Need help with possible recurring abscess/cutaneous neoplasia?

[lauryn1289]

Hi, so I made this post in Jan Anyone familiar with abscess flushing - want to make sure I’m doing it correctly about my boy Egg’s abscess. Everything went great and I was hoping for no recurring issues but I literally just noticed a bulge on his neck again in the exact same spot.

I had a piggy called Kip who died in 2023 who had a constant recurring neck lump but whenever it was drained with a syringe it was just murky blood, it never burst or anything and sometimes it just disappeared and came back again, so I’m not sure it was an abscess ever and I think it may have been a cutaneous neoplasia but the vet I was seeing never confirmed. It never bothered him or affected his quality of life, he was a couple months off 7 years old when he died. For the most part the lump was there constantly for the last few years of his life.

I’m wondering what are the odds it could be the same with Eggs, but I don’t know what a cutaneous neoplasia would look like when punctured and drained vs an abscess if that makes sense.

My predicament is I’m on disability payments and very short on money at the moment and my closest exotics vet is nearly 2 hours. I wouldn’t be logically able to take him until the start of July, but I’m wondering would it be better to wait to have him actually seen by an exotics. My regular vets are wonderful and very good with piggies but I’m wondering would the money there be better spent at an exotics, but I’m also worried about leaving it for 10 days or so incase. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed?

 

[lauryn1289]

Also to add I have some metacam so gave him a little, he’s eating and in great form and acting completely normal

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, so I made this post in Jan Anyone familiar with abscess flushing - want to make sure I’m doing it correctly about my boy Egg’s abscess. Everything went great and I was hoping for no recurring issues but I literally just noticed a bulge on his neck again in the exact same spot.

I had a piggy called Kip who died in 2023 who had a constant recurring neck lump but whenever it was drained with a syringe it was just murky blood, it never burst or anything and sometimes it just disappeared and came back again, so I’m not sure it was an abscess ever and I think it may have been a cutaneous neoplasia but the vet I was seeing never confirmed. It never bothered him or affected his quality of life, he was a couple months off 7 years old when he died. For the most part the lump was there constantly for the last few years of his life.

I’m wondering what are the odds it could be the same with Eggs, but I don’t know what a cutaneous neoplasia would look like when punctured and drained vs an abscess if that makes sense.

My predicament is I’m on disability payments and very short on money at the moment and my closest exotics vet is nearly 2 hours. I wouldn’t be logically able to take him until the start of July, but I’m wondering would it be better to wait to have him actually seen by an exotics. My regular vets are wonderful and very good with piggies but I’m wondering would the money there be better spent at an exotics, but I’m also worried about leaving it for 10 days or so incase. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed?

Hi

Any lumps in the neck need to be seen and assessed by a vet and any treatment needs to follow on from there. We quite simply cannot advise you (nor are we allowed to) sight unseen.

I am very sorry that you are dealing with another lump again. Are your piggies related?

 

[lauryn1289]

Hi

Any lumps in the neck need to be seen and assessed by a vet and any treatment needs to follow on from there. We quite simply cannot advise you (nor are we allowed to) sight unseen.

I am very sorry that you are dealing with another lump again. Are your piggies related?

I booked him an appointment Tuesday with my regular vet because I’m definitely too anxious to wait the extra few days to get him to an exotics. Not related to all, I adopted this little boy from a neglectful home a few hours away last year after Kip and another one of my boys passed away. I don’t think there’s any chance of lineage

 

[weepweeps]

I’m sorry Eggs has another lump. Abscesses can return if there is even a tiny bit of bacteria left. Zithromax is a great antibiotic for abscesses. I have had a piggy with an abscess and he had 6 weeks of antibiotics. Good luck at the vets.

 

[lauryn1289]

I’m sorry Eggs has another lump. Abscesses can return if there is even a tiny bit of bacteria left. Zithromax is a great antibiotic for abscesses. I have had a piggy with an abscess and he had 6 weeks of antibiotics. Good luck at the vets.

Will definitely ask for zithromax! Thank you. Would it be usual for it to return nearly 6 months later? I thought it would’ve happened a lot sooner, I thought we were in the clear with it because it healed up so well

 

[weepweeps]

I think they can return later. @anyar.dris had a piggy. Bryce I think and he had an abscess return.

See what the vet says.

