Guinea pig Abcess??

Question

Bugzy-hole  

Bugzy-hole   Our G.Pig has had this lump on his face for a couple of months now, it has never seem to caause him any pain,a couple of days ago my daughter friend said her pig had the same thing that it was an abcess to put neosporin on it so we did and at first a small hole appeared then as we cleaned it with Peroxide and put hot rags on it the hole got bigger,he gets aggravated when we clean it and whines a little but still eating and drinking fine. I dont know what to do, I cannot afford a vet. Someone told me to pack it and wrap it but its on his face how do I wrap it without him chewing off the wrap? And is this even a good idea?? I will attach a photo, please help

Answer
Thank you for the picture. It's so much easier to know what you're dealing with when you can see it.

You're right, this is an abscess. These kinds of abscesses are caused by staph. As you may already know, we all carry staph on our skin. It's not a problem unless we break the skin in some fashion or get a scratch from a dirty toenail, fingernail, etc. This is what has most likely happened to your pig. He probably was scratching himself and broke the skin. Because their toenails are always full of poo, etc. it made a perfect environment for a staph infection.

With humans we generally do open the abscess (if it didn't already break on its own)and express out as much pus as we can. We then flush the wound with a Betadine solution to cleanse the inside, then pack it with gauze packing. The idea is to keep the wound open and allow the pus to drain out through the gauze stripping, thus encouraging it to heal from the inside. If an abscess closes over too soon it will just fill with pus again.

You've already got the first part, the abscess opened. They usually do because the pressure is so great inside it causes the skin to burst open. You can take care of this yourself by daily flushing and cleaning.

I've found one of the best ways to flush these abscesses is to purchase one of the syringes that are available in your drugstore for giving oral medication to babies. It has a pointed tip on it that is perfect. If using Betadine just use about a tablespoon of Betadine to one cup of water. If you don't have any Betadine you can use Peroxide as well. Fill that syringe with a Peroxide/water solution, put the tip of it into the hole and flush it out. Hold the pig over a sink because it's going to run out all over the place.

Repeat this flush three or four times. That will clean out the debris and pus that is building inside. You need to flush it out at least once a day, preferably twice if you're able, by squirting three or four syringes of solution into it. Within a few days you will start to see nice pink fresh tissue around the hole. That's when it has started healing. If you can no longer press gently on the sides of the wound and get any pus to come out then you will know that it's ready to heal by itself.

This is basically the same thing your vet would do and of course would charge you dearly for it. I've found that trying to keep packing inside the wound just doesn't work well with guinea pigs. I've had only one that I was able to pack and get it to stay, but it was a very deep abscess.

That pig belonged to a Kindergarten class and the teacher brought it to me in the hopes that I could fix her. They simply did not have the funds for a vet. I'm happy to say that Ethyl (the pig) went home as good as new in less than two weeks.

The secret is just to be diligent in cleansing the area. Guinea pigs actually do tolerate these things easier than you would think. If you need to you can swaddle him in a towel with just his face sticking out. That makes it easier to hold onto him while to administer the treatment.

Good luck to you, I know you can do this. It's just a matter of overcoming the fear of doing it the first time. Please let me know about his progress.