Rat
Rescue :: Guinea
Pig Healthcare
Guinea Pig Healthcare
Abcesses
An abscess is a pocket of pus which is formed from
dead tissue cells after an injury which becomes infected by
germs.
Most of the abscesses that guinea pigs are prone
to occur in the neck and jaw area and providing that they are
monitored, and at the appropriate time, lanced and drained,
they are seldom, if ever, life threatening.
Wounds from bites can cause abscesses but the majority
that are seen in guinea pigs are caused from tissue tearing
beneath the surface of the skin and becoming infected.
The stage at which an abscess becomes detectable is dependent
upon just where it is situated. Those in the neck, well down under
the jaw are seldom noticed until they are fully ripe, for they
tend to hang down and get lost in the folds of the flesh of the
neck. In that position they seldom cause the animal pain, for
they are not pushing up against muscle or bone and seldom interfere
with the mastication of food.
Most of those that occur just beneath the lower
jaw line, right up to just below the ear, usually take a little
longer to detect. The first symptom, uneven tooth growth, which
obviously shows in the way the animal eats, can appear a long
time before there is any detectable inflammation or abscess-like
swelling. These abscesses can take anything up to a couple of
weeks before they ripen, and then most of them suddenly fill
out within thirty six to forty eight hours.
To carry out a proper examination you will need
to wrap the guinea pigup in a towel like a babe in swaddling
clothes with just it's head poking out above the edge of the
towel. Then lay it on a flat surface, on it's back. Forget any
nonsense you may have heard about guinea pigs having an 'attack
of the vapours' like some kind of Victorian Miss every time
it is laid on it's back. It can happen but very rarely.
I prefer to work standing with the guinea pig at
about table height. However, there is no hard and fast rule
when it comes to where these examinations are carried out. Some
people find it easier to sit down and have the guinea pig on
their laps. So long as the animal is secure either method will
suit.
If you have a very observant owner, and most caring
owners are, the animal will probably have been brought to you
because it has begun to lose weight, or it has been noticed
that it has not been chewing it's food with as much vigour as
it used to. One owner told me that it looked as though her guinea
pig was trying to chew glass, which is about the best description
of this symptom.
First check the incisor teeth. You will probably
find that they impinge at an angle when looked at face on. The
abscess is invariably sited on the high side of the angle. See
illustration.
Check the premolars and molars, see Dental problems,
you will usually find that the pattern of wear is reflected
in these teeth. What has happened is that the animal has been
favouring one side to chew it's food because the other is painful.
Don't be surprised if after palpating in the area
where you suspect the abscess to be,there is nothing to feel,
for most of these things are on the brew a long time before
there is anything noticeable. I have come to the conclusion
that the pain is more intense before the abscess has developed,
this is why you get the wearing down of the teeth one sided.
Other than trimming the teeth back down to aid
mastication, it then becomes a waiting game. The use of antibiotics
to treat these kind of abscesses seldom succeed and in my opinion
are unnecessary. It simply becomes a waiting game until the
abscess ripens and then has to be lanced and drained for about
three days. This is not a job for those without experience but
it also no where near as risky as most veterinary surgeons will
tell you it is.
I, and many people whom I have taught how to lance
abscesses of their own animals have had a near enough ninety
nine percent success record and we never use antibiotics. I
use hydrogen peroxide to thoroughly clean the incision after
the puss has been expressed and then spray with the anti microbial
solution, colloidal silver.
