Help! One of our piggies has a lump...

[WyrdByrd]

...have just been bathing the girls and whilst blow drying them discovered that Bella has a lump.

It's around/underneath her right nipple, feels softish, doesn't look red or 'angry'. It's around 1cm in diameter.

She is absolutely her usual self, wheeking, eating, pooing & weeing, no apparent weight loss & pottering about quite happily - doesn't appear to be in any pain or discomfort or unwell in herself at all.

Any ideas as to what it might be? Am going to try and find a vet locally that is good with small furries and make an appointment for early next week to get it checked out.

[fortifiedwithtea]

Fatimus had a lump on her mammary gland. But she also started to leak wee all the time. Vet advised mastectomy and hysterectomy at the same time. It did not end well .

Poor Fatimus pulled her stitches open and needed more surgery to repair the damage she had done to herself. Then she gave up the will to live and faded away

I think she would have survived she just had the lump removed.

If you do go for surgery, do dress her in a sock a la 'sock pig' to stop her pulling her stitches. Guineas can't really wear a cone of shame

1. because they don't make them, although vet did try to make one out of a bird cone after the repair surgery

1. Its hard for guineas to eat food/eat poop with a cone on.

Hope vet recommends leave well alone as long as your piggy appears happy and healthy. Good luck.

[WyrdByrd]

Aw, poor Fatimus , I'm sorry to hear that - I know the name from when I was researching getting ours I think - we need a celebrity piggy emoticon over here .

She's only 18 months old, and is DD's piggy technically.

She saw her in P@H a week before we were able to get them and she was so thrilled when she was still there when we went back. She'll be devastated if anything happens to her.

[WyrdByrd]

The sock..?

Do you mean put her in a sock with holes for head/legs cut in so she can't get at the stitches?

I guess we'll need to bring her indoors for a while too if they do have to operate.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

GP1 had a lump on his belly (but as a male it wouldn't be anything like Fatimus had) . It was like a Smatie under his skin (so quite sizeable but flat) it came and went.(it was between the nipple area, possible belly button hernia)
When we took him for a check up, it was smaller, we just kept an eye on it.
GP2 had several lumps (again male) fatty nodules.

Best to have it checked to rule out anything sinister and if it's fatty , just keep a check on it. If it's not, you need to weigh up the options (and like fortified now we've got sows, I'm wary of surgery as it's invasive and not always a good outcome )

[Mintyy]

My Peggy had a fatty lump when she was about two or three and she did have surgery to remove it and was fine. Last year we discovered another one and as she is much older now we decided not to put her through surgery. She is still here and still absolutely fine it must be at least 9 months since we discovered the lump, if not more. It is sort of in her armpit . But she is a cheerful old girl and I don't want to stress her by having unnecessary surgery. I think these guinea lumps can obviously be benign but of course it is worth taking her to the vet for a check up.

[WyrdByrd]

Have just tidied up the indoor run gubbins - had then on an old waterproof sheet with a fleece on top.

There are four patches of tea-coloured wee on the white sheet which isn't right is it? I'm going to have them in one at a time in the morning on a white towel to see who that is - hope to God it's not Luna. Don't think my nerves or bank balance could weather 2 sick piggies .

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

The wee can be different colours depending on what they eat and if they are drinking enough.

We've had darker pee patches from time to time ( is it browny rather than blood stained. Are there any blood stains in their fur - though if you've washed them they won't show now)

Increase their juicy veg like cucumber to keep them hydrated ( we have pigs that don;t drink )

[WyrdByrd]

Mine aren't big drinkers but I've not noticed it before. Haven't given them anything unusual to eat either.

Will make sure to give them some cucumber tomorrow & maybe get them some watermelon if it's not too extortionate.

She does seem absolutely fine in herself. At least it's coming up to half term so if she does need surgery I'll be around all day to keep an eye on them both.

[WyrdByrd]

Definitely tea coloured.

Didn't notice any blood in her fur. It's dark but I think I would have felt some matting when I picked her up as she likes to be well supported underneath, bless her, she can't bear her feet dangling.

[WyrdByrd]

TM piggy I - took this photo to show vet...

[fortifiedwithtea]

Following on from Fatimus I got 2 rescue sows. Unfortunately one of them, Coco, has developed a lump on her vulva. Its slow growing and caused me more heartache. I thought I as going to have to have her pts. She was passing a huge amount of bright blood.

The vet has said surgery is not a good option, expensive, invasive and likely Coco won't survive. Luckily I was given the option of Baytril and see what happens. Happily Baytril , its anti-biotic did the trick. Coco must have had bacterial cystitis .

Coco still has her lump which I keep an eye on. She squawks when she has a wee or poo but she has Metacam on days that she is very squawky.

