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Post-neuter abscesses and other complications

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furryfriends (TEAS)

furryfriends (TEAS)

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I am becoming increasingly concerned by the number of cases of post neuter abscesses I am hearing about.

If your piggie has developed an abscess following his castration op, please can you post details here? Please give as much info about your guinea pig as possible, including the age he was when he was castrated.

I would also be very interested to hear about any other post neuter complications.

Many thanks!

Debbie
 
fluffy monster developed a abcsess 2 months after neutering. he is 11 months old. he's had it lanced 3 times and has now had an operation to keep the abscess open to drain out which i'v got to clean and keep open. poor little boy.
 
I wouldl just like to add that Azithromycin, also known as zithromax the very best antibiotic for dealing with abscesses. It's worth asking your vet if they would consider using it. My vet would be more than willing to speak to other vets who may want information regarding the usage and dosage of this antibiotic. Please PM me if you would like my vets details.
 
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My Fred was aged 2 when he was neutered. I chose a vet who had done 50 successful neuters in a year and was recommended by a local rescue. I had him neutered because his brother died and I wanted to rehome
him with some females from the rescue. The op went well, but a few days after he developed a swelling. The vet said he had an abscess. This improved but then a lump developed on the other side. The vet thought this was a hernia and operated on him again to find it was a large abscess. She said he had reacted to the sutures. His abscesses healed up after about two weeks with daily pus squeezing, cleaning and Baytril.
He was then homed with his girls Pebbles and Wilma and they adored each other. Unfortunately Fred died about six weeks later of ? A stroke or something else neurological.
 
furryfriends said:
I wouldl just like to add that Azithromycin (zithromax) is the very best antibiotic for dealing with abscesses. It's worth asking your vet if they would consider using it. My vet would be more than willing to speak to other vets who may want information regarding the usage and dosage of this antibiotic. Please PM me if you would like my vets details.
Click to expand...

Who is your vet? I note you are in Northampton which is local to me.
 
My guinea Bumble got an abcess about 5 weeks after his op. This was last year. Bumble was roughly just under a year old, is a large pig (he weighed around 1.2kg pre op) and is a Swiss.

It was at the site of incision and on his right 'ball' or rather where it was. It popped easily (all over my vet, and not my normal one, the emergency quite attractive male one, DOH!). My vet then flushed it with saline solution until he got all out that he could. I was prescribed baytril and advised to give metacam if he seemed in pain, pop it regularly myself and keep it clean with a weak hibiscrub solution and cotton wool.

Bumble reacts badly to metacam so I am afraid he had to grin and bear it, he got plenty of parsley though! I popped the abcess around 3 times a day to ensure I was getting out any pus as soon as it appeared. We went back to the vet two days later, she went to flush it again but get very little out so advised me to continue with the baytril for 5 days but keep popping twice a day in case there was more there. About 4 days after I got the final 'core' of the abcess out. It smelt absolutely evil but I quite like pus so didn't care lol.

Bumble reacted well to the baytril, and around a week later was right as rain.

It is now around 7 months on and we have had no further issues

Hope that is enough detail FF! I would show you the vet bill as well but it makes me cry to look at it lol

Oh yes, the vet who did the op is Ann O'Meara (nee Taylor) of Goddards in Ewell, a very experience piggy vet who has done many, many neuters and comes highly recommended, and trained under Peter Guerny for some time. She did both my other boys and neither had any complications.
 
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Only one abcess from neutering procedure - but longer term adhesions and gut motility/stasis probs have been rife following neuterings. Happy to talk to Simon on the phone. I Will not be getting any further pigs neutered unless on health grounds - I now feel it is as risky as spaying.


Ginger: 6 mnth male neutered at same time as an op to correct entropion in June 08 by Vet no 1. No complications untill now......possible long term adhesions interfering with gut motility.

