Huntledore
New Born Pup
Hi everyone 
I just wanted to share our really positive experience of ovarian cyst surgery that we had recently. When I found out our pig had ovarian cysts, I did a massive amount of research but I struggled to find a lot of positive outcomes and so I wanted to be able to provide some reassurance to others going through this. When I'm worried I also want detail about the process so I hope I can give that. I appreciate not everyone will be as lucky as we were and I am sorry for anyone who has had different outcomes.
Our pig was only 10 months old when she was diagnosed. We noticed some blood in her cage one evening and took her straight to our local exotics vet. Upon exmaination, the vet could feel the cyst(s) straight away and said that one ovary in particular was enlarged. We were given 3 forms of medication (an antibiotic, a pain killer / anti inflammatory and something to support gut movement). She had to take 2 of the medications twice a day and the other once a day.
1 week after the initial consultation she had the surgery. We were hoping she would be able to have just the ovaries removed via two incisions on her flanks as we understand this is a slightly simpler procedure and recovery can be easier. When the surgeon saw her on the day, he recommend a full spay as he was concerned the bleeding could be coming from her uterus and therefore she would need a larger incision on her belly. It's possible that the uterus could have been pre-cancerous so if we removed only the ovaries, there would still be risk of future issues. The surgeon explained the procedure, the risks, the aftercare and we went home to wait for the phone call...
Around 1.5 hours after we left the vets, the surgeon called and confirmed it had been a success! Our pig had started eating within 7 minutes of waking up from the surgery which was amazing news (our vet said they hope for pigs to start eating within 15 minutes and once that time has passed they start syringe feeding straight away). We packed all her favourite veg and obviously loads of hay so they had lots to tempt her with. We were told they would keep her in for a bit longer to make sure she was stable and continued eating.
Only 45 mins after the intial phone call we had another call saying we could go and collect her when we were ready. When we arrived to pick her up the nurse went through all the aftercare with us again and confirmed that we should continue with the 3 medications until further notice. We were booked in for post op appointments 2 days and 10 days after surgery. We were also told to call or come back if we had any concerns at all.
When we got home, we weighed her straight away as a benchmark so that we could monitor her eating and step in with syringe feeding if she started losing weight. We were concerned we may have to separate our pigs as our other one can be a little crazy! but thankfully we didn't have to do that as our other pig was extremely gentle and showed a lot of affection to the poorly pig post surgery (I am sure she knew!)
I sat with them all afternoon and evening on the day of the surgery and didn't leave their side. She was very sleepy on that first day which I knew was normal after the anaesthetic. We made sure to keep huge piles of hay right next to where she was resting so that so didn't need to move too much (or at all) if she didn't want to. She didn't really move around much at all on that first day and she was visibly uncomfortable as she kept shifting around constantly and she looked like she was flinching at times when she layed down (obviously the incision was underneath her so this makes sense). I was cleaning the poos from around her each time she did move out of the way to try and keep the area as clean as possible and we use fleece bedding so this was changed a lot more than normal over the first few days as the pads were getting more wet than usual due to her being in one place for a lot of the day.
She showed signs of improvement each day that passed. When we went to the 2 day post op appointment the nurse was really pleased with her progress and the scar area. She had lost around 25g in weight at this point which in the grand scheme of things is nothing more than a natural fluctuation so this was really pleasing. At no point during this process did we have to syringe feed so we were lucky however we were ready to do so if needed. Our vet is amazing and has a K laser machine which promotes healing so the laser was used at both post op appointments and this really seemed to help the healing process.
5 days post op we noticed some swelling around the scar. We went in to have it checked as we weren't willing to take any risks at all but luckily it was nothing to worry about. The vet thought this was probably a reaction to the internal stitches and is quite normal.
At the 10 day post op appointment we were told she could be discharged and would need no further follow ups unless we were concerned in anyway. At this point we stopped the medication (our pig was super fed up with the meds by this point so this was a huge relief for all of us).
We are now just over 3 weeks since the operation. The scar is fully formed and there is no more scabbing on view. Her fur has started to grow back nicely and is covering up the scar. We did notice one of the internal stiches sticking out of her scar which we were advised can be normal as the body views this as a foreign object and will try and push it out. We were advised by the vet to simply cut the suture which we have done (please do not do this unless you have spoken to your vet).
If I could give one piece of advice to anyone going through this - please please please please source an exotic vet who has experience in this type of surgery. I cannot stress this enough. You should be able to feel complete confidence in your vet and their knowledge and experience and if you have any doubts, travel far and wide to find someone who knows what they are doing because it is so worth it.
I'm in no way any kind of expert to help with medical questions however I am happy to answer any questions about the process itself if anyone is reading this and is worried about anything.
