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Very sore grease gland & mopey pig

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Hannahbelle

Hannahbelle

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I hope someone might be able to offer some advice. My 3 year old boar Harvey has a problem with his grease gland. It currently looks like a pink walnut stuck on his bottom, it's sore and raised.

I had been rubbing coconut oil onto the gland and pulling out what could be either lumps of dried grease or bits of shavings, and it seemed to reduce in size slightly. Harvey didn't show any signs that this was hurting him.

Last night I decided to leave Harvey's bottom alone as I didn't want to make it sore/stress him out. When I went upstairs to check on him he'd not eaten any food and was lying, hair puffed up on the bottom of his cage. I took him out the cage and gave him some carrot, celery and dried food, which he ate a little, but he was just lying down not busy running around like his usual self.

Do you think it could be linked to the inflamed grease gland?

I've got an appointment with the vets today at 5, I just hope he's ok on his own today whilst I'm at work. I left him this morning lying in his cosie, he didn't look any better.8...

I'm so worried, and just wondered if anyone had experienced anything similar?

x
 
So sorry to hear that Harvey is feeling poorly. I don't have any personal experience of such issues with grease glands, but just wondered whether Harvey's has become infected, which I believe can happen sometimes, or perhaps he's had a reaction to the oil you used? I generally use Fairy Liquid to clean my boars grease glands, I work a little into the area, leave it to soak for a few minutes and then gently wipe away the muck, sometimes you have to use your nail to ease the grease off if is really bad - always remember to rinse the area thoroughly.

Good luck at the vets later today, I hope they can give you something to help Harvey get back to his usual happy self.
 
It might be an infection it looks very odd. I've not seen any photos online of anything similar.

I'd read about the coconut oil on a couple of websites, and thought it would be less stingy than Fairy liquid as it's not crusty, it's red and sore. The oil is meant to soften up the bits of hard grease which on Harvey were almost embedded in the red skin. This has just popped up over a couple of days, and as soon as I noticed I started trying to clean it.

I hope it's not the oil I used, I'd feel awful if I've been making things worse :( I'll take the pot to the vets so they can look at it.
 
I'm sure you haven't made it worse Hannah, it sounds as if Harvey is just unlucky - some boys are more prone to grease gland problems than others. I'm sure the vet will be able to sort it out for you. Keep us posted.
 
Can you post a picture? Sometimes grease glands can look a bit 'walnut' esque, and the grease can go an orangey/red kind of colour. It depends on how greasy they are.

Is the raised bit hard to the touch? or does it feel like skin?
 
Thanks for the replies, it's definitely his skin that you can see not red/orange grease. I'll take a picture before I go to the vets, and update on what the vet says it is - you never know it might help people in the future if they're searching for info on the same problem like I was last night.

Fingers crossed for Harvey
 
i am having trouble with my lad stan his gland is soooo over productive at the moment and its all stuck in his hair, but I'm keeping at it and hopefully it will be ok in the end.

Hope your guy gets on ok at the vets x
 
Photos of his sore bottom
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a6d45a67.jpg
 
Ouch, I have to admit, i've never seen a grease gland quite like that before! I hope you can get some answers, it must be so sore for poor Harvey. Any luck at the vets?
 
Vet said that he's got a cyst pushing out his grease gland. I've got some metacam and baytril to calm down the inflammation. It won't go fully down but I have to wash it with salt water once a week to clean out the crevices. Otherwise he's in good health and a good weight so it must be his sore bum getting him down.

Wish me luck with syringing the medicine!
 
Good luck, are you ok with syringing? There is a thread about it somewhere if not.

It looks proper poorly, I'm going to keep a closer eye on my stans!
 
ouch that does look painful! did the vet say anything about removing the cyst? good luck giving him his meds, i certainly dont have any advice in that department; when i tried giving piglet his meds back when he had ringworm, i had to practically bargain with god to get the meds down! rolleyes anyway, good luck!
 
Thanks for the update. Definitely worth having a read of the meds thread. My guys don't generally like baytril very much so I mix a tiny bit of blackcurrant squash in with it to take the taste away - seems to work:))

Good luck and I hope the meds do the trick.
 
awww poor boy...no, that does not look normal!...hopefully the cyst will go down soon...
 
Hope it calms down soon for him. He'll probably like the Metacam but Baytril is another matter. Mine don't like the taste of Baytril but it's usually such a small dose I don't think they can be bothered to put up much of a fight. Good luck. x
 
I gave him his meds last night and he was so good bless him. The vet suggested mixing Ribena with the Baytril and he seemed to like it. She said we might have to remove the cyst if it keeps getting inflamed, but will see how the salt water washes work first.

He was so cheeky at the vets, was running around the table, did a nice healthy poo and wee and was eating a bit of carrot and basically looked like a pig in full health. 5 mins earlier he'd been lying down looking unwell - typical!mallethead

Much more alert and back to normal this morning :))
 
Glad he's feeling better. They always perk up for the vets, same as kids at the Drs, it doesn't matter how poorly they look at home they love to make you look like a complete neurotic worrier by being a picture of health when they get to their appointment!mallethead
 
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