Beech:18 month old male neutered as part of a "job lot" in Aug 08 by locum vet no 2. No abcess problems but in Nov 10 his gut stasis was attributed to adhesions of the gut to the stomach (suspected previous abdominal infection and neutering op suspected as the cause....the abdo infection was not noticed becuase at the time he had a URI and was given baytril followed by septrin which probably also knocked out the abdo infection). Following an op to remove the adhesions by Vet no 4 in Feb of this year, he developed gut stasis (**** from new adhesions), respiratory distress and was PTS

Bandit:12 month old male neutered as part of the job lot by vet no 2. Developed abcess at site of stitches and on further op, an additional deep-seated abdominal abcess was found connected to the other abcess by "a fine needle-diameter channel". Abcesses were drained and antibioitics injected directly into them by trusted vet no 3. Septrin, echinacea and arnica prescribed. No further issues apart from recently (last month) vet no 4 confirmed he has gut motility problems again thought to be due to adhesions from previous surgery.

Charlie: 15 month old male neutered as part of a job lot by Vet no 2. No problems with neutering (although it was NOT tidy) but he passed away 5 months later from a ruptured thoracic duct....and we have no idea how this happened or when or where.

However......3 spays......no problems!

HTH
x
 
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Have had one spay done on medical grounds sadly sow did not do so well post op and passed away but have had many neuters done, first three years ago with local vet resulted in two abscessing and one herniation vet recommended by local rescue. Did not got back there.

Then a long break til I found a very experienced vet had many neuters done and recommended the vet to many and never (touches wood very quickly) had a post op complication since.
 
I've had 7 neuterings. A variety of vets over a couple of years. Some used tiny incisions and popped the testes out to detach them, another made much larger incisions to have a better view of everything, these were the last 2 boys and best ops as far as I was concerned. All were between 8-12 months old.

4 developed post op abscesses, 3 had long term problems - I think due to adhesions. One had recurring gut stasis, another had recurring urinary tract infections and the third had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic that he never seemed to fully recover from, nothing that could be pinned down at the time but he took a very long time to get over the op and went downhill every 6 months for no reason, only to recover after a lot of support.

The three that had long term problems were never rehomed, all three died by the age of 3 yrs.

I have not had a neuter done for the past 6 years - the experiences I had have and the impact it has on the pigs means that I will not neuter unless for medical reasons. I view it as an unneccessary op.

Another side effect of not having neuters - and therfore no mixed sex pairings or groups is that I have not had a pig with a UTI (urinary tract infection) since, despite having around 600+ pigs through the rescue in that time, apart from JohnnyPig a few weeks ago who had been living with some very naughty young boys so he had probably been demonstrating his dominance - rude man.

Suzy x
 
I had Jacob neutered and he died a few weeks later because of an abcess that the vet did not pick up on when I took him back, she treated him for mites which he had obviously got due to his low immun System because of his abcess. I used another vet to have Yorkie neutered and he also got an abcess which this time was treated quickly and Yorkie survived. He was put on.Baytril and I did ask the vet about azithromycin but he did not want to prescribe itM
I do think that getting a guinea pig neutered is high risk and I won't do it again, luckily I know a rescue that neuters all their males, so if I need a neutered male in the future I am going to adopt one. x
 
i had Roland neutered a couple of weeks ago. The vet stitched the cuts up instead of using the glue. I've had two friends that have gone to a different very guinea savvy vet for neutering and have had abcess problems and so i think it may be reaction to the glue they use? Roland seems fine and has had no problems so far. I'll get Alice from Windwhistle Warren to come on and post as she regularly has guineas neutered and has a few experiences with it x
 
This is all very interesting, although sad and worrying that post op problems seem so common.

I wonder why it is that my vet, Simon Maddock, rarely has a problem with any guinea pig neutering (castration and spay), and yet these complications seem to happen quite a lot. Is it that he's a more competent surgeon? Is it due to the suturing material he uses? He uses disolvable stitches - I can find out exactly what he uses.

For those of you who have had post op complications, which method of suturing has been used? PiggiePal, your comments about the use of glue are very interesting.
 
