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What are the chances of an abscess going away by itself?

Dilly's Piggies

Dilly's Piggies

Teenage Guinea Pig
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My girl Lottie was diagnosed with an abscess today at the vet, it's on her chest, near her armpit. It's roughly 5mm in size so quite small, it's not bothering her at all even when squeezed, the vet even put a needle in it today and Lottie didn't care. She has to go back in 7 days, if the abscess has grown she will need surgery to remove it, there's no treatment other than this. I'm obviously hoping it will go away but what is the likelihood of that happening?
 
Abscesses don't go away on their own; they just grow if they are left to their own devices. See your vet asap if the abscess starts blowing up quickly all of a sudden. It can triple or quadruple its size within 24 hours.


Usually an abscess close to the skin is lanced, marsupialised (i.e. the edges are stitched back to prevent it from closing quickly), flushed twice daily with a mild disinfectant like saline, hibiscrub or F10 in and kept open as long as possible in order to allow it to heal from the inside out and any infection to come out. The least spec of infection left inside can make it come back again, worse than ever. This is usually accompanied by a strong antibiotic like zithromax (baytril is generally not strong enough to cut through an abscess.

Abscesses deeper in the body needed to be removed by an operation. If they abscess capsule is unbroken, they do not need any further treatment than a normal operation recovery.
Tips For Post-operative Care
 
Agree with @Wiebke
I’ve had to deal with smallish abscesses and the vet has always prescribed cleaning out twice daily with Hibiscrub.
 
It hasn't burst yet, it only popped up a few days ago but it has grown rather fast, the vet said today "It could just go away by itself" but she has to go back in a week, if it's bigger then she needs surgery to remove the whole capsule, providing it hasn't burst by then. Why me!
 
CavyConnoisseur said:
It hasn't burst yet, it only popped up a few days ago but it has grown rather fast, the vet said today "It could just go away by itself" but she has to go back in a week, if it's bigger then she needs surgery to remove the whole capsule, providing it hasn't burst by then. Why me!
Click to expand...

You likely do not have a week's time to wait. Abscesses can happen out of the blue; I've had them.
 
Christian had a lump that was dormant for around 5 months and then it started to grow. In the 7-10 days the vet had diagnosed an abscess to his operation for it to be removed it had grown from the size of the top of your thumb to this!


Christian Abscess 1.webp

The abscess had adhered to almost every internal structure including his stomach, willy and femoral artery. The vet nearly phoned me twice for permission to pts. Christian is fine now 5 weeks post op but it was touch and go. Do not leave an abscess!
 

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CavyConnoisseur said:
So this abscess could've just come up from nothing causing it? No injury?
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Yes; it doesn't have to be an injury. There are internal abscesses, too.

If you can, please don't wait until the abscess blows up and you face a much larger uphill battle!
An abscess in a rabbit or guinea pig is an entirely different beast to a cat's or dog's when it comes to how quickly they can become severe.
 
As the others have said I would get lottie checked by a different vet.
My 5+ year old grace had a facial abscess last year that just appeared, she had Zithromax for approx 2 weeks, then the abscess was removed.

The vet said that the Zithromax had dried out the pus nicely& it had gone flakey, but it was around veins & muscles, so cleared what he could out & marsupialised (stitched open) the wound to drain the remaining infection.
Grace had the Zithromax for another 10 day's approx & I was flushing the hole with Baytril twice a day.

The whole process took about a month & it was only quite a small facial abscess.

Did the vet check the contents of the lump that was in the syringe? If it was a greasy, non odourous substance it's more likely to be a cyst.
With an abscess its probably smelly & bacteria are more likely to be seen on a sample slide under the microscope.

Good luck & please get her seen by another savvy vet for a proper diagnosis.

Healing vibes & speedy recovery to Lottie. Xx
 
They always need prompt treatment or they can get nasty very quickly! I've had my fair share of abscess experience and it's no pleasant, so much better to get rid of it while it's smaller than it being a huge mess later down the line.
 
It has been over a week and the lump is shrinking so we're still just watching, it might not be an abscess but a cyst instead
 
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