Lump Abscess or Cyst? What to do? Large Bump Under Guinea Pig's Jaw w/ Pictures

[tvchan]

Today while I was cleaning out my guinea pig's cage, I noticed he had a very large bump under his chin.

Examples:



I have called places like Petco and Petsmart to see if I could take him in to them, but they cannot do anything until the get word from clinic (and since it is a Sunday, all the Animal Clinics are closed.)

Some key questions I have are:

• How does it happen?
• Could it have been there for a long amount of time and I just didn't notice?
• What can I do without going to the vet?
• How much does it cost to take Piggies to the vet for this type of issue?
• What happens when it goes untreated?

I have no idea what to do until then and currently I am afraid I won't be able to afford the vet bill. I find myself hoping it will just go down by tomorrow. Any advice is great!

 

[bpatters]

Don't take him to a Petsmart vet. They've got the worst reputations in the business. You need to find a good exotic vet and take him in.

He very likely has cervical lymphadenitis, which is a very infectious problem, and it may rupture. It needs to be lanced, drained, and flushed daily, at the very least, and probably needs to be entirely removed. It can spread to other glands in his neck, and may be fatal if not treated.

It is not likely that it has been there and you didn't notice, since it can come on very quickly (and usually does). There is nothing you can do to treat it yourself -- it needs vet treatment quickly.

If you don't have enough money on hand for a vet bill, investigate Care Credit. And then start putting back a little money each pay period for vet care for your pig. It's not fair to an animal to have it as a pet and not be able to provide for its medical care. That's part of responsible pet ownership, just like food, water, and bedding.

You'd have to ask the vet about costs. They vary widely across the country, and even within the same city.

 

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

Having worked at PetSmart, I can tell you from experience, do not take your pig to the PetSmart vet. I decided to try them once because I thought they'd be cheaper than my regular vet. Not only were they about twice what my regular vet was my guinea pig was misdiagnosed and almost died as a result of their negligence. In a bind we also took my cousins dog there for a shot updates (we didn't realize he had just lapsed on the shots and was due to get groomed). We figured you can't mess up a shot. They did not tell us until after we were in the room that they would only do a booster update on him because he didn't normally go there (even though we had his shot record) and that we would have to come back for another shot in a few weeks. They also refused to give him the shot in his shoulder/neck because they said they only did shots in their back legs. Which would've been okay if not for the fact he'd been run over twice and had serious hind end problems. We decided not to do the shots, but they still wanted to charge us like $40 just for walking through the door. Then they complained to my manager that I was a difficult customer and wanted her to talk to me about it. Luckily, my manager had my back in that instance.

I don't know what's wrong, I just wanted to reiterate what bpatters said. Don't go to PetSmart's vet.

 

[tvchan]

I don't know if what I was saying got across well enough, but I never planned to go to the Petsmart vet. I have already had issues with them once before. I was calling them for reference to nearby clinics in my area (which they gave me). I know to stay away from Petsmart, especially right now.