The pigs that had the most probs - post op and long term - were the small incision types, 3 glued, 2 single stitch.

The best ops and results were long insicions each wound had 3 or 4 stitches.

Suzy x
 
Suzygpr said:
The pigs that had the most probs - post op and long term - were the small incision types, 3 glued, 2 single stitch.

The best ops and results were long insicions each wound had 3 or 4 stitches.

Suzy x
Click to expand...

Simon only makes a very small incision each side.

Another thought. Was anyones piggie given routine antibiotics post op? If so, did the guinea pig have any complications?
 
Hywel had his neutering op at about 15 months old at the end of January.

Three weeks after the op, he developed a band of swelling at the back of testicles which caused adhesion problems. Kim Maddock put the swelling down to bacteria present in the blood colonising an inflamed area.

Hywel has to stay on metacam for the rest of his life and had a couple more short adhesion episodes even after the swelling had come down nicely. For the last month, he has been completely free of any problems and has gained back the weight he's lost. Because of the long term metacam, he will live about a year shorter than he would otherwise.
 
Wiebke said:
Hywel had his neutering op at about 15 months old at the end of January.

Three weeks after the op, he developed a band of swelling at the back of testicles which caused adhesion problems. Kim Maddock put the swelling down to bacteria present in the blood colonising an inflamed area.

Hywel has to stay on metacam for the rest of his life and had a couple more short adhesion episodes even after the swelling had come down nicely. For the last month, he has been completely free of any problems and has gained back the weight he's lost. Because of the long term metacam, he will live about a year shorter than he would otherwise.
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I would like to point out that Hywel's castration op wasn't done by either Simon or Kim Maddock. Wiebke took Hywel to Kim after he developed complications.
 
I have had several boars neutered, the first one was a disaster - he got a haematoma that became infected and developed an abcess that needed draining and Baytril. since then have gone to a different vet and every one has done well ( I tend to give them Baytril for a few days until the healing is well underway). My vet uses a subcuticular dissolving suture and does give a dose of baytril by injection during the op. I always give them pain relief for a few days as well.
 
Post Neuter Abcess - Our story :0

Hi, I am new to the forum and to be honest only found you under one of the worst circumstances.....

I have been caring for guinea pigs for 5 years and have 6 females ranging from 2 months to 5 years+. During this time our male guinea pig came into our lives. We had only gone to the pet shop for supplies but left with Rocky. The rest of the litter had been sold and he was 4 months old and was continually being left at the store so they asked if I'd take him as they new of our furry family.

We had him for a while but he was coming up to 18 months and needed a community to be in where there were no bars between them. I couldn't just let him meet with the girls as I couldn't let the older ones get pregnant and they were too old for an anaesthetic. On 3rd April Rocky went in to be neutered. He seemed to be doing well, he had 2 small incisions which were glued with disolving stitches internally. He had a painkiller injection, an antibiotic injection and an injection to prevent statis. He went home with Metacam to be taken for 3 days. On 6th April he went for a post op check up it was thought he had a little inflamation and was to remain on Metacam. The week of the 9th April was hectic...on Monday I picked him up only to get a handful of really smelly pus. I took him to the vet, he was sedated then they drained an abcess on both sides. He went home with Baytril to be taken twice a day. I took him back to the vet on Wednesday and once again they drained the abcess using local anaethetic. Friday came and they asked if he could be dropped in at 8.30am where they could look at him during the day. Later that day he had an operation to remove all the dead tissue and left the vets at 6.30pm with Baytril. He looked a little out of sorts but he had only come round from the op at about 5.30pm so I wasn't too worried. Sadly, at 8.30pm on Friday 13th April 2012 Rocky died. We tried so hard to keep him with us. We only wanted him to be happy. We feel so guilty. I will never put a guinea pig through that again, ever!
 
HUGS

I am sorry that you didn't find us earlier; perhaps Rocky could have been saved.
 
valley_girl said:
Hi, I am new to the forum and to be honest only found you under one of the worst circumstances.....

