I just had a piggie go through a cyst removal. He was at the shelter and a bunch of us volunteers get together to get him out/get him looked at by a vet. The cyst was HUGE, the size of a golf ball on his butt. He was also low energy and would sleep a lot. We weren't sure if it was just a cyst or tumor. He went through surgery and it ended up just being a cyst. I watched him post surgery, and since I am WFH I was able to keep a very close eye on him. Surgery went well for him, and he seemed to have so much more energy after! For us, the surgery was a good thing.
Good reason to find and treat bumps early so surgery doesn't need to be done or can be done under local while small if actual tumor. In a rescue situation, unfortunately most of animals are not being checked for health problems pre-rescue.
@@donnarn2727 yea, this poor guy was surrendered at the shelter...we think he was housed in a wire bottom cage he was missing toenails. We also suspect he wasn't ever fed any veggies because he didn't seem to know what they were for the first week or two and didn't eat them. The poor little guy had a rough life, but now he is in the care of experienced piggy people so any future cysts can be caught early ❤️
My 5 and a half yr old piggy had a sc growing on her hip and it had gotten so large it started leaking one night. I got scared and rushed her to emergency vets. Amazingly I seemed to know a lot more about sc lumps than the attending vet. She was fascinated by all the stuff coming out. After several months of me trying to get the sebaceous material out by emptying and cleaning it on a regular basis, I decided to try to risk surgery since my piggy wasn't happy with me getting her out and making her uncomfortable. I didn't want her to be in pain, I had to do something 😢 She had two surgeries in the end, but with having the cyst removed she lived another 12 months until she passed away at nearly 7years old. I miss her so much ❤ With all the pre and post op care I was providing right up to her last day, we spent a lot of extra time together. She was such a trooper with all the appointments, treatments and very patient with me applying dressings to the surgical site for several weeks. She was always such a special girl. After she passed away, my mornings and evenings felt empty. I miss my big furry mountain ❤ she was a hefty 1400g right up until the last wheek of her life. I honestly think the extra weight helped her stay as healthy as she was
I remember Abby (skinnypigs1) had to have her piggie Calvin's cyst removed because his brother Hobbes chewed at it and it got infected repeatedly. But that was one of the rare cases you mentioned where surgery is unfortunately necessary. Thank you for this video Scotty, your contributions are so important to the piggie community!
Hiya Scotty! Glad to see that you are doing well, especially after the Jasper "event". You were soo, soooo upset and blaming yourself my heart broke for you about that! Great to see you bouncing back from a very difficult event with your fur-baby. I understand how you felt because after having to put my Funny Face down after 12 years of having him by my side all the time, it wrecked me for years, and I had to learn to cope and try not to put the thought of caring for another fur-baby again, hence, Latimore, my piggie, whom I've had for almost a year now, and he has been a blessing to me from the get go :) - just wanted you to know your care for these and all animals is very much appreciated, and you must know that all your "fur-babies" do love you too!
Just a month ago I had my very first experience with a sebaceous cyst. my piggy had a lump on his chin the size of a grape, he ended up scratching at it and it scabbed over. I went to wash it off with a warm wash cloth and it started to ooze. I was able to squeeze and manipulate the puss out of it and he has been fine ever since. So glad to see this video come across the tubes…and you are right it didn’t smell, believe me I checked😜
This just happened to my sweet piggy! He definitely scratched it open once before so I can see why it was oozing 😢 Gave him a good rinse and dried him off so hopefully he will be okay but I am still going to take him to see a professional just to be sure!
Even though I don't comment often, I do watch a lot of your videos, and just wanted to say thanks for the detailed description and photos of the cyst removal. Very useful information!
I wish I knew this sooner. My girl just had a cyst removed she did fine with the Segery,but because it was on her hind leg she would not potty after and ended up getting a UTI.
