Tumor of the liver

[Katie]

Hi,

Well i know i haven't been on a lot but I'm usually just reading stuff but today we had a bit of a shock, my guinea pig Scott had become impacted and we had to clear him out but after we had finished we noticed that he looked very bloated on one side. I picked him up and checked it cause i thought he was just bloated but after having a feel around i noticed it was a firm lump! we took him straight to the vets and it was our usual who is great with Guinea pigs, well i got a shock after she had a feel around... She told me my poor Scott has a tumor in his Liver... :-(

Well she said due to his weight, age (just coming up 4) and how its not affecting his life cause hes eating drinking etc. he would be okay to have surgery on it but they couldn't guarantee that they would get everything sorted as they could open him up and see there's lots of other little tumors.. or i could just leave him as he seems normal in himself, and if there was any change in the size of the tumor or his behavior i can take him in for surgery but then there would be a chance he wouldn't get anything fixed cause it could be worse that first thought.

so i was just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this, as I'm really torn with what to do. Do i put him in for surgery and risk losing him altogether or just let him carry on and if it gets any worse think about getting it checked properly?

Please Help :-(

Thanks
Katie

[Orlaith]

I haven't been in the exact same situation, but I have had a piggy with ovarian cancer and I decided not to operate on her. It was a tough decision but I felt that so long as her quality of life wasn't being affected that surgery would be too tough on her. She lasted another year before she had to be put to sleep and I don't regret my decision at all. I would rather have had that year with her than to lose her on the operating table.

I've also been in the situation where a piggy of mine had a tumour in her throat and I did opt for surgery but when the vet opened her up he found that the tumour was so entangled with blood vessels and nerves that he couldn't safely remove it.

Saying that, I've also had pigs come through surgery successfully - one of my pigs had a tumour removed from his chest and even had his eye removed and another had a giant bladder stone removed without complications.

It's a very hard decision to make. If your vet thinks she can do the surgery and that he'll come through it okay (remember, she can't promise anything) then it might be something you'd like to try. You could decide to leave it and see how he goes but then there's a chance that he won't be strong enough for surgery. Or you could just let nature take its course and make him as comfortable as you can for however long you have him, be it six months or two years.

[Katie]

Thanks Orlaith, its just such a dilemma, my husband thinks we should just do it whiles he's well enough and it might mean he will feel a lot better, to be fair to him his a HUGE lump and it actually looks like he's a pregnant piggie you could mistake it for a baby i dont know if it would make him more comfortable without it. Hmmm i will have another think about it and see what we decide, i just dont want to put him through that and nothing can be done and we loose him anyway... gosh its such a hard decision.

Thanks anyway hopefully we can make a decision thats best for him

Katie

[Katie]

So we opted for surgery ... Well turns out it wasn't a tumor of the liver but a tumor in his intestines which is probably why he was so impacted all the time. Well anyway the vet said there was no way he could remove it and if he did he wouldn't last very long at all cause they would have to take a huge chunk of his intestines out. Btw it was 2 tumours about the size of eggs which took up most of his intestines :-( so anyway the vet recommended we just put him to sleep as he would probably go downhill very quickly as he was surprised he was eating at all really

So today we lost my wee Scott! Such a sad day :-( we have brought him home to bury him in our garden and we even bought a wee raspberry plant to plant with him :-(

We are so gutted we never ever thought it would be that bad but the lump was quite large so we always knew there was a chance it would be to risky! Well at least he's not suffering any more.

His cage mate sweep has been getting lots of cuddles... I'm not quite sure he knows he's gone yet but I'm sure he'll figure it out. He was always so protective over Scott when we tried to lift him out the cage or when I was clipping his nails etc :-(

RIP little Scott sleep tight and have fun playing in those fields! :-(

Katie

[Kayleigh]

RIP little pig.

You made the right decision.

Kayleigh

Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards

[Orlaith]

Oh no, I'm so sorry Katie. You did the right thing and gave him a chance. RIP Scott!