Tumor Mammary Gland Tumor causing all these symptoms?

[Pandora4co]

So Piglet who will be 6 in two months has alway drank more water than other pigs but ,over the past 6 months or so, steadly increasing his water intake and well as a result, increasing his pee amount. He has rapidly over the past two weeks or so drastically increased his water intake/outake. His poop was slowly shrinking is size while increasing in numbers, more tiny poops instead of fewer larger poops like most boars have. Now it's tiny, mushy and making a huge mess in the cage. While I can wait a week to change the fleece in the other cage where there are two boars( and the fleece is still dry), in piglets cage (he also has a cagemate),the pads and fleece are becoming soaked through with urine within 3 days.

Piglet is also starting to sleep a lot more than normal and when he does sleep it's so deeply that I need to touch him to get him to wake up.

I took him to the vet this afternoon and the vet discovered he has a mammary tumor. He did an X-ray and it has not appeared to spread, so he is a canidate for surgery.

My question is this. Could a benign mammary tumor be causing all these other symptoms or could Piglet have more than that going on. The vet said it could be kidney related or diabeties related but he would have to have a blood test to find out.

Money is tight. I paid 150 for the visit, xray and eye drops because Piglet has an eye infection on top of everything else. Blood testing is another $150 and the surgery is $350. I don't know what to do. I don't want to pay for a blood test if everything is being caused by the tumor and surgery will make him better. But if i do the blood test and he does have diabetes or kidney problems on top of the tumor, then what? I don't even know what I would do then. The vet even said surgery isn't a guarantee that he would not get another tumor or that something hasn't spread already that wasn't picked up on the x-ray.

I know I have to do SOMETHING. I just don't know what the best something is that I can afford. I wish money wasn't an option but that's just not my reality. I'm so upset right now.

 

[SimbaDC650]

i hope he gets well soon!

 

[foggycreekcavy]

If it were me, at this point I would opt for the surgery but not the blood test. Is this your regular vet? Usually mammary tumor surgery isn't too invasive, unless the tumor has spread or attached itself.

Was a urinalysis done?

 

[Pandora4co]

This is my regular vet. I feel He's the best that I have available to me as I do not live in a large city. He said the Xrays looked like it had not spread but he said he could not guarantee it. I've decided to go ahead with the surgery. Even if Piglet has other issues at this point this is a known issue and has to be taken care of. I scheduled the surgery for Monday April 8th. That was their soonest opening. At this point I'm just gonna spoil him a bit extra this weekend and Pray for the best on Monday. I've cut back a bit on the veggies too hoping that will firm up his poops a bit. I KNOW I give them about twice as much as they need based on the charts here so it won't hurt them any.

No a urinalysis wasn't done. I'm just hoping that he doesn't get this surgery only to find out he has some other condition that is not treatable. That's my biggest fear.

 

[foggycreekcavy]

I think it would probably be a good idea to put him on antibiotics after the surgery. See what your vet thinks.

 

[Pandora4co]

I think it would probably be a good idea to put him on antibiotics after the surgery. See what your vet thinks.

Yes he's planning to. Piglet will get a Baytril injection after surgery before he goes home and then I'll get some oral to give him for a week too. I'm nervous as he's an older pig especially if he's having other problems on top of the tumor. His enery is good right now and he's eating normally (still drinking excessivly though).

 

[YourSoJelly]

I don't know if guinea pigs can get this but my horse is doing the same thing. With Chevy, he is ADDICTED to water. We think its because in his last home he didn't get enough water so now that he had an automatic waterer, he couldn't get enough. After a while, his body became accustomed to all the water and he started to drink more and his body started urinating out all the nutrients. Now he gets a restricted amount of water, 3 times a day, so he will stop drinking so much. He used to ruin all of his bedding with all the pee, and we almost got kicked out of our barn from it. There isn't a lot of stuff about it that i can find, so i will keep you updated if you want me to.

 

[Pandora4co]

Piglet is back from the vet. The vet said surgery went well even though the tumor was very large . The vet gave him a pain shot and piglet is really inactive and not moving around alot, but the vet said this would be normal for a bit. I'm still worried because I've never seen him this inactive for so long.

 

[soccerchickgrp5]

Oh my gosh!I hope he gets better quickly!!! Keep us updated!!! (p.s. i think he's just stunned by the surgery! Like i was!!!!don't worry)


Good Luck

 

[Pandora4co]

Well so far Piglet is doing well. Last night he was eating bits of veggies here and there but not alot at one time. I kept waking up every couple hours and fed him however much vegies he would eat. Today I put him back in his normal cage with Percy and the two of them have been doing good. When he first got in the cage Percy ran up to him and sniffed him all over. Then Piglet went into a pigloo and Percy laid down right next to it and put his head down next to Piglet and wouldn't move like he was guarding him. It was so cute. By mid day Piglet was eating hay and pellets again so things are looking good!

 

[foggycreekcavy]

I would weigh him daily to make sure he's eating enough.

 

[Pandora4co]

Piglet is doing great so far! He's eating, acting normal and his energy levels seem to be greater than that before surgery. He doesn't seem to be drinking excessivly like he did before surgery either. I'm optimistic about that. He goes up to the bottle and has a couple licks like most other pigs. He doesn't sit there and drink for 2 minutes strait like he used to. The only weird thing is his poops are very tiny. They are perfectly formed and normal hardness. Just really tiny. I will start weighing him daily foggycreekcavy that's a good idea.

 

[Pandora4co]

I posted this on the diet forum too but I'd thought I'd post it here too. Piglet is seriously underweight. Last time he was weighed several months ago (I'm ashamed to admit) He weighted around 1150grams. That's been about normal for him. Today he weighed 835 grams. He didn't seem that light before surgery, but I don't know how much the tumor that was removed weighed. The vet only said it was 'large'. Piglet obviously needs to gain weight. I'm going to start giving him an extra serving of vegies a day, but am wondering if it's safe to give him some canned pumkin every day to help bring his weight up. I read somewhere on the boards it was good to give to sick pigs.