I’ve been fortunate in that none of my piggies have ever had a cyst or an abscess. The idea of putting a piggie under for surgery is pretty scary. I’ve had to do it three times. This is good advice, some things can be left alone. Be vigilant with your piggies. Check them often. 🐾
One of our girls who has longer hair than the others had some kind of hair follikel/ sebaceous cyst that was discovered by the local vets assistant so they cleaned it a few times. Than we went to the Guinea Pig vet who said that surgery was probably better if it would not get better, this time he cleaned it. Also blood came out. I noticed that it was not going better and through circumstances had to visit another Guinea Pig vet. I expected that she would clean it, but she explained that a hard shell was covering the area and therefore surgery was necessary but she said that she’s very careful with her Guinea Pig patients. That she had 18 Guinea Pig patients per week, And indeed, despite the fact that we didn’t knew how old the guinea pig was, she recovered very well. We paid about 80€ and no medicine was needed. She had stitches. We were relieved that it went so well . I heard that vets can now use a safer method during surgery so that it is safer for guinea pigs.
Yes!! I saw the aftermath of a cyst removal and its wayyyy more invasive than it ever needed to be. They could just Lance it but they didn't. They did so much and I was mortified
Hes such a good boy....my boys would never sit still that long 😅..thank you for this informative video...my boy vanilla has one and i have been freaking out and i didn't know what it was
Thanks Scotty. My eldest boar Lucky had a huge one on his bum, and it popped open about two weeks ago. I squeezed that stuff out, and was surprised that he didnt seem to mind at all. However, I was not able to get it completely flat. There was still a slightly raised area around the hole, as if there was a little tiny half a bagel under the skin with the hole in the middle. I didnt know it was important to flush it out.... that's a shame. Now its healing closed with neosporin put over it every day. If it fills up again I will do what you said. I can top your gross factor here... when I squeezed all that stuff out, he turned around quickly and ate it before I could stop him. BLECH.
this video just saved me from a sleepless night and a freakout at vet's. one of my sister's piggies, Cherry, got a ruptured "pimple", where part of it exploded outside and started smearing his fur, and I was worried SICK that it could be an abscess. so I lightly trimmed the area around, started cleaning out what I thought to be pus... and then realised it's not smelly. I checked the colour, and it was slightly off-white creamy substance, and INSTANTLY I remembered that I watched this video before. I rewatched it again right now to check if I missed something in my treatment of Cherry, and so far it seems good! the worrisome part is that the rupture still left him with a bit of "meat" outside, so we're still going to check in with a vet, but for now online instead of us panicking "oh no, our rodentologist doesn't have an offline session until Monday, where can we find a vet surgeon within a day?!" so thank you, Scotty ❤ here's hoping everything turns out okay and is cleared up by our vet. Cherry is eating and drinking well, running around and drumming his chewing stick against the cage, and also he and Tim (cage buddy, currently separated for a bit) didn't tussle *once* while out on our walking carpet! so at the very least all of us might get a good night's sleep.
Lumpy and bumpy, that's piggies as they age. Several of our piggies have pea-sized ones in their flabby bits. One of our girls got one on her spine and the skin started to split even though it was pretty small. We were able to drain it at home, but it just started filling again and was very uncomfortable for her. She did end up having surgery but it was rolled in with her Flank Spay surgery, so no extra sedation or recovery period. She was under 2 years old and recovered quickly. It was a bit pricey but it was deemed medically necessary, since she also had ovarian cysts.
My piggie had one of those, while he was at the vet getting a health check and his nails trimmed, I showed it to the Dr. and he just popped it, it is gone now. Now he has a new one in a different spot, I'm not worried about it he's fine!
one of my past piggies had a cyst that her previous owner used to drain every month or 2 and i continued doing that for 2 yrs until i noticed it started growing and becoming hard. only at that point did we have it removed. lucky it was only the cyst but we did send it for testing to make sure.
Yes! Maple has had an abscess ever since I got him and thankfully both of the Vets we've seen completely agree nothing is necessary. When I first brought him in they lanced it to look at what was inside and said it was just puss and to just watch it. It's actually smaller now and I've had him for like three years and he's doing fantastic. Also, how do we suggest an addition to the Vet List?
