Ovarian Cysts Fudgie's Medical thread (ovarian cysts?)

If she's in otherwise good health, she's not too old for the surgery. I've know of guinea pigs that were older than six who've had the cysts removed successfully.

Do call someone tomorrow. If it's growing rapidly and you can't get the surgery scheduled quickly, you might want to try one of the hormone injections to reduce the size and the risk of rupture.

bpatters said:

If she's in otherwise good health, she's not too old for the surgery. I've know of guinea pigs that were older than six who've had the cysts removed successfully.

Do call someone tomorrow. If it's growing rapidly and you can't get the surgery scheduled quickly, you might want to try one of the hormone injections to reduce the size and the risk of rupture.

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That's what I was thinking. I've also read about them draining the cyst to buy time. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I'm not a big fan of draining. Besides the danger of hitting a loop of intestine with the needle, if the cyst is really full, it can rupture when the needle punctures it and spread ovarian gunk all over the abdomen.

bpatters said:

I'm not a big fan of draining. Besides the danger of hitting a loop of intestine with the needle, if the cyst is really full, it can rupture when the needle punctures it and spread ovarian gunk all over the abdomen.

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Thanks for the info! Crossing my finger that we can get a good outcome.

Good luck!


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Thank you @jaycriae. So I called around to the 3 Vets in the area that handle exotics and the vet that took care of Colonel last year is the only one who can do surgeries so I guess that's where I'm going. They are really really expensive though so I'm kinda worried about that. If I had to guess I'm betting it will run about $1000 I don't have. Guess I'll cross my fingers and hope that injections might be able to buy me some time to save up. They are getting her in tonight though so I'll at least be able to get a plan and some pain meds for her. I'm so frustrated that everything in my life is falling apart at the same time. My ER fund has been decimated. Just can't catch a break I guess.

Ok, back from the vet and settled in so I'll do my best to summarize.

First the weigh in. Fudge has lost almost 80g in the last week-10 days. This was, in a way, confusing/concerning because she seems to be eating as normal. Physical exam reveled 2 new problems. Another lump has formed on the other side. This one is not as soft as the original. Also, Fudge has a heart murmur. We decided to do X-rays and an ultrasound.

We did 2 X-ray views. The X-ray laying on her side showed what you would expect to see from cysts with some minor calcification. (*as I was typing this the vet left a message that there was an error on the second X-ray so now I'll have to tell you about that tomorrow when I speak to her.) Ultrasound also looked like what you would expect from cysts. The only way to be 100% sure it's only cysts would be a comprehensive ultrasound. Problem with that being that's $$ I need for a surgery if that's what we do.

They don't have the hormone injection available but they are going to see if they can get some. She recommends the spay. It is a bit riskier with the heart murmur but she felt confident that it would be minimal additional risk. She did want me to understand that it's possible she will get in there only to discover that cysts aren't the only problem. There is the potential to have to put her down while she's on the table if they find something they can't fix.

We came home with an estimate of $378-474 for the spay. We also came home with pain meds. Pain med is called buprenorphine. I was going to look it up before I give it to her. Apparently it's a controlled substance. She found the weight loss to be concerning since she eating well and it's less common with cysts. I feel very conflicted. I'm now anxious to hear her changed view on the X-ray. Guess I'll have to update tomorrow on that. I also forgot to have them email me the X-rays so I'll ask her to do that tomorrow too. Any questions I should ask when I speak to her again? Thanks in advance for your help and support.

One word about the buprenorphine. It can really zonk a pig out. So I'd start with a small dose and increase it if necessary.

Pending her update tomorrow, I'd lean toward doing the spay. If she's losing weight in spite of the cysts, it's probably a sign that things aren't going to improve without intervention. And it could be a sign of a tumor rather than a cyst.

Let us know when you hear something.

Vet decided to try to call me one more time, so woohoo! Originally second view showed a possible tumor type shadow. Turns out vet tech mislabeled the view and she was on her stomach, not her back, so that shadowing is gas in her stomach. Quite a bit of gas so she advised me to give her mylcan drops to help her feel more comfortable. I feel much better now with the idea of going ahead with the spay. I just wasn't sure I wanted to do that if there was a 50/50 shot that it was much more and she wouldn't get to come home. Like, if I was going to have to put her down I didn't want it to be on an OR table. She is going to put some feelers out on the international vet network so she can get some extra opinions from some very serious specialists. Just to be sure there aren't any better options. She feels the spay would be best at this point. As do I. We'll be monitoring weight and giving meds. I'm also going to try to start giving her critical care. She felt if I could get her to take some without to much stress it would be helpful. However, unless she really starts to tank or stops eating she doesn't want me to force it and stress her to terribly. She said she trusted my judgement as to risk vs benefit on that. She was impressed with my knowledge base, which really means she's impressed with your knowledge base Good job guys!!

