[Gpdd] HEALTH Doris's mammary tumour

[Julie Juwles Johnson]

Hi all,
in reply to Pat's query re mammary tumour.......... believe it or not my sister's piggy, a boar named Hamish, had surgery today for removal of two mammary tumours!   I have been very lucky in seeming to have found an excellent guinea pig/rat vet.  He's South African, worked in the UK for 6 years with small animals, and has now come downunder.    It was a 1 hour's drive to the clinic, but well worth it.

The vet suggested both tumours should come off because they were quite big and felt lobulated.   He had the feeling they were aggressive.      That practice is going to be using isofluorane as an anaesthetic soonish, but at the moment still uses halothane.        I said no way........ isofluorane or nothing.    The vet actually agreed with me, said good choice, and he would ring around a few vet practices to see if he could "borrow" isofluorane for the surgery.

We took Hamish back in this morning for his surgery.   The vet excised two large cysts on the mammary glands, he felt that something is skew-wiff in the hormone department.   But, deeper underneath the cysts were/are two larger lumps,   He removed one quite large lump, which he feels is just fat, but is going to have sent to the pathology lab for testing.   As there had already been a bit of blood loss by Hamish, and he had been under anaesthetic for 35 minutes, the vet decided against taking the other deeper lump out of the other side.        

As we live so far away from the vet practice, he performed surgery early on Hamish and we collected Hamish at 1pm, about 1 hour after he recovered from anaesthetic.   He was still groggy and not eating when we collected him, but the moment he saw my sister and heard her voice, he started wolfing into his celery and strawberries and grapes!        Since we got the little boy home, he hasn't stopped eating grass either!    He's doing so well, incredible when one thinks that this piggy has had a double mastectomy!!

I know I haven't been much help, but wanted to impart my first-hand knowledge to give you some idea of what might be in store.    I was very surprised that Hamish had the two tumours, but apparently both boar and sow are susceptible to mammary tumours/cysts.

Best of luck to you, with your decision and whatever you decide to do,
Julie & her pair of precious piggies