One of my girls that is three years old, have two lumps in her stomach. The vet checked with their colleauges, and calles me back, to recommend me not to operate. As long as my guinea pig can move around and eat, and don't have any problems with the skin on the lumps, she can live a good life.
My pig just had to go through this for the last week. This is the second time. It came back with a vengeance. I've been feeding him critical care because the antibiotics nearly shut his little belly down. Never again. 😢
Is the stuff inside supposed to have no smell at all? One of my piggies have something like this, but the stuff smells a little unpleasant. It doesn't stink, just a little bad smell.
My guinea pig has a massive cyst/tooth root abscess on her face, going to her neck and near her shoulder. She's so full of life. She's eating and drinking like normal and popcorning, etc. But the lump has gotten so big, she's getting frustrated with it. It's getting in the way when she eats or when she tries to use her water bottle. I don't want to put her down. I don't know what to do 😞
What did the vet say? A cyst is often not an issue, an abscess is an active infection. You can check out my worldwide vet list. Maybe it can be cleaned and drained along with the course of antibiotics
The stuff inside the lump will generally reflect the color of the skin. Darker skin should have darker stuff, it sounds like a sebaceous cyst and the stuff that's coming out is sebum or oils generated by the skin. They often will grow to a certain size and they can be removed surgically, they can also be squeezed and drained sometimes. They have a sheath that also must be removed and it should be cleaned and antibiotic ointment should be put on it. Often squeezing and draining sebaceous cysts will remove them but they may come back. Regardless of what you choose they are generally benign and unless they are growing out of control can be basically ignored. They're very similar to a pimple and often will resolve themself on a long enough time frame
Yes, I think any surgery on piggies seems to me as risky thing because of the anesthesie. Of course it depends on what the illness is. I hope and pray that it never will be needed with my sweet 2 boars 👃🍀🐹🐹🌠💞🕊️
So if a guinea pig needs teeth clipped do you need to have them put on anesthesia? Because now I’m worried. My guinea pig need teeth clipped because they grew to long and my vet said he needed to be knocked out to do it. Well that day I truly believe they gave him to much anesthesia and he died.
I'm so sorry about your piggy. Guinea pigs are really vulnerable to anaesthesia. The British Veterinary Association however deemed that all dental procedures for guinea pigs had to be done anaesthetised, but cited as evidence a load of papers that only talked about rabbits, so many vets here were up in arms about that, as they had had much better outcomes with conscious dental procedures.
@@Mcsqw thank you. I loved that little piggie he became very bonded to me which I thought was rare. I saved him from a cramped fish tank at a pet shop. I went in there just to look and felt sorry for him so rescued him. I at least take comfort that I gave him a happy spoiled life filled with love for amount of time I did have him.
I just had a piggie go through a cyst removal. He was at the shelter and a bunch of us volunteers get together to get him out/get him looked at by a vet. The cyst was HUGE, the size of a golf ball on his butt. He was also low energy and would sleep a lot. We weren't sure if it was just a cyst or tumor. He went through surgery and it ended up just being a cyst. I watched him post surgery, and since I am WFH I was able to keep a very close eye on him. Surgery went well for him, and he seemed to have so much more energy after! For us, the surgery was a good thing.
Good reason to find and treat bumps early so surgery doesn't need to be done or can be done under local while small if actual tumor. In a rescue situation, unfortunately most of animals are not being checked for health problems pre-rescue.
@@donnarn2727 yea, this poor guy was surrendered at the shelter...we think he was housed in a wire bottom cage he was missing toenails. We also suspect he wasn't ever fed any veggies because he didn't seem to know what they were for the first week or two and didn't eat them. The poor little guy had a rough life, but now he is in the care of experienced piggy people so any future cysts can be caught early ❤️
so glad he got the help he needed! and that's the whole point - only do procedures that are ACTUALLY NEEDED.