 

[lauryn1289]

I think they can return later. @anyar.dris had a piggy. Bryce I think and he had an abscess return.

See what the vet says.

Thanks again for all the help! I just had one question if that’s okay, when I was looking into Zithromax for piggies just to have some ammo for my vet incase they’re not familiar w prescribing it for pigs and I saw it’s generally a last ditch antibiotic and can affect their appetite a lot, did you experience that at all? I worry about that because of experience with bloat

I was on Zithromax in March for pneumonia myself so I wouldn’t have thought it’s considered such a hefty one

 

[weepweeps]

Yes it did stop his appetite completely for the 6 weeks he was on it but he never had bloat. I just had to syringe feed him. I don’t work so I could feed him 5 times a day.

@furryfriends (TEAS) has a lot of experience with this antibiotic as she runs a sanctuary for dental piggies and she said she hadn’t experienced loss of appetite with her piggies when on this AB.

Also I’d like to add that his abcess was 4cm across. So very large.

 

[anyar.dris]

I think they can return later. @anyar.dris had a piggy. Bryce I think and he had an abscess return.

See what the vet says.

Yes abscess can return. In the 3 years that we had Bryce, he had 3 abscesses in the neck now. It returned every year even though the sack has been removed the previous years. We think that it's been coming from one of his bottom incisors root. Until we deal with that, I think it will return again. But nothing really bad with his teeth at the moment. His last abscess was this April. It is gone bow but he still has any other issues we are trying to solve/deal with. Zithromax didn't really suit Bryce but Metronidazole seems to have done the trick.

Talk to your vet about treatment plans, i.e. antibiotics to use, how long it will be, possibilities of changing, etc.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I've used Zithromax on various piggies, for many years and have never had a piggy stop eating whilst taking it. I have had a few where the appetite has reduced somewhat, but that's all. We have also used a combination of Metronidazole and Marbocyl, with very good success, when dealing with a nasty abscess.

 

[lauryn1289]

Thanks for all the advice and anecdotes everyone! For the time being he has to go to my regular small animal vets who don’t specialise in exotics so I just wanted to be certain what type of antibiotic might be best. The last abscess he had they drained it fully in office with needles and I had to keep up with the flushing at home and it was 7-10 days of Baytril, but if another antibiotic might do a better job I’ll 100% ask for it and hopefully they’ll give it.

Been giving him 2 doses of my cat’s metacam a day since, poor baby. I’ll make sure to give him the metacam around when he’s in the vets tomorrow so hopefully it’ll be as painless as possible. Hope we can get it sorted for good this time I’m petrified of surgery after my boy Bobby died a couple days after his bladder stone surgery in 2023 so the thoughts of it even being possible makes me super anxious

 

[lauryn1289]

Hi everyone, going to the vet in a couple hours and because they’re not an exotics I know they won’t give the top dose of metacam for him, so I was just wondering if anyone of you know what the maximum dose of cat metacam would be for Eggs I can give him? He’s around 900g-1kg

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks again for all the help! I just had one question if that’s okay, when I was looking into Zithromax for piggies just to have some ammo for my vet incase they’re not familiar w prescribing it for pigs and I saw it’s generally a last ditch antibiotic and can affect their appetite a lot, did you experience that at all? I worry about that because of experience with bloat

I was on Zithromax in March for pneumonia myself so I wouldn’t have thought it’s considered such a hefty one

Hi

Many piggies have no problems with zithromax but when it wipes the appetite, it tends to do so fully. Sometimes, splitting the dose can bring it back partially but since it is considered a last ditch antibiotic where others fail, you have to tough out the course.

Appetite generally eventually returns. I have had zithromax prescribed with brewing jaw abscesses (and the Christm holidays looming), burst dental root abscesses, bad eye infections where an eye removal operation was not an option and once with an unusual post-neutering complication where a internal band of swelling had caused very painful gut adherence. Sometimes it needed two courses. About a third of my piggies suffered loss of appetite but it was always worth it.

 

[lauryn1289]

Hi

Many piggies have no problems with zithromax but when it wipes the appetite, it tends to do so fully. Sometimes, splitting the dose can bring it back partially but since it is considered a last ditch antibiotic where others fail, you have to tough out the course.