I hope this helps someone!
I just wanted to share our really positive experience of ovarian cyst surgery that we had recently. When I found out our pig had ovarian cysts, I did a massive amount of research but I struggled to find a lot of positive outcomes and so I wanted to be able to provide some reassurance to others going through this. When I'm worried I also want detail about the process so I hope I can give that. I appreciate not everyone will be as lucky as we were and I am sorry for anyone who has had different outcomes.
Our pig was only 10 months old when she was diagnosed. We noticed some blood in her cage one evening and took her straight to our local exotics vet. Upon exmaination, the vet could feel the cyst(s) straight away and said that one ovary in particular was enlarged. We were given 3 forms of medication (an antibiotic, a pain killer / anti inflammatory and something to support gut movement). She had to take 2 of the medications twice a day and the other once a day.
1 week after the initial consultation she had the surgery. We were hoping she would be able to have just the ovaries removed via two incisions on her flanks as we understand this is a slightly simpler procedure and recovery can be easier. When the surgeon saw her on the day, he recommend a full spay as he was concerned the bleeding could be coming from her uterus and therefore she would need a larger incision on her belly. It's possible that the uterus could have been pre-cancerous so if we removed only the ovaries, there would still be risk of future issues. The surgeon explained the procedure, the risks, the aftercare and we went home to wait for the phone call...
Around 1.5 hours after we left the vets, the surgeon called and confirmed it had been a success! Our pig had started eating within 7 minutes of waking up from the surgery which was amazing news (our vet said they hope for pigs to start eating within 15 minutes and once that time has passed they start syringe feeding straight away). We packed all her favourite veg and obviously loads of hay so they had lots to tempt her with. We were told they would keep her in for a bit longer to make sure she was stable and continued eating.
Only 45 mins after the intial phone call we had another call saying we could go and collect her when we were ready. When we arrived to pick her up the nurse went through all the aftercare with us again and confirmed that we should continue with the 3 medications until further notice. We were booked in for post op appointments 2 days and 10 days after surgery. We were also told to call or come back if we had any concerns at all.
When we got home, we weighed her straight away as a benchmark so that we could monitor her eating and step in with syringe feeding if she started losing weight. We were concerned we may have to separate our pigs as our other one can be a little crazy! but thankfully we didn't have to do that as our other pig was extremely gentle and showed a lot of affection to the poorly pig post surgery (I am sure she knew!)
I sat with them all afternoon and evening on the day of the surgery and didn't leave their side. She was very sleepy on that first day which I knew was normal after the anaesthetic. We made sure to keep huge piles of hay right next to where she was resting so that so didn't need to move too much (or at all) if she didn't want to. She didn't really move around much at all on that first day and she was visibly uncomfortable as she kept shifting around constantly and she looked like she was flinching at times when she layed down (obviously the incision was underneath her so this makes sense). I was cleaning the poos from around her each time she did move out of the way to try and keep the area as clean as possible and we use fleece bedding so this was changed a lot more than normal over the first few days as the pads were getting more wet than usual due to her being in one place for a lot of the day.
She showed signs of improvement each day that passed. When we went to the 2 day post op appointment the nurse was really pleased with her progress and the scar area. She had lost around 25g in weight at this point which in the grand scheme of things is nothing more than a natural fluctuation so this was really pleasing. At no point during this process did we have to syringe feed so we were lucky however we were ready to do so if needed. Our vet is amazing and has a K laser machine which promotes healing so the laser was used at both post op appointments and this really seemed to help the healing process.
5 days post op we noticed some swelling around the scar. We went in to have it checked as we weren't willing to take any risks at all but luckily it was nothing to worry about. The vet thought this was probably a reaction to the internal stitches and is quite normal.
At the 10 day post op appointment we were told she could be discharged and would need no further follow ups unless we were concerned in anyway. At this point we stopped the medication (our pig was super fed up with the meds by this point so this was a huge relief for all of us).
We are now just over 3 weeks since the operation. The scar is fully formed and there is no more scabbing on view. Her fur has started to grow back nicely and is covering up the scar. We did notice one of the internal stiches sticking out of her scar which we were advised can be normal as the body views this as a foreign object and will try and push it out. We were advised by the vet to simply cut the suture which we have done (please do not do this unless you have spoken to your vet).
If I could give one piece of advice to anyone going through this - please please please please source an exotic vet who has experience in this type of surgery. I cannot stress this enough. You should be able to feel complete confidence in your vet and their knowledge and experience and if you have any doubts, travel far and wide to find someone who knows what they are doing because it is so worth it.
I'm in no way any kind of expert to help with medical questions however I am happy to answer any questions about the process itself if anyone is reading this and is worried about anything.
I hope this helps someone!
