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Tallulah has an abscess :(

PigglePuggle said:
Under her wound is very swollen tonight, but soft like its fluid build up which the vet suggested might happen when we saw her yesterday, almost as swollen as the original abscess, but she's very well in herself and ate a mountain of hay and 3 spinach leaves and a lettuce leaf at playpen/cage clean time, her poops are normal again, and she chatted to Puggle and flirted with Theo a lot through the playpen bars, she was zooming about exploring and enjoying playing in a cardboard box, so I just gave her some loxicom (plus another syringe feed and some pro C that she probably didnt need) and we'll see how it looks tomorrow. Our vet appointment is at 5pm but if the wound looks any more dodgy I'll phone at 8.30am and try get an emergency slot!
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It could be a seroma. They can form after surgery. Seroma - Wikipedia
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
It could be a seroma. They can form after surgery. Seroma - Wikipedia
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Thanks that's really helpful! I'll mention it at the vets tomorrow. Do you know if she would she need the fluid removing or would it be a watch-and-wait thing to see if its reabsorbed? Poor little thing, she looks a right hunch-back franken-bat-hippo-pig state, but it isn't bothering her at all, she's starving and noisy and running about just like before her surgery! And it looks to be swelling up then shrinking down again, just when it looked like a call to the vet might be in order it went down again by the time I discussed it with piggy daddy (in the meantime Tallulah was playing happily at soaking a cardboard box with pee until it was soft enough for her to eat the cardboard, so it would be difficult to categorise her condition as an emergency!), the new lump is very soft and squishy not like the hard abscess lump...
 
It does sound like it could be a Seroma. I had a piggy develop one, after having a lump removed from her neck. Simon drained it, as it was causing her difficulty to swallow. He just put a needle into it and drew the fluid off. There is always a chance that it will re-fill, but in time it will reabsorb.
 
Betsy said:
I'm pleased it not just my piggies that do this! They are very straaaaaaaange animals sometimes!
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I love seeing her start to do normal piggy things, she was having so much fun I didnt want to drag her off to the vet 24 hours early and disturb her playtime seeing as she seemed so happy, I'm always off to the vet with the slightest thing but she saw the vet yesterday and she wasnt worried, and she hadnt had her loxicom yet which might bring the swelling down a bit, so we'll check first thing tomorrow morning, vets appointment booked for tomorrow at 5pm anyway...
 
I do hope Tallulah is ok. She really has been having a difficult time of it and she is only baby. xx
 
YvonneBlue said:
I do hope Tallulah is ok. She really has been having a difficult time of it and she is only baby. xx
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She's definitely had a rough few weeks, but less so than poor Blodwen when she srrived with ringworm and overgrown teeth and she couldnt even have any playtime near the others. And Tallulah is a feisty little madam! Hopefully in a couple of weeks this will all be over with and Tallulah can start dating and looking for a forever friend if she can't join the herd :)
 
Oh dear a bad start to the day for poor little Tallulah, her surgery wound is leaking a mixture of clear fluid and blood... so we were back to the vet at 9am. So it is a seroma thanks @furryfriends (TEAS) but with a bit of bleeding too.
She's back on the baytril as the wound is now open. She saw both head vet Clare who did the surgery and nice young piggy whispering vet Alessandro. They decided to just let the fluid leak for now, hopefully it will leak out without any intervention and stop accumulating. We just apply gentle pressure to the swelling with a clean handkerchief and soak up what comes out every couple of hours, then we're going back to the vet on sunday when they will decide whether they need to sedate or anaesthetise her and drain the fluid surgically... poor little bat hippo girl, she's still eating and pooping fine though at least, she managed to eat 3mls of recovery food, 2mls of probiotic, a bowl of pellets and porridge oats, and a slice of carrot and a slice of cucumber, all before the vets opened! I'd worry a lot about her having another GA though, especially so soon after the last one, seeing as they had a bit of trouble with it last time...
 
Oh dear poor Tallulah. Hopefully the seroma will drain without further intervention. Sending healing vibes from me and the herd. 💕
 