Appetite generally eventually returns. I have had zithromax prescribed with brewing jaw abscesses (and the Christm holidays looming), burst dental root abscesses, bad eye infections where an eye removal operation was not an option and once with an unusual post-neutering complication where a internal band of swelling had caused very painful gut adherence. Sometimes it needed two courses. About a third of my piggies suffered loss of appetite but it was always worth it.

Thank you so much! He just finished getting it lanced and she was willing to give Zithromax but I thought I’d stick to Baytril first and just see how it goes because I’m not fully prepared in the event of any appetite changes, I’m still waiting for some fresh critical care to arrive.

She doesn’t think the abscess is dental related and thinks it’s very localised to just the skin and it was very viscous when it was lanced so she didn’t recommend flushing it out like I had to in January when it had gotten to a cottage cheese texture, just cleaning with chlorhexedine.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

To be honest, I’ve had more issues with baytril than I’ve ever had with Zithromax. I haven’t used baytril for over 10 years but when I did, most ended up with diarrhoea, when given a decent dose! See how it goes but if it’s not working don’t hesitate to change.

 

[lauryn1289]

To be honest, I’ve had more issues with baytril than I’ve ever had with Zithromax. I haven’t used baytril for over 10 years but when I did, most ended up with diarrhoea, when given a decent dose! See how it goes but if it’s not working don’t hesitate to change.

Absolutely! Will be keeping a really close eye. He was on Baytril in January so I decided to choose it over Zithromax for now purely because I know he tolerated it well in January and I thought having no critical care until Friday might be a really bad time to take a chance on a new antibiotic if he did need some syringe feeding He’s only on it for 3 days which seems short but she was confident it was caught and drained early judging by the consistency of the fluid, and that it’s very contained to a specific area, so fingers crossed it does the trick

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

3 days! That’s a very small antibiotic course! I don’t use Critical Care. I mush up their normal nuggets and add some probiotic. I do use Emeraid Sustain too and find this is very much preferred to Critical Care.

 

[lauryn1289]

3 days! That’s a very small antibiotic course! I don’t use Critical Care. I mush up their normal nuggets and add some probiotic. I do use Emeraid Sustain too and find this is very much preferred to Critical Care.

I thought so too, has usually been 7-10 days at least in my experience with piggies and cats and even myself. Definitely considering asking for more!

I’ve been wanting to try Emeraid or the Kavee Krucial Care one but I can’t find them in Ireland Critical Care and the Science Selective recovery feeds are the most accessible here. My boys over the past few years have been eating the Versela Laga Cavia Complete nuggets because of there being no alfalfa in them and needless to say, they like their nightly nuggets but I don’t think they’ve been too pleased with a syringe of mushy Cavia Complete They don’t like them THAT much

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I get Emeraid from Amazon. I think Critical Care is the piggy equivalent to Marmite. They either love it or hate it. No middle ground! xx

 

[lauryn1289]

Hi everyone! I booked Eggs a vet appointment tomorrow so this is getting seen to, but just wondering if anyone thinks this is a scab or what? It’s very thick and protrudes slightly like a clump. I feel terrible I didn’t notice it before today I’ve tried to bathe it but he’s not happy with it and I’m worried about tampering too much. He’s been in fantastic form and was getting fed up and annoyed with his wound site being cleaned a few days in and it looked fantastic so I left it alone, assuming antibiotics were doing their job and especially because the site looked great a few days in. I’ve been keeping an eye for any refilling but didn’t even notice this because of the hair around it. He just finished his 8 (I think) day of antibiotics yesterday

The vet (from the photos) was going to change his antibiotic but they don’t have anything in stock just yet that’s safe for him so she’s going to up his Baytril dosage to a stronger concentration. This just looks so unusual so I’m not sure what to think

 

[weepweeps]

I think the vet will advise picking off the scab to let the puss out and start flushing it again. Good luck at the vets. Is he still on antibiotics and pain meds?

 

[lauryn1289]

I think the vet will advise picking off the scab to let the puss out and start flushing it again. Good luck at the vets. Is he still on antibiotics and pain meds?

His antibiotics just finished last night but he’s getting more tomorrow and I put him back on metacam! Been giving him 0.3ml of the cat metacam again twice a day, he’s so brave It looks so uncomfortable. I stopped the metacam after about 5 days in because he didn’t seem to need it but will definitely keep him on it longer now