My 5 and a half yr old piggy had a sc growing on her hip and it had gotten so large it started leaking one night. I got scared and rushed her to emergency vets. Amazingly I seemed to know a lot more about sc lumps than the attending vet. She was fascinated by all the stuff coming out. After several months of me trying to get the sebaceous material out by emptying and cleaning it on a regular basis, I decided to try to risk surgery since my piggy wasn't happy with me getting her out and making her uncomfortable. I didn't want her to be in pain, I had to do something 😢 She had two surgeries in the end, but with having the cyst removed she lived another 12 months until she passed away at nearly 7years old. I miss her so much ❤ With all the pre and post op care I was providing right up to her last day, we spent a lot of extra time together. She was such a trooper with all the appointments, treatments and very patient with me applying dressings to the surgical site for several weeks. She was always such a special girl. After she passed away, my mornings and evenings felt empty. I miss my big furry mountain ❤ she was a hefty 1400g right up until the last wheek of her life. I honestly think the extra weight helped her stay as healthy as she was
thats different because it was so big and probably uncomfortable
I remember Abby (skinnypigs1) had to have her piggie Calvin's cyst removed because his brother Hobbes chewed at it and it got infected repeatedly. But that was one of the rare cases you mentioned where surgery is unfortunately necessary. Thank you for this video Scotty, your contributions are so important to the piggie community!
I remember that too.
I appreciate your advice so much! One of my girls had one that I was concerned about, but it healed up on its own without intervention.
Hiya Scotty! Glad to see that you are doing well, especially after the Jasper "event". You were soo, soooo upset and blaming yourself my heart broke for you about that! Great to see you bouncing back from a very difficult event with your fur-baby. I understand how you felt because after having to put my Funny Face down after 12 years of having him by my side all the time, it wrecked me for years, and I had to learn to cope and try not to put the thought of caring for another fur-baby again, hence, Latimore, my piggie, whom I've had for almost a year now, and he has been a blessing to me from the get go :) - just wanted you to know your care for these and all animals is very much appreciated, and you must know that all your "fur-babies" do love you too!
Gizmo is so cute ❤
Just a month ago I had my very first experience with a sebaceous cyst. my piggy had a lump on his chin the size of a grape, he ended up scratching at it and it scabbed over. I went to wash it off with a warm wash cloth and it started to ooze. I was able to squeeze and manipulate the puss out of it and he has been fine ever since. So glad to see this video come across the tubes…and you are right it didn’t smell, believe me I checked😜
This just happened to my sweet piggy! He definitely scratched it open once before so I can see why it was oozing 😢 Gave him a good rinse and dried him off so hopefully he will be okay but I am still going to take him to see a professional just to be sure!
This is good info to have!
Even though I don't comment often, I do watch a lot of your videos, and just wanted to say thanks for the detailed description and photos of the cyst removal. Very useful information!
Great video Scotty!!! I have seen one popped at saskia's. Not gross at all. Listen to Scotty! ❤❤❤❤❤
I wish I knew this sooner. My girl just had a cyst removed she did fine with the Segery,but because it was on her hind leg she would not potty after and ended up getting a UTI.
You mean the piggy was holding her pee?
I’ve been fortunate in that none of my piggies have ever had a cyst or an abscess. The idea of putting a piggie under for surgery is pretty scary. I’ve had to do it three times. This is good advice, some things can be left alone. Be vigilant with your piggies. Check them often. 🐾
One of our girls who has longer hair than the others had some kind of hair follikel/ sebaceous cyst that was discovered by the local vets assistant so they cleaned it a few times. Than we went to the Guinea Pig vet who said that surgery was probably better if it would not get better, this time he cleaned it. Also blood came out. I noticed that it was not going better and through circumstances had to visit another Guinea Pig vet. I expected that she would clean it, but she explained that a hard shell was covering the area and therefore surgery was necessary but she said that she’s very careful with her Guinea Pig patients. That she had 18 Guinea Pig patients per week, And indeed, despite the fact that we didn’t knew how old the guinea pig was, she recovered very well. We paid about 80€ and no medicine was needed. She had stitches. We were relieved that it went so well . I heard that vets can now use a safer method during surgery so that it is safer for guinea pigs.