I have been caring for guinea pigs for 5 years and have 6 females ranging from 2 months to 5 years+. During this time our male guinea pig came into our lives. We had only gone to the pet shop for supplies but left with Rocky. The rest of the litter had been sold and he was 4 months old and was continually being left at the store so they asked if I'd take him as they new of our furry family.

We had him for a while but he was coming up to 18 months and needed a community to be in where there were no bars between them. I couldn't just let him meet with the girls as I couldn't let the older ones get pregnant and they were too old for an anaesthetic. On 3rd April Rocky went in to be neutered. He seemed to be doing well, he had 2 small incisions which were glued with disolving stitches internally. He had a painkiller injection, an antibiotic injection and an injection to prevent statis. He went home with Metacam to be taken for 3 days. On 6th April he went for a post op check up it was thought he had a little inflamation and was to remain on Metacam. The week of the 9th April was hectic...on Monday I picked him up only to get a handful of really smelly pus. I took him to the vet, he was sedated then they drained an abcess on both sides. He went home with Baytril to be taken twice a day. I took him back to the vet on Wednesday and once again they drained the abcess using local anaethetic. Friday came and they asked if he could be dropped in at 8.30am where they could look at him during the day. Later that day he had an operation to remove all the dead tissue and left the vets at 6.30pm with Baytril. He looked a little out of sorts but he had only come round from the op at about 5.30pm so I wasn't too worried. Sadly, at 8.30pm on Friday 13th April 2012 Rocky died. We tried so hard to keep him with us. We only wanted him to be happy. We feel so guilty. I will never put a guinea pig through that again, ever!
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Oh that's awful i'm so sorry for your sad loss. What an awful shock and it must be difficult not to feel guilty. Where are you located in the country we can perhaps recommend a guinea savvy vet to you incase your other pigs get sick at any point.
Try not to feel bad, you were only doing what you thought was right for him its just a shame that things didn't work out for him.
Hugs and best wishes to you at this sad time x
 
After reading this topic, i'm seriously reconsidering getting Rebel neutered. I want him to live with the girls but if there is a serious risk to his life, i'd rather rehome him so he lives in a same sex partnership. I couldn't bear losing him as he's very special to us. He's the very first piggy that has been born in our family. I think i'll arrange a meeting with the vet before hand to talk through the procedure and their success rate.
 
The Highway Man said:
After reading this topic, i'm seriously reconsidering getting Rebel neutered. I want him to live with the girls but if there is a serious risk to his life, i'd rather rehome him so he lives in a same sex partnership. I couldn't bear losing him as he's very special to us. He's the very first piggy that has been born in our family. I think i'll arrange a meeting with the vet before hand to talk through the procedure and their success rate.
Click to expand...

If you let us know where you're located we may be able to recommend a vet to you x
 
The Highway Man said:
After reading this topic, i'm seriously reconsidering getting Rebel neutered. I want him to live with the girls but if there is a serious risk to his life, i'd rather rehome him so he lives in a same sex partnership. I couldn't bear losing him as he's very special to us. He's the very first piggy that has been born in our family. I think i'll arrange a meeting with the vet before hand to talk through the procedure and their success rate.
Click to expand...

I had Cyrus neutered last September as he did not bond with Dalton and I had to weigh up the pros and cons of keeping him as a single pig or neutering him so he could live with the girls. I called several vets and done research and I decided to have him neutered. All was well until 3 weeks post op when Cyrus developed an abscess. he had been nibbbling one of the wound sites and thats where the abscess developed. He was rushed to the emergency vets and the wound was drained and anti biotics administered. I had to flush the wound daily for two weeks and luckily it did not reoccur. Cyrus is now living a very happy life with the girls. Would I do it again??..................I really dont know. It was so stressful however seeing him now with his girls makes it seem worthwhile. Good luck with whatever you decide...
 
