Vet recommending surgery for 6 year old guinea pig

[starpatch]

Our guinea pig has a large growth under her chin, she is still well with it at the moment but obviously uncomfortable. But she is feeding lots and will even run to be first to the tit bits. The vet has suggested a biopsy- the point of it would be if it is not cancer he says she can have surgery. We are a low income household but I do have savings I could use for this- but I just question whether she is very likely to benefit from surgery- I always thought that even young guinea pigs were high risk from anaesthetics.

i work in a vets - when they say biopsy, do they mean put a needle in to draw off some cells to make a slide and look under a microscope? this shouldn’t be expensive and should give a hint if it is likely to be an abscess, cyst or tumour. I would consider doing this but I’m not sure I’d do the surgery, especially if money is an issue, and the GA would be fairly risky. If you decided to leave it, you would need to prepare yourself to make the decision to pts if it got bigger/too big to remove and was affecting his quality of life/eating etc.

I don’t think the vet would be trying to pressure you, but just give you maximum information to decide.

I am not a vet and have no medical expertise. I do have guinea pigs though and would be wary of putting a 6 year old through surgery. Hope your guinea continues in good health.

Swelling in this region can be due to overgrown teeth roots causing an abscess alternatively it could be a tumour.
Taking a sample by needle is called an FNA ( fine needle aspirate) . It’s often diagnostic but sometimes not. Pus is usually quite obvious on FNA but other samples may need to be sent away.
With any test it’s always worth asking “what are we going to do with the information?” and “if we do this will it change what we do next?”.

6 years old is pretty elderly for a guinea pig. I think it's ok to not make huge financial sacrifices and pts once any condition starts to affect quality of life at this age.

I agree with @OlizraWiteomQua
As someone who has had many, many guinea pigs.🙂

I wouldn't do it. Our little piggie got a hay poke injury to the eye, we were quoted £950 to remove the eye, I felt pressured but said we can't afford that and pigs often don't survive the anaesthetic so opted for a palliative treatment of antibiotics and pain killers. After two weeks the little bugger was fine! So many tears shed in our house when we thought we would lose him, he has gone blind in the eye but this is no problem for him. A year on still fine now 5 years old. Good luck with your little one.

Thank you really appreciate the responses this is my gut but am also very fond of her. Vet said had ruled out a cyst already, the biopsy would be just to see type of tumour so whether surgery would be indicated or not.

I’ve lost so many Guinea pigs post-op that when my last girl had a mammary tumour I didn’t operate, it didn’t bother her for months and when it did I pts.

I’ve had young healthy pigs have straightforward surgery for ovarian cysts and then die of organ failure within a month, and even a lot of GP-specific rescues are no longer routinely castrating males because of the rate of serious post-op complications.

Leaving finances aside, YANBU to think surgery is not the humane option for a 6 year old piggie.

Thanks Wotchaz

Of course they are, that’s how they make their living. 6 is a pretty average age for a guinea pig. Leave her be as long as she seems comfortable and is eating well.