This is extremely helpful info, Scotty. Thanks so much!
Yes!! I saw the aftermath of a cyst removal and its wayyyy more invasive than it ever needed to be. They could just Lance it but they didn't. They did so much and I was mortified
I'm sorry that happened
I'm so sorry this happened to your piggy ❤
I love Gizmo❤
Good advice
Gizmo is such a good boy ❤
Hes such a good boy....my boys would never sit still that long 😅..thank you for this informative video...my boy vanilla has one and i have been freaking out and i didn't know what it was
Scotty I love the interaction you have with all your piggies it's wonderful to watch ❤
Thanks Scotty my pig has one and we left it alone. Shes over 5 years old and has had it for a year.
Thanks Scotty.
My eldest boar Lucky had a huge one on his bum, and it popped open about two weeks ago. I squeezed that stuff out, and was surprised that he didnt seem to mind at all. However, I was not able to get it completely flat. There was still a slightly raised area around the hole, as if there was a little tiny half a bagel under the skin with the hole in the middle. I didnt know it was important to flush it out.... that's a shame. Now its healing closed with neosporin put over it every day. If it fills up again I will do what you said.
I can top your gross factor here... when I squeezed all that stuff out, he turned around quickly and ate it before I could stop him. BLECH.
this video just saved me from a sleepless night and a freakout at vet's. one of my sister's piggies, Cherry, got a ruptured "pimple", where part of it exploded outside and started smearing his fur, and I was worried SICK that it could be an abscess. so I lightly trimmed the area around, started cleaning out what I thought to be pus... and then realised it's not smelly. I checked the colour, and it was slightly off-white creamy substance, and INSTANTLY I remembered that I watched this video before. I rewatched it again right now to check if I missed something in my treatment of Cherry, and so far it seems good! the worrisome part is that the rupture still left him with a bit of "meat" outside, so we're still going to check in with a vet, but for now online instead of us panicking "oh no, our rodentologist doesn't have an offline session until Monday, where can we find a vet surgeon within a day?!"
so thank you, Scotty ❤ here's hoping everything turns out okay and is cleared up by our vet. Cherry is eating and drinking well, running around and drumming his chewing stick against the cage, and also he and Tim (cage buddy, currently separated for a bit) didn't tussle *once* while out on our walking carpet! so at the very least all of us might get a good night's sleep.
Can you please share the name or link of what you used to clean in and what antiseptic?
Lumpy and bumpy, that's piggies as they age. Several of our piggies have pea-sized ones in their flabby bits. One of our girls got one on her spine and the skin started to split even though it was pretty small. We were able to drain it at home, but it just started filling again and was very uncomfortable for her. She did end up having surgery but it was rolled in with her Flank Spay surgery, so no extra sedation or recovery period. She was under 2 years old and recovered quickly. It was a bit pricey but it was deemed medically necessary, since she also had ovarian cysts.
Hello, Scott, I've watched you for years. Do you still work with saskia from the LA Guinea pig rescue.
My piggie had one of those, while he was at the vet getting a health check and his nails trimmed, I showed it to the Dr. and he just popped it, it is gone now. Now he has a new one in a different spot, I'm not worried about it he's fine!
one of my past piggies had a cyst that her previous owner used to drain every month or 2 and i continued doing that for 2 yrs until i noticed it started growing and becoming hard. only at that point did we have it removed. lucky it was only the cyst but we did send it for testing to make sure.
I think you did exactly the right thing.
Yes! Maple has had an abscess ever since I got him and thankfully both of the Vets we've seen completely agree nothing is necessary. When I first brought him in they lanced it to look at what was inside and said it was just puss and to just watch it. It's actually smaller now and I've had him for like three years and he's doing fantastic.
Also, how do we suggest an addition to the Vet List?
