Guinea Pig Surgery

skullncrossbones

Hello everyone,

On Monday I discovered a lump near one of my piggies back legs, sort of near her hip. To be on the safe side I took her to the vet today and was told I could either have it poked with a needle under gas or have it surgically removed. Surgery carries greater risk but if it cannot be drained by the needle she would need to have it removed surgically anyway. So shes due to go in Monday morning and I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this? Did your piggy recover well? Did they not survive surgery? I'm trying to stay positive but reality is she may not survive, so wanted to see if anyone else had gone through this. Just feeling worried for her

littleemmie

Sorry to hear this. One or our guinea pigs had surgery for a lump and he recovered well. Be prepared to keep a very close eye on her afterwards and give her lots of treats she will definitely eat to keep her strength up afterwards also. We just fed ours basil and parsley as no matter how poorly, he always eats it and it was a guaranteed way of getting something into him! We also syringe fed him critical care food for a while until he was properly better as the anaesthetic can really take their energy. The worrying thing with guinea pigs is that they can instinctively stop fighting ao much if they think they are poorly. We really had to work hard to get his strength up and keep him thinking he was ok. My guinea pig is now nearly 8 years old and whilst his lump has grown back, it is not as big as it was and not harming him so we haven't had to get it removed again.

Has the vet said what the lump is? Ours was just a fatty lump that is apparently quite common and is nothing sinister.

Our other guinea pig needed regular operations (every 3-6months) on his teeth. We asked the vet to only give him a small puff of anaesthetic, which she did, and he came through every op fine with just some TLC afterwards.

Good luck on Monday, I hope it all goes well.

skullncrossbones

Thank you for replying, the vets words just keeping ringing in my ears "It carries risk, she may not survive" Ekkk! I know they have to tell you this but it's still very upsetting to hear.

No they didn't say what kind of lump it was, he said he'll remove it and keep it and give it to me to keep if it's a solid lump, as the lab bill would be over £200 in total to send it off to find out what it is. I just don't have that sort of money, least if I keep it, I can put some money aside and should her lump return he said we can send the old one away to be tested. Not sure where I'll keep it...not sure I want to see it every day lol.

Would you say I need to be around her/checking her often? I'm away for 12 hours a day at work, I can take her with me but she has an outdoor hutch there, would this be ok? (She's a nursery piggie for the kids I look after, but kept them at home during winter so they were inside.

littleemmie

the surgery does carry risks, particularly as piggies aren't the most common animal vets operate on. My experience with 2 otherwise healthy piggies though has been positive. I will admit, one of ours very nearly didn't make it after one of his ops (for teeth) but that was because he was given a lot of anaesthetic, hence us since asking a different vet to be minimal with the dose.

The vet should keep your pig in after the op to make sure she is ok and eating well. How much you need to keep an eye on her will depend on how she responds to the op. 1 op we had resulted in me spending a good few hours prodding him and trying to feed him so he didn't conk out again!! All the other ops were fairly straightforward and although we kept an eye on them in the evening after collecting them, we still went to work but made sure we fed critical care before we went, left a pile of basil and parsley treats while out and the gave more critical care when we got back. A few ops didn't need critical care as the Piggie responded well and was eating straight away. If she is a good weight and in good health otherwise you may find she won't need the critical care food. You can always crush up her normal dried food and mix with a bit of water to syringe feed if you don't get given critical care from the vet and you find she isn't eating.

I've just remembered, after his lump op our Piggie developed a touch of constipation and we had to go back to the vet for some special fibre stuff to feed him!

Haha, I'm not sure where I'd keep the lump either! We didn't get ours tested as we knew it was just fatty material based on what came out when they started to drain it initially. That really put me off my dinner!!

RachRubyD

I had a guinea pig years ago and he had to have an operation for his teeth and pulled through fine. There is a risk as others have said but there is with all animals/humans. Don't feel silly worrying I spent the whole day crying when mine had to his has op. Hope all goes well x

skullncrossbones

Thank you both for your replies. Gonna be the longest day Monday as I won't be able to get her until after 7, but I feel positive she'll do just fine she's a tough nut! I did spend yesterday evening rather tearful but I have to keep hopeful thanks again, I'll update you Monday.

skullncrossbones

She's fine nurse said she came round well and then are a bit, when I picked her up they said she'd gone off her food so they gave her some critical care, didn't send me home with any yet. Once I got her home she had some pellets n spinach Check up on Thursday and if all is well she won't need anymore critical care n I will reunite her with her friend thanks for the advise I'm so happy she's ok.