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Patsy has a lump on her stomach

Piggy Stardust

Piggy Stardust

New Born Pup
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I was about to trim her and Carrie's claws when I noticed that Patsy has a hard, pea sized lump on her stomach under the skin. It's not a smooth lump (it feels almost walnut like I guess), and if I press against the sides of it the lump does move side to side slightly.

She's eating, drinking, running around and popcorning etc. Aside from the lump she's completely normal.

I've phoned the emergency vet and explained all of the above, and they've told me to bring her in for a check on Tuesday (after the bank holiday). I guess her behaviour being unchanged means they#re not overly concerned, do you guys have any experience with guinea pig lumps and bumps etc?

I'm trying to gauge how worried I should be over the weekend...
 
Piggy Stardust said:
I was about to trim her and Carrie's claws when I noticed that Patsy has a hard, pea sized lump on her stomach under the skin. It's not a smooth lump (it feels almost walnut like I guess), and if I press against the sides of it the lump does move side to side slightly.

She's eating, drinking, running around and popcorning etc. Aside from the lump she's completely normal.

I've phoned the emergency vet and explained all of the above, and they've told me to bring her in for a check on Tuesday (after the bank holiday). I guess her behaviour being unchanged means they#re not overly concerned, do you guys have any experience with guinea pig lumps and bumps etc?

I'm trying to gauge how worried I should be over the weekend...
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Hi!

Please take a deep breath. It is not an emergency until the lump is a LOT larger and tripling/quadrupling in size in 24 hours.
Tuesday is perfectly fine for an assessment. :tu:
 
Merab's Slave said:
Please don’t panic.
It’s good that you have found the lump and responded so promptly by getting her a vet appointment.
It could be any one of a number of things so try not to worry until you’ve seen the vet and have a proper diagnosis.

Keep us posted.
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Wiebke said:
Hi!

Please take a deep breath. It is not an emergency until the lump is a LOT larger and tripling/quadrupling in size in 24 hours.
Tuesday is perfectly fine for an assessment. :tu:
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Thank you guys, I'll continue to keep an eye on her for now. She's currently burying her face in a pile of hay so she's still her usual self.
 
Piggy Stardust said:
Thank you guys, I'll continue to keep an eye on her for now. She's currently burying her face in a pile of hay so she's still her usual self.
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You shouldn't notice any change; lumps tend to come up suddenly to a certain size and then stop. These non-urgent lumps should be ideally seen and assessed by a vet at your convenience during regular opening hours but they are not of immediate worry.

It can throw you the first time or two when you find them and wonder how you could have missed a lump of that size - but of course you haven't missed what was not there before. It's just how lumps commonly behave. ;)
 
Lumps that suddenly present themselves are always very worrying for us, but as has been said above, unless it’s an abscess that is growing hour by hour, it will definitely wait until your usual vets are open again next week. Hope it turns out to be something benign.
 
Flutterby said:
:agr: :hug:
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VickiA said:
Lumps that suddenly present themselves are always very worrying for us, but as has been said above, unless it’s an abscess that is growing hour by hour, it will definitely wait until your usual vets are open again next week. Hope it turns out to be something benign.
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Thanks you guys 🙂 I'll continue to watch her and check up on her.
 
Just a small update, she's still eating and drinking, and she's still moving around the cage as she normally does (she's having a nap now though!).

The lump doesn't feel any bigger than yesterday, maybe slightly smoother and harder but it's hard to tell?
 
Been to the vet this morning, the vet thinks it's a tumour. She's having surgery next Wednesday to take it out and send whatever it is off for a biopsy for investigation.

Fingers crossed it's benign.
 
Bill & Ted said:
Aw, so sorry it’s not better news. try not to worry my old boy Bill had a mammary tumour removed and he lived a very happy life with no more problems x
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Merab's Slave said:
Hope it’s just a benign tumour and nothing serious.
Will be thinking of you next Wednesday :hug:
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Thanks guys, I have to say this is a lovely forum 🙂. I've booked the whole of next Wednesday off work so I can keep an eye on her.

Is it a good idea for me separate her from her sister for a few days when she comes home? They're cage is made from those C&C storage cubes (18 square feet so they've got enough space) so I can easily add a partition to "split it in half" so to speak.

Do you reckon she'll have a cone around her neck or some kind of garment put on her to stop her scratching at her wound?

Apologies, these are all questions I should have asked the vet.
 
Please don’t apologise for asking questions.
I didn’t separate Priscilla from her cage mates when she came back from her spay.
They were all fine.
In fact the other 2 were very helpful when it came to eating the dish of Critical Care I put in the cage to help Priscilla boost her weight again.
Favourite foods will also be welcomed. Patsy will probably lose a bit of weight and may need syringe feeding for a short while after her op until she starts eating properly again.
With Priscilla it took a couple of days to get over the anaesthetic and begin to eat well.
I also pop a small dish of raw oats mixed with grated carrot or sweet potato to help with weight.
As @Betsy said she won’t feel uncomfortable with proper pain relief.

The forum guides on caring for a post op piggy are very helpful.
Please use the forum to ask any questions or simply talk. It can be very stressful for the slaves and here we all understand how important the piggies are and how we get anxious when one is ill.
 
Well today's the day. She's at the vets, and I'm expecting a call back in around 7 hours to say how it went.

I'm assuming the biopsy result will take a few days so it's going to be a long week (assuming everything goes well today).

I've been keeping an eye on her all week. She's still been eating and drinking as normal, she was doing zoomies around the cage last night, the lump hasn't changed size or shape.
 
Hope all goes well at the vets today. Fingers and paws crossed here that it is nothing serious. ❤
 
Betsy said:
Have you heard anything yet @Piggy Stardust? It's the waiting that's the worst.
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Thank you for asking, she's home 😊 I would have said something sooner but I just wanted to hold her for a bit before putting her back in the cage.

The poor thing looks traumatised so I'm just watching her constantly to see if she'll start eating. I've laid out some carrots and about half a bag of that dried dandelion salad stuff you get from supermarkets, even a few slices of banana!

7-10 days now until the biopsy result comes back...
 
I’m glad she has come through the operation safely. I think I would step in and give her a syringe feed before bedtime to make sure she’s eating enough to keep her guts moving properly. I hope she picks up tomorrow.
 
Betsy said:
If she doesn't start eating you'll need to start syringe feeding. Hope she soon feels better.

Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
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Thank you for this @Betsy 🙂 I've given her a syringe of critical care and I've set my alarm to go off every 3 hours to give her some more.
I was going to ask about fluids however the guide you've shared covers that - I'll give her some water now.

She's had her evening dose of antibiotics and painkillers (and an eyedrop - the vet said she has a small laceration on her left eye on account of it being open during the operation?), so she's "not talking to me" at the moment 😅
 
So I just gave Patsy some water in a syringe (after already giving her the night dose of antibiotics and painkillers), and she was like a zombie. Not limp or anything, and as soon as I put her back in the cage she immediately went back to her corner, but she just seemed to have more of a thousand yard stare than normal.

Could this be the painkillers causing her to space out a bit do you think?

Again she was standing up on her own, and moved like normal when I put her back in the cage (and the water went down as well), but it just caught me off guard how much more chilled she was than normal.
 
It takes a good 24 hours before the GA works it's way out of the system. Wen Betsy had her spay last year she was well spaced out and as high as a kite for at least 18 hours after her op.
 
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