Abscess Abscess, boar glue, what??

[Heady]

Barney has been fine. His weight is fine, he's been eating fine, I check both him and Santino for any "weirdness" every morning...no issues.

Recently Santino and Barney have been doing the dominance dance and Santino has been frequently mounting Barney. Yesterday morning I woke up, took the lid off the cage and greeted the boys. I noticed Barney's hair sticking up on his right side where his shoulder would be. So I picked him up and there was a very, very hard ball of something stuck in his hair.

I came on here to try to figure out what it was. Since he's been fine, no lumps, anything, I assumed it was boar glue from the constant mounting. It had a white/cream color to it and the bottom part of it was a tan/brown. Today it came off and this is what it is:

Okay, that's what came off of him. Because I thought/think it was/is boar glue, I read what to do with the oil and scissors. Although I didn't use the scissors much, it was more of a rubbing motion with the oil. Eventually the thing just came off when Barney jumped on my shoulder.

This is what his side looks like now:

I couldn't get an extremely clear picture of it, but what it looks like is a ring of irritation. The redness isn't quite as red as it is in the picture, but in the middle where it looks like a dark spot or infection...Jer was cuddling Barney and checking it out...he said that middle part that isn't red like the ring around it is the same color as the rest of his skin. So we're thinking that whatever that stuff was in his fur pulled out his hair in almost a ring type pattern.

Bottom line: I have no idea what it was. Boar glue? An abscess that suddenly appeared in the night and ruptured? He's still as chill as ever. Eating, popcorning...I know that since they're prey animals, they can hide illnesses very well and that's why I'm concerned because he doesn't seem like any is wrong.

I read here to rinse off the skin and apply a bit of Neosporin. Is that still right and is it suitable for this situation? I always (ALWAYS) overreact to stuff, so my first thought was to take him to the vet but Jer thinks it's just irritation from whatever that thing was that was stuck to his hair.

I don't want to do the wrong thing. I read something on guinealynx about abscesses, but none of it was relevant since Barney didn't have any lumps. That's why I'm thinking boar glue from Santino. But, again, I don't want to make a mistake so I need help. I did searches on both boar glue and abscesses, but like guinealynx, none of it was relevant.

 

[Paula]

This is a very gross question. But I have to ask it. Did the stuff in the top photo have any odor to it, and if so, how would you describe it?

It doesn't really look like boar glue, but that certainly doesn't mean it's not. I think it's a little more than coincidental that he has a red irritated area on the same spot where you removed it, and for that reason I'd think abscess, or at least something amiss, and get him in as soon as I could.

 

[Heady]

Weird! I was going to PM this question to you, but didn't know if I could, so I posted it. Glad you answered!

Not a gross question at all...when I first saw it I smelled it and there wasn't any strange smell. Today when it came off, I smelled his skin where it was and that smelled like piggy too...nothing weird.

Since there has been no scratching, no lumps, bumps, anything out of place, I was thinking about how someone described boar glue being like superglue. And this ball of stuff was like a rock attached really, really close to his skin (I tried to lighten it for Barney by cutting it in half with scissors...nope, they wouldn't go through). I just grabbed a peek at Barney and some of the redness has gone away and it looks like it's from his hair being pulled out from that rock dangling off of him for a couple days. Is that possible? There isn't a hole there. There's nothing coming out if I gently press that area...nothing under his skin. I'm just wondering if all of that redness was from that thing tearing his fur out...like that awful tape they use for I.V.s and when they pull that out, arm hair comes with and your left with these little droplets of blood from where you arm hair was.

 

[Jennicat]

It doesn't seem like an abscess. Pus is usually liquid and in guinea pigs it smells awful. It's the worst smell I've ever smelt.

 

[Paula]

Yeah it sounds more like boar glue than pus, for sure. If you said it had an absolutely atrocious odor, I would think differently. Like I said, that it doesn't look like boar glue from the photo doesn't mean that it isn't. As I've seen it, boar glue looks more transparent - more like a large ball of dried Elmer's glue.

Although that still doesn't explain the irritation on his side. Is that improving, getting worse, staying the same ... ?

 

[Heady]

It doesn't seem like an abscess. Pus is usually liquid and in guinea pigs it smells awful. It's the worst smell I've ever smelt.

I tend to have a strong stomach when it comes to blood and all of that, but smells, especially fetid ones, I can't always handle and it sounds like that would be vomit-inducing.

As I've seen it, boar glue looks more transparent - more like a large ball of dried Elmer's glue.

Although that still doesn't explain the irritation on his side. Is that improving, getting worse, staying the same ... ?

That's what I thought too! The Elmer's thing. I *think* I've seen boar glue before (that horror story with Santino and the 'white gunk'...I think that was boar glue) but not in fur.

I checked him this morning and it has lightened up a bit and doesn't look nearly as angry as it did yesterday. There are little "dots" of scabs where his hair was pulled out...these are in place of the really, really red areas in the picture from yesterday. No swelling anywhere, including under the irritation. He's still acting like regular ol' neurotic Barney. Eating/drinking/pooping/playing well, etc...

 

[Tessa Bea]

When the boys glued Hugo on their first night here it was a solid white mass. No semi-transparent about it. If it gets to dry totally, it can be totally white from what I've seen. Poor Hugo demonstrates in the following thread.

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/medical-veterinary/49225-white-junk-boars-butt.html

 

[TallulahBear]

Yikes, no wonder piggies impregnate so quickly, thats a lot of...material...for a little critter. My boy is neutered.....do they do this if they are fixed?

 

[Heady]

When the boys glued Hugo on their first night here it was a solid white mass. No semi-transparent about it. If it gets to dry totally, it can be totally white from what I've seen. Poor Hugo demonstrates in the following thread.

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/medical-veterinary/49225-white-junk-boars-butt.html

That thread is hilarious!! lol

The white color is what I kept reading about and that's what confused me even more since this was a cream color with brown in it. Looks more like a hairy human tooth than anything that should be exiting a piggy...

Poor Hugo and poor Barney.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Yikes, no wonder piggies impregnate so quickly, thats a lot of...material...for a little critter. My boy is neutered.....do they do this if they are fixed?

Neutered boars can still expel ejaculatory fluid, it just doesn't contain sperm as they can no longer produce it. Boar glue is ejaculatory fluid with or without sperm.