Sweetpea - Ovarian cysts in a desexed pig

Herbert

Post   » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:47 pm


Sweetpea is a 2 1/2 year old, p.e.w. sow.
I adopted her from a shelter in november 2007, (she and Marigold, the girl I got with her came with a certificate of sterilisation.)

A few weeks ago I took her to a local vet, because I was concerned about hair loss on her flanks, vet discovered a large lump in her left abdomen, he thought it likely she had a tumor, and
suggested we just monitor her as it would be a very risky
operation.
Then she developed crusty teats, which I know is another sign of
ovarian cysts.
So last week we took her to a cavy and rabbit specialist, an abdominal ultrasound showed 'a large, fluid filled lobular structure
on the left side of the abdomen'.
Vets said her symptoms and the large cystic structure are consistent with a cystic ovary, they think she was either not desexed or part of an ovary was left behind.

My options are: 1 Exploratory abdominal surgery to remove the mass, which would be very high risk, and could cause adhesions to form between loops of bowel, they are also very concerned about post surgery infection as the cyst could rupture during surgery.
Or 2: do nothing and monitor her, there may already be adhesions,
which could cause problems later on, and the cyst could rupture at any time.

So I don't know what to do, I don't want to risk surgery with such a low chance of a good outcome, and she seems so healthy and happy, and is just as much a little monster as she's always been, she's by far my most active (and most noisy!) pig.
But if we do nothing and it ruptures, it would kill her wouldn't it?

Sorry for the length of this, I would just like to add, thank you to the people who run and post on this Forum, without which two of my piggies would be long gone, I first found this site in a last desperate effort to save my little Oscar, who had a URI and somehow managed to stay alive on nothing but syringe fed glucose and water for four days, he was so weak he couldn't stand or lift his head, it took weeks of handfeeding critical care and I still can't believe he came back, and is now a happy and healthy piggy.
And our special boy Smudge, who had his teeth incorrectly filed by a non piggie vet, and after several trips to a specialist and months of handfeeding has now been eating normaly for over a year.
So from Smudgie and Oscar, Thanks!

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:52 pm


I'm glad we could help you.

Perhaps your vet would look into HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)? It is a drug to treat ovarian cysts and could help get things under control.

Sounds like the spay did not remove all the reproductive organs. You might contact the shelter and let them know to encourage them to do complete spays.

Baba

Post   » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:54 am


We've made the best experience with Cystorelin. Every six month Tootsie get's her shots (twice two weeks apart) and we didn't need to consider surgery at all.

Thanks to GL I was made aware of the Cystorelin option. HCG wasn't our way to go.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:51 am


Baba, would you like to sign up at the Records forum and make a short post about your experiences with Cystorelin? The more detailed the better. A link to your pig's thread in the main forum would also be helpful.

www.guinealynx.info/

EllieMom

Post   » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:18 am


I'm thinking about your Sweetpea. It's a hard decision to make. I have no great words of wisdom just that I'm going through a similar situation with my Doodle who was spayed a year ago. Our vet thinks it could be a kidney tumor, an adrenal tumor, or ovarian tissue that wasn't removed during the spay. We've opted for the surgical route, although I, too, hate the idea of putting my happy and apparently healthy acting little girl through that. I'll be posting about her experience in Doodle's Thread if you think it might be helpful to see how she does. Her surgery is scheduled for a week from Monday.

Baba

Post   » Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:34 pm


Lynx: Certainly I will do. Give me a couple of days time, until I have all my data together. Right now I am a bit occupied with my battle with our Humane Society, the City and the Bylaw Department, which is quite time consuming.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:47 pm


The great thing about the Records forum is you can go back and edit your thread at your leisure. So if you find something new or don't quite like what you wrote, you can redo it.

Herbert

Post   » Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:26 am


Thanks Lynx and Baba, I will ask the vets about both options.
And good luck with Doodle EllieMom, I will be following her thread. It hard, because when I got my first girls I intended to get them all spayed, but then I was too worried something would go wrong during the operation.
Strangely, it looks like Sweetpea's flank hair is starting to grow back, does this often happen with cysts?

Herbert

Post   » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:32 pm


The PeaMonster had her first HCG injection yesterday, (finally!)

She has been very well, she doesn't seem to be affected by the cyst at all, (apart from being bald and wrinkly) although I think it has become larger. I have been shooing her into a shoebox to carry her, so I don't squeeze her middle.

The vets sedated her, and injected into both back legs.
She is eating, pooping and peeing well, but she is very short tempered this morning!

I can't remember if the vets said the injection works with 70% of orarian cysts, or that 70% of cysts are not affected by it.

She is having the second injection in 7 days, so fingers crossed it will help her.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:47 pm


Fingers crossed here too.

izzywizzywoo513

Post   » Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:12 pm


I had the same thing happen with my Molly, I adopted her in 2007 and had her spayed the same year.

In June 2009 she started to lose weight and had symmetrical hair loss on both of her sides.

I *knew* she was spayed, so when I took her in my vet a sonogram was done and it showed something that should not have been there.

The vet suggested it could be 1) A ovarian cyst that grew from a small piece of tissue left behind from her original spay 2) a kidney tumor 3) a adrenal tumor

I opted to go forward with the exploratory surgery, My vet had never removed a adrenal or kidney tumor from a Guinea Pig, but had done numerous types of procedures on ferrets.

It turned out to be an adrenal tumor, it was removed and was determined to be a benign tumor.

She recovered fully, gained her weight back and is doing fine

Good Luck

EllieMom

Post   » Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:33 pm


Fingers and toes crossed here for Sweetpea.

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