I had Lightening neutered at about the age of a year. The vet was Jo Hedley at the Dick Vet School which is part of Edinburgh University. She does dozens and dozens of small animal/exotic operations a year, but I don't know how many neuterings. Lightening had antibiotics pre-op, he had two small incisions about 2 cm long on each side, with three or four stitches in each. The stitches were the dissolvable type, but no glue was used. He had metacam and septrin post op, and was kept in four six hours after he fed, drank and pooped. He had a follow up six days later, and was well examined - palpitated, and prodded quite a bit, poor boy. Absolutely no problems at the time or since. I would go back to Jo again for similar ops. The other exotic vet who specialises in rodents is Emma Keeble, and I have used her for a lot of stuff.

Neither was available when Stripe had his infection which possibly caused gut torsion/stasis/bloat three weeks post baytril, so there might be a connection there as poor Stripe didn't make it.

Although they are expensive - £90 as a package including any necessary post-op care - I think it was worth it and will get more done if required. However, this thread has made me think a bit. We're so close to the Dick Vet that I think I take it for granted. It's threads like this that make me sit up and realise how lucky I am to have them so close.
 
Thanks for sharing your sad story. I have a lone boar and had considered neutering some could join my girls but I've heard of a few stories like yours, and I will not be getting it done, infact we are going boar dating at the weekend!
 
PiggiePal said:
If you let us know where you're located we may be able to recommend a vet to you x
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I live in Maryport in West Cumbria. If I decide to go ahead, the vet I use will possibly be Millcroft Practice in Cockermouth.
 
An interesting thread...

I've had 4 neutered males. Boxy was already neutered when I got him, but I had him 3 years and had no complications (through adhesions etc.). I had Big Dave and Little Dave neutered by my usual vet. He's neutered guinea pigs before, but he's not an exotics man or anything, he's just a skilled surgeon. Neither of them had any post op comlications, and 3 years on, no health problems at all. They weren't given post op antibiotics either.

Jeff was neutered the day that I got him by the RSPCA. The vet did an awful job of it, to the point where the skin edges didn't even meet when they glued him mallethead He had post op antibiotics (baytril) and has had no problems at all. He was neutered about 12 months ago.

Would certainly be interesting to see if there's any common denominators.

Spaying however....we won't talk about that!
 
Complications

I've had 4 boars neutered in the last couple of years.
Ages estimated [as all but one of my guineas are rehomes]

1st Alfie 1-2yrs old, went into large practice with their top surgeon and came out as if nothing had happened - no probs at all.

2nd Basil 3-4yrs old, went to same vets as above but different surgeon -came out looking really ill [ Basil not the surgeon] [ snappy vet nurse on reception told me he was ok and wouldn't even spell out the medication he'd had so i could look it up online, painkiller anti inflam and anit bi shots - I was fuming -but thats another story] after 24hrs Basil had a swelling the size of a golfball and i had to take him back where he was given another anti inflam & prescribed Baytril, can't remember the dose sorry. His swelling did go down ok but somehow he never seemed the same pig, as if a light had gone out somewhere inside him :(
I hope i never have to set foot in this vets again due to attitude of staff!

3rd Pigwig around 1 year old, different vet practice - came out very swollen, no anti bi's prescribed - within 2wks he was back to his usual unswollen self and very happy :)

4th Rodney 3yrs old , [same surgeon as Pigwig] - came home happy and popcorning! Swelled up, took him back twice, 1st time told he was ok and he had a precautionary anit bi shot, 2nd time saw my usual vet who said she was concerned and prescribed Baytril 0.4 once daily for 7days, to return after this has finished to decide if they should open him back up to check whats going on. This morning i wondered what that awful stench was- yes it was Rodney, foul smelling gunk all over the towel! This had exited through where one of his stitches had been, i don't know how all that stuff got out of that tiny little hole! We now have another 2 weeks worth of Baytril and some fibreplex and an appointment 1st thing Thursday [ earliest morning apt i could make due to work ] don't know if i will be leaving him to go back into theatre?

Having had 4 neutered and 2 with complications i don't think that i would have another pig neutered unless it was essential for medical reasons.
 
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