One of my girls that is three years old, have two lumps in her stomach. The vet checked with their colleauges, and calles me back, to recommend me not to operate. As long as my guinea pig can move around and eat, and don't have any problems with the skin on the lumps, she can live a good life.
I also have guinea pig and she also have this lump...so what I have to do...
As someone who has a gp rescue but is in an active domestic situation, who can I speak to for help
My boy had a cyst and it was growing rapidly so his vet records to removed it and that what I did
Also my vet doesn’t do teeth trim without Anastasia
My pig just had to go through this for the last week. This is the second time. It came back with a vengeance. I've been feeding him critical care because the antibiotics nearly shut his little belly down. Never again. 😢
Hi Gizmo. It's difficult enough to remove cysts on humans. Piggies are too delicate for this sort of surgery ❣️
Is the stuff inside supposed to have no smell at all? One of my piggies have something like this, but the stuff smells a little unpleasant. It doesn't stink, just a little bad smell.
Another great video scotty, thanks for the information. Jguk
My guinea pig has a massive cyst/tooth root abscess on her face, going to her neck and near her shoulder. She's so full of life. She's eating and drinking like normal and popcorning, etc. But the lump has gotten so big, she's getting frustrated with it. It's getting in the way when she eats or when she tries to use her water bottle.
I don't want to put her down. I don't know what to do 😞
What did the vet say? A cyst is often not an issue, an abscess is an active infection. You can check out my worldwide vet list. Maybe it can be cleaned and drained along with the course of antibiotics
Aww I have to get some gpigs again...hello from England, anyone who loves gpigs is ok ! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
My boy Hugo had a large cyst and it was lanced. It did come back but I left him alone and he was fine. Miss my pigs!
What about a lump that had black stuff come out. Now nothing comes out and it looks dried out. The vet didn't know what it is. It is clearly growing.
The stuff inside the lump will generally reflect the color of the skin. Darker skin should have darker stuff, it sounds like a sebaceous cyst and the stuff that's coming out is sebum or oils generated by the skin. They often will grow to a certain size and they can be removed surgically, they can also be squeezed and drained sometimes. They have a sheath that also must be removed and it should be cleaned and antibiotic ointment should be put on it. Often squeezing and draining sebaceous cysts will remove them but they may come back. Regardless of what you choose they are generally benign and unless they are growing out of control can be basically ignored. They're very similar to a pimple and often will resolve themself on a long enough time frame
Does this apply to ovarian cysts too? Or just sebaceous ones?
It doesn’t apply to ovarian cystes, LA Guinea Pig rescue recently made a video called Hairloss in Guinea Pigs with facts on causes and treatment.
Do Guinea pigs get ganglion cysts? Saskia was talking with Dr. Nenneker about doing it with a local anesthetic.
Yes, I think any surgery on piggies seems to me as risky thing because of the anesthesie. Of course it depends on what the illness is. I hope and pray that it never will be needed with my sweet 2 boars
👃🍀🐹🐹🌠💞🕊️
So if a guinea pig needs teeth clipped do you need to have them put on anesthesia? Because now I’m worried. My guinea pig need teeth clipped because they grew to long and my vet said he needed to be knocked out to do it. Well that day I truly believe they gave him to much anesthesia and he died.
Saskia trims teeth without anesthesia so it certainly doesn't require it, but I have heard of other vets doing it.
I'm so sorry about your piggy. Guinea pigs are really vulnerable to anaesthesia. The British Veterinary Association however deemed that all dental procedures for guinea pigs had to be done anaesthetised, but cited as evidence a load of papers that only talked about rabbits, so many vets here were up in arms about that, as they had had much better outcomes with conscious dental procedures.
@@Mcsqw thank you. I loved that little piggie he became very bonded to me which I thought was rare. I saved him from a cramped fish tank at a pet shop. I went in there just to look and felt sorry for him so rescued him. I at least take comfort that I gave him a happy spoiled life filled with love for amount of time I did have him.
Had a surgical removal 2 years ago.. cost me 400 dollars! My boys burst though was pretty big 🫤