PigglePuggle said:
Oh dear a bad start to the day for poor little Tallulah, her surgery wound is leaking a mixture of clear fluid and blood... so we were back to the vet at 9am. So it is a seroma thanks @furryfriends (TEAS) but with a bit of bleeding too.
She's back on the baytril as the wound is now open. She saw both head vet Clare who did the surgery and nice young piggy whispering vet Alessandro. They decided to just let the fluid leak for now, hopefully it will leak out without any intervention and stop accumulating. We just apply gentle pressure to the swelling with a clean handkerchief and soak up what comes out every couple of hours, then we're going back to the vet on sunday when they will decide whether they need to sedate or anaesthetise her and drain the fluid surgically... poor little bat hippo girl, she's still eating and pooping fine though at least, she managed to eat 3mls of recovery food, 2mls of probiotic, a bowl of pellets and porridge oats, and a slice of carrot and a slice of cucumber, all before the vets opened! I'd worry a lot about her having another GA though, especially so soon after the last one, seeing as they had a bit of trouble with it last time...
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I'm sure it is worrying you more than it is bothering Tallulah. I think it is likely to resolve itself. When my Hannah piggy had one, Simon drained it by putting a needle into it. He managed to remove most of the fluid and the rest reabsorbed. A few years later, I was caring for a piggy who had an abscess removed and he also got a seroma. Simon chose to do nothing, as it wasn't causing the piggy any problem. Slowly, over the next week, it started to shrink and eventually settled. It's good that Tallulah is well in herself. Try not to worry too much x
 
I’ve also had a piggy with a seroma and it did resolve itself. It was more alarming for us than it was for her. I’m sure it looks worse for Tallulah because she has no fur. Sounds like you are in very safe hands and Tallulah is being very well cared for by you and Mr PP
 
Aw, sending big hugs to you and Tallulah fingers crossed it will sort it’s self out and no intervention will be needed x
 
She's zooming around popcorning, leaping on the roof of her wooden house wheeking like crazy, and trying to chew through the bars and get into the main cage... all with blood and wound ooze streaming down her back, which is apparently good because the fluid is draining... I have no idea what's going on with her today! I'll get her out and clean her up when piggy daddy gets back from asda with the fresh veggies and some sensitive skin face wipes for bat-hippo cleaning... I hope he gets the right salad for her...
 
Poor Tallulah, fingers crossed she will be just fine. I had a cat about 20 years
ago who had a large tumour removed from her stomach and the same thing happened to her. The vet drained it and she was fine.
I'm sure Tallulah's looks a lot worse because she has no hair.
Sending hugs.xx
 
Little just tore her wound open... blood everywhere... squealing... 2nd emergency vet trip of the day coming up...
 
Here's the little bat-hippo zonked on opiate painkillers with a big hole in her neck. The big hole is staying open overnight to let the seroma fluid drain. She probably scratched her neck with her back foot because the fluid oozing out felt funny, and helpfully made a hole big enough to drain it properly. Vets again at 10am tomorrow. They are still seeing her for free as part of her original post-op care, though we did pay £12 for a big buprenorphine injection to calm her down a bit... thats the lump near her back leg, where she had her injection!
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Just before we set off to the vet she was still trying to eat lunch with blood dripping down her face... she managed 12 pellets and 2 bits of kale too in the time it took to make the emergency phone call and grab the car keys!
I really hope she makes it through all this, but she's definitely a fighter...
 
Oh Tallulah you are so naughty.
But you have to love a piggy with so much personality, even if they give you grey hairs.
Hope she's OK.xx
 
Doing ok! Wound looks such a mess I kind of dont want to look, but she had a 4-hour drug-induced power-nap then just woke up and ate 4mls of recovery food and 2mls of probiotic. We've noticed that she loves her furry nose patch rubbing, and her ears- and she hates being touched anywhere else unless she's wrapped in a clean cotton tea towel. Not fleece, not a fluffy towel, she likes nice clean smooth cotton tea towels and handkerchiefs best! You learn so much about pets when they need nursing and you spend so much time with them, I feel like we know her so much better since she's been ill, I do hope she recovers...
 
And most of the dinner has disappeared, and the hay tray has been sat in, and there was a bat-hippo shape scurrying away when I went in to top up the hay and do the water bottles... please get well funny little hippo girl! There's just such a big hole in her neck... oozing all sorts of stuff... maybe @alpacasqueak 's Pedro and Tallulah should start a club for "feisty rodents with big surgical holes in but surviving"...
 
PigglePuggle said:
And most of the dinner has disappeared, and the hay tray has been sat in, and there was a bat-hippo shape scurrying away when I went in to top up the hay and do the water bottles... please get well funny little hippo girl! There's just such a big hole in her neck... oozing all sorts of stuff... maybe @alpacasqueak 's Pedro and Tallulah should start a club for "feisty rodents with big surgical holes in but surviving"...
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Better out than in! That's what I say! I think that's what she thinks too! :-)
 
Just caught up with this thread. Poor little Tallulah. I had a young piggy who had a huge haematoma post neutering which caused him a lot of pain. It took weeks for it to resolve. It's awful when they are babies. But on the plus side they just want to get on with living and growing. Here's hoping that the little hippo is finally on the road to recovery xx
 
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