Ok, very weird question...the last couple days Fudgie has been squeaking at me at night anytime she hears me walk past the stairs. This is abnormal for her. I went up to check to see if she was hungry, since that's why she normally squeaks, but she has food aval, including a little bit of veggies. Can you think of another cause? One I should be concerned with? Just don't want to miss something. Probably nothing.

Fudge lost another 38g overnight. I'm giving her critical care. I only got about 10cc of it in her. I need to go to the store for some pumpkin and pedialyte. Hopefully the pumpkin will help me get more in her. I separated her just for veggie time so I can see how much she's really eating. She appears to be eating them well. My daughter said she's not sure fudge is really eating any hay. She thinks she's just cuddling in it and not really eating it. Surgery is scheduled for Thursday. 8:40am drop off. I'm off to do lots of reading about surgery and recovery but any additional tips from those who have been there are welcome and appreciated. I have to admit that I'm not confident right now that she will be ok. I'm very worried for her.

Thinking out loud here. I need to plan and prep and I'm having trouble thinking. Got the pumpkin and pedialyte. Critical care doesn't say to refrigerate the mixture, just to toss after 24 hours. If I don't have any pumpkin in it can I leave it out? I'm going to keep hand feeding her just to try and keep her up as well as I can but I don't want to stress her to much. Also, her butt needs washed but I don't want to stress her so I'm thinking I'll just let her be dirty? Not sure if that's a good call or not. Thoughts?

On the housing: Fudgie and her sister are in a large 2x7 upstairs. I know Fudgie needs to separated and that the ideal is to section off the cage, however, if I do that, it's not great for keeping watch. So I have a couple options. Hospital cage on the first floor, where I can sleep by her and watch her all day. Or swap Colonel mustard upstairs and give the girls his 3x3. Problem with cage swap is that his cage is custom and not easily sectioned. I can do it but that would leave her sister in basically 1x3. I feel like that's not fair to her. It's just the way the cage is laid out. Not sure how else to work that. If you think that's best then I'll try to figure something up.

I think I've got everything else I need. Going to get more critical care and probiotics. Other than that I think I'm set. Anything else I should get/think of? I'm so nervous.

@bpatters Noticed something weird as I was handing feeding Fudgie. She was interested in eating the lettuce but it's like she can't bite off a piece. The vet did check her front teeth as part of her exam and I did look at them and they seemed normal. I know they plan to check her back teeth while she's sedated for surgery but shouldn't she be able to at least bite a piece off? I was wondering if she's just to stoned on pain meds to bite properly? I think I'm going to cut her dose in half because she seems a bit to out of it. I did get 18cc's of critical care in her though, so that's good. I just feel bad that she seems to want to eat the lettuce but can't get bites. I tried smaller pieces and some she gets in and down but the rest just fall back out, like it's not even getting past her front teeth.

Well just got back from the ER vet. When I got her out for her feeding she started hooting/labored sounding breaths. They checked her over carefully but her lungs sound clear and her heart sounds ok (slight murmur). They said her ovaries were "impressive" and are glad she's getting them out Thursday. They think she may need better pain management so they gave me meloxicam and said I could back off the other med just a touch so that she's not so out of it. They checked her front teeth again and they look great. No visible problems with her mouth, they think it's just because she's hurting and eating probably is associated with more pain at this point. God her ovaries are huge [emoji20] I'll continue with the hand feeding and hopefully we can keep enough in her. Crossing my fingers that the additional (non-drowsy) pain meds can help her feel more comfortable.

Good luck to you and her!

bpatters said:

Good luck to you and her!

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Thank you. Any thoughts on post op housing or her not being able to take bites?

No way to know about the biting until they check the molars. But I'd bet money that's the problem. If so, I hope they plane them while she's under.

I will tell them that they can. I know she said they would check them and that was before we saw she was having trouble. It's my understanding that it's standing procedure to check/do everything they can while she's out to minimize times being sedated.

More poor sweet Fudgie is gone. She passed away on the OR table. It turns out those cysts were her kidneys. They had adhered to every surface in her abdomen and were encasing her ovaries. They said that even if I had figured it out sooner, they wouldn't have been able to do anything except keep her comfortable till the end. I'm trying to get myself pulled together because my daughter will be home soon. Sweet Fudgie.