silver sulfadiazine cream to stave off infection.

Hi and welcome

Ideally you would be looking at surgical removal because of the infection risk. I hope that you can save up for the operation, which should be fairly straight forward with a very good recovery prognosis and an end of the problem.

Bandaging guinea pigs is not easy and is not comfortable for them; it can also create further health complications if it is done in the long term. It is only ever done as an extreme measure to prevent guinea pigs with advanced mange mites from fitting (which damages their heart) and biting open their large sores repeatedly until treatment can kick in fully and bring enough relief. Guinea pigs are past masters at getting rid of any bandaging.

You are mostly looking a silver sulfadiazine and good hygiene to stave off infection in the meantime.