Skinny Pig Melanoma

Charybdis

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:21 pm


And so is Winky, who has more freckles than Pinky, his PEW brother. I will try to get pics.

We know that these have melanoma because they are hairless. What if it is more common than we think, and we just haven't seen it?

pinta

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:39 pm


How often is any pig that dies from cancer checked to see if the cancer originated from melanoma during autopsy? How many pigs even get autopsies?

Although it seems a fair bet that this is a hairless pig issue it may not be. We just have the opportunity to see any skin changes with hairless pigs.

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salana
GL is Just Peachy

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:21 pm


How likely is a melanoma too small to be felt under, say, an American pig's hair to metastasize? How likely is it that a pig with melanoma hidden under the hair on his back would have no signs of it on exposed skin like ears?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:01 pm


I think the issue is that it may not be caused entirely by sun exposure. If this is the case, a hairy pig might be able to contract it just as easily.

Charybdis

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:14 pm


None of these Skinnies lived outside.

I am still contacting other Skinny owners and rescuers to see if anyone has seen similar spots.

From Judi of MPGR (reprinted with permission):

I have 7 hairless pigs. 2 are not totally albino and have dark eyes. They have no spots. Out of the 5 who are albino, 3 have spots, but as far as I know, they are all round and not raised at all. My oldest is almost all dark skinned, and he (Charlie) is almost 4.

She then added this comment:

Some of the spots are actually oval and not round. But they aren't irregular. And they aren't raised. And they all developed them when young adults, not when they were under a year. I thought that was wierd. Like age spots in humans.

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Pigglies

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:05 pm


Spike has a few (less than 10) moles, but most are small, light, and round. He has one on his back that is darker in the center and has a blurry border, it's also oval in shape, not round. I will take photos to document.

I had thought that where they first came from, they were kept outside? For humans, getting one really bad sunburn can really mess up your skin. Although, if Winky has spots and was born here, he wasn't in the sun ever.

Charybdis

Post   » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:32 pm


Once again, these Skinnies were not and have never been kept outside.

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RavenShade
Thanks for the Memories

Post   » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:56 pm


Any update? I'm going to point my pigsitter to this thread, as she has a skinny. Hers is about 5 years old, and I've never noticed spots like this, but he has darker skin over much of his body.

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bats

Post   » Thu Feb 03, 2005 9:45 pm


No change, RS. Thanks for asking.

Angel's spots are unchanged since the photos 3 weeks ago. And his weight is still low, but up slightly from a low of 750 to 788 grams. His incisions are completely healed. In fact, the only sign that he's slightly "off" healthwise other than the spots is that he spends a lot of time sleeping head-to-cage-corner, like a pig who is ill.

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RavenShade
Thanks for the Memories

Post   » Thu Feb 03, 2005 10:01 pm


Poor little guy.

pinta

Post   » Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:43 am


On Sept 9th we had a raised mole taken off Bliss, one of our skinny pigs. Just got the histo back today. Basal cell carcinoma. Clean margins. My vet thought it was very interesting but was upbeat it wasn't melanoma.

It appeared very quickly, over the course of 3 or 4 days and was light in colour and looked more wartlike than molelike and was totally raised. Maybe 3/16" diameter. At first I thought it was a war wound. Bliss has many dark moles we monitor - this was different.

We know now to take off any raised mole that appears. Easy surgery, local freezing.

Heart(another of our skinnies) had a suspicious mole removed April 18th - melanocytoma - not malignant but could turn malignant. Her mole was dark, slightly raised in the centre

Nurgle
...what, what, what?

Post   » Sat Oct 01, 2005 4:24 pm


Putting this info here too.

Stuart is one of my skinny pigs. He is approximately nine or ten months old now.

About a month ago, he developed a mole on his right shoulder. I took a picture at the time, and have just been watching it since.

More recently, it has started to get darker, and perhaps a bit raised.

A few days ago, he had himself a nasty accident requiring stitches. Since his mole was now starting to send off very slight streaks, I told the vet to pull it off at the same time that he was under to get his stitchs.

The histopath came back today: melanoma.

The margins were clean, though, so this time she got it all.

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