Wyrdbird your piggy may respond well a course of Baytril.

HTH

[WyrdByrd]

Have registered online with a our local vets so will give them a ring on Monday.

Thanks for all the advice - any more ideas much appreciated.

[WyrdByrd]

Had them in separately this morning - wee seems to have largely gone back to normal.

They had banana yesterday for the first time in months so wonder if that was it.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Banana oxidises so YY could account for the discolouration.

We washed GP4 when her rump was mucky (not pooh, smelled like pee and most likely warding off unwanted advances from the boar. It was more on her rump than her belly). Mixture of wee and boar glue perhaps?
The water was a lovely shade of smokers finger brown .
GP4 was much happier .

[WyrdByrd]

Smokers finger brown sounds about right.

The banana aspect only occurred to me late yesterday evening.

Back to just worrying about the lump now .

[WyrdByrd]

So...

...been to the vet's this afternoon with Bella and her lump.

Some prodding with a needle revealed that it's not an abscess but the only way to discover exactly what it is, is via needle biopsy, so I have come home to arrange a second mortgage !

Will have the results in a week or so, but vet did say when she transferred the 'matter' to the slide that it looks like it may just be a fatty lump.

Also said she's otherwise in very good condition, and she was certainly surprisingly well behaved (her nickname for the first year was Bitey Bugger, so I was anticipating drama). She is now in the indoor run stuffing her face with parsley and telling Luna all about it .

Can I ask those of you with experience of this kind of thing - if it does turn out to be 'just' a fatty lump, would you be inclined to leave it while she's well and happy in herself, or have it removed?

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

OK, not an abscess so you don't need to worry about infections and antibiotics. Good news.

Fatty lump - mine (recent and not so recent) have had fatty lumps. My childhood sows had grapesized smooth lumps in their chins . Didn't stop them eating or enjoying life.

GP1 had one on his belly then as he got middle aged (he was nearly 4 when he died) one in his saggy chin.
GP2 (Abby) had several - armpit, ear,side (which sprang up quickly but remained the same for months till he died)

Fatty lumps I'd leave unless they impaired their lifestyle (eating and moving) We had a mouse PTS when a lump (tumour-mice are prone) got too big.

TBH, even a malignant lump, I'd think long and hard about surgery. Lots to consider like the surgery, recovery, the animals age.

Now with the advances in vet medicine I think they will offer more but you have to weigh up who it will benefit.
Little rodenty types do get lumps and bumps. It is difficult to know what's for the best.

[WyrdByrd]

That's really useful to hear 70.

My feeling is that if it's just a fatty lump it's best left well alone as she is (touch wood) absolutely perfect otherwise. Obviously would rethink if it got bigger and started proving to be a problem.

If it's malignant...eek. Surely she would seem unwell if it was that serious? She's only 18 months old, so if they thought removing the lump would be the end of it, I think we'd have to try the surgical route even though I'd probably have to sell a kidney to pay for it judging by today's bill!

The funny thing is, I'm not remotely squeamish about human gore/surgery, but I could barely watch the vet take the sample. I realised today I couldn't bear the thought of having an animal PTS (although obviously I would woman up rather than see them suffer unnecessarily). I was with my cat when she slipped away years ago and was fine with that, but I would really struggle with being in that situation.

[WyrdByrd]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips and reassurance last week .

Had Bella's results today - predominantly fatty lump but slightly swollen lymph node so have a got a course of antibiotics as a precaution.

She seems happy enough to take them on a slice of pepper and they have both enjoyed being even a bit more spoiled than usual .

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Relief that it's a fatty lump (though you know your piggy will hold onto her Judgey Grudges and just when you think she's built a bridge and got over herself (love that phrase) she'll hoik those Judgey Pants right up )

Keep checking her over, these lumps can change shift about (DD used to examine the pigs' bellies regularly, you could see their eyes popping ).

Guineas are lumpy little rodents

Spoil them well and truely

[WyrdByrd]

I was slightly less inclined to spoil her after the first attempt with the ABs.

Tried them on a rolled up cabbage leaf first but she obviously really wasn't in the mood for eating her greens as I'm now sporting two pink teeth marks and lovely blue bruise on my left boob!

She has been so lovely and cuddly lately though that I'll have to let her off . DD has a friend staying over so I've got some boxes from work and we're going to make them a huge piggy play palace tomorrow .

[millimat]

Need photos of the piggy palace please!

[WyrdByrd]

I will have to reassemble it again tomorrow and make sure I have my phone charged!

They did thoroughly enjoy it though - two storeys with various doors cut out and interconnecting tubes. I could have watched them in it all day, but it was a pita when it came to getting hold of them to go back out!