Abscess Please help me...

Where is the abscess? That will make a difference how you treat it. With abscesses, it's important that the wound stay open so that you can clean out the pocket. It sounds like they removed the original pocket but it got reinfected. Abscesses will continue to fill up with pus so you need to clean it out while it heals from the inside out. What happens is, the pocket gets smaller and smaller until it's gone. If you let the wound close up, it will continue to fill up and the the pus pocket can rupture. The compresses help to draw out the pus. When my guinea pig had an abscess on her forehead, my vet told me to use a Q tip to gently clean out the pocket. Afterwards, I would squeeze some neosporin into the hole. If the abscess is in an area where your guinea pig will lick it, don't put neosporin on it, though. I'd just keep cleaning it out until you can get back to the vet. Make sure you give a probiotic 45 minutes before or after the antibiotic or your guinea pig can develop bloat. You can get Ben a Bac from the pet store or acidophilus from the drug store. Go to Guinealynx for dosage. My male developed an abscess after his neutering. My vet gave me chlorhexidine solution to dilute and flush out the abscess multiple times a day. The solution is a dark blue and she told me to dilute it with water to a light blue. If your vet performed surgery to remove the abscess, it shouldn't have gotten reinfected. I'd call and ask whether you would even have to pay to have him treated. When my male developed the abscess after surgery, I didn't have to pay for any follow up appointments, only the medications. Abcesses are treatable and since yours is already on the antibiotic, that's a good start. Keep us posted.

The abscess is on his neck area. He isn't getting at it and the area is clean of anything right now. Our vet called today and told us to continue anti biotic for a few more days so this was unexpected. Im hoping we don't have to pay because we're out of money for now. I'll look into the pro biotic tomorrow. I'll surely keep you posted. Thank you so much.

I just wanted to say I hope you don't have to pay too, for you certainly should not have to in my opinion !!!

I really hope your piggie heals quickly and completely, will say a prayer for him tonight... Good luck and please let us know on Monday how Licorice is doing, ok ?

Keep in mind that abscesses tend to be slow to heal so don't panic if it's not gone in a few days. If you keep it clean and tend to it at least a couple of times a day, you should start seeing improvement. Make you sure you keep your vet updated by phone and inquire about not paying about additional visits you might need to get him healed up.

Abscesses need to be left open once they've been surgically drained and cleaned. You need to flush with something like chlorhexidine and then pack with something at least twice per day. Neosporin is okay, but silver sulfadiazine cream is far superior. You'll need curved tip syringes to flush and pack. Simply being on oral antibiotics isn't enough to keep the infection at bay. You might also discuss the option of a different AB. I had a pig with a jaw abscess that was on baytril for several months and until I started him on *chloramphenicol, the pus kept reforming and coming back.

*Edit - meant to say I started him on chloramphenicol, not chlorhexidine. Too many chlors ...

Hey everyone

I just wanted to update you guys. Licorice did well throughout the night and was even popcorning. LOL We stayed up and continued to do a warm compress every two hours. Now, the wound seems to be "scabbing over" Excuse my ignorance, but I've only been a piggy owner for 4 months and my first piggy hasn't had medical issues. (Thank God) So, I don't know if the closing of the wound is a good or a bad thing.. This is just so frustrating..

My vet actually sent a piece of the removed abscess for a culture to see which AB responded best to the infection. She called yesterday to state that bytril was the one that responded best. But, I will ask more questions tomorrow regarding treatment and ABs

Good - on the baytril.

At this point, you don't want the wound scabbing over. You want to keep it open, probably for another week to ten days, and keep flushing/packing until you can be sure it's not producing pus anymore.

How long have you been giving the baytril and how much longer are you supposed to be giving it?

Paula, should she ask the Vet on Monday about putting a "shunt" in to keep the wound open, so she can flush it out more adequately, and also so it doesn't keep scabbing over ?

He's been on baytril for 12 days and the doctor told me he had to be on it for 2 more weeks to ensure the infection clears up. I'm not sure how to unscab it at this point. I don't want to hurt him by ripping anything off.. I'm so nervous.. I'd love some ideas on how to do this without hurting him as he hardly sits still for the compress..

What I do is just douse it (the scab) in the chlorhex solution and then gently ease it off. If you are doing it twice a day (which you should be) there's not going to be a strong scab and it's easy to pick off if you wet it with warm chlorhex and water first.

Shunt shouldn't be necessary, I wouldn't think, but you can talk to your vet about it.

Thanks Paula

We got it open with some water because I don't have anything else. My husband put a warm compress on it and there doesn't look to be any puss or blood. I'm holding off on buying anything because I honestly have only $100 and I don't know if the vet will charge me for the visit or not. Right now the wound looks clean so I'm hoping he'll continue to do well until tomorrow. Please pray for him.. He's such a strong little guy, I feel so bad I can't do more to help him until tomorrow. You guys have been wonderful, I can't thank you enough.

Guinea pigs heal very fast on the outside, so the would may close up before the inside is healed enough and bacteria is trapped inside. It's important to keep it open. If it closes up too soon you may need to have the vet lance it open again (my vet just did this for me last week at no cost).

Persistant abscesses may need an additional antibiotic. I have a pig who's jaw abscess didn't start healing until Flagyl was added along with the Trimeth sulfa. Right now I am treating an abscesses pig with Trimeth sulfa along with Baytril (and the flushing, of course).

I think you can also use sterile water and salt mix to flush the wound as well. I might be mistaken but flushing the wound with just water (especially if its not sterile) could push more infection and puss into it.

I would agree at this point that it could be the vets fault for closing the wound after surgery. Any good cavy surgen would have known to leave it open and provide you with instructions on how to flush it.

I wish you luck and be sure to keep that wound open so it can heal from the inside out...

Onetwo said:

I think you can also use sterile water and salt mix to flush the wound as well.

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Sterile saline solution would be acceptable, but please don't try to mix anything on your own and please do not put salt in that wound.

Some vets feel that if they've taken the whole capsule out and sutured it shut, then flushing is not needed. This does work sometimes, especially if the correct antibiotics are given as well.

That's true, I had a vet try that years ago before I found my current vet. The difficulty with that is keeping the capsule intact prior to and during removal - it's fairly difficult and more likely than not that it'll rupture or burst or be punctured during the surgery itself. For that reason I always ask that it be left open for flushing and packing (if options are discussed at all). Since, you know, flushing and packing is such a guilty pleasure.

Sorry I thought salt and water was saline. I use my own mixes all the time on myself and the kids with medical grade salt mix I get from walgreens.

I wonder if those nasal saline sprays like the "little noses" for babies would work for flushing. It is an arosol like can and gently sprays a stream for clearing out baby's noses. They arn't too spendy either...