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Well.

You know and I know that only one thing could bring me back to blogging:




It's time for another round of Adventures in Guinea Pig Medicine!

About a week and a half ago, I picked up Emma from the cage and noticed a large lump on her underside, close to where her right rear leg attaches to her body.  Wanna see?

(And God love Snapfish.  You know how they want you to buy their products by superimposing your photos on calendars etc?  Snapfish just suggested a lovely mug emblazoned with Emma's lump.)

She seemed perfectly happy and was eating and acting just fine.  Nonetheless, I took her to the veterinary practice and had an appointment with the same vet who saw her when she had her last head tilt episode.  This vet is a wee tiny little Asian woman and I love her completely.  She is so knowledgeable and sweet and it doesn't hurt that she refers to Emma as "Gorgeous".  She asked me some questions and pointed out a symptom I had overlooked, namely a thinning of her fur on her rear leg. 



After palpating her sides and abdomen she had her diagnosis.

Adorable Tiny Vet:  I'm pretty sure she has cystic ovaries.
Me: Well, really, who doesn't?

Apparently cystic ovaries are a very common finding in guinea pigs.  (I'll admit to never once even considering that my guinea pig HAD ovaries.)  Cystic ovaries result in an increase in estrogen production which causes a proliferation of mammary tissue.  That accounts for the lump.  Who wants to guess how they solve this situation?  I'll give you a minute to think about it.

Did you guess a tiny little guinea pig hysterectomy? 

I asked the following questions:  Isn't she a bit old (we think she's around 4 years old and a guinea pig's life expectancy is 5-7 years) to deal with the surgery?  and also: What happens if we just don't do anything?  The vet told me that she has spayed guinea pigs as old as 5 1/2.  As for leaving things be, over time the extra estrogen will begin to form tumors.  She also said something about Emma's uterus eventually filling up with <gag>  pus <barf>.

She wanted to do a needle biopsy on the lump to rule out any sort of abscess.  She also offered to trim Emma's nails for me.  She took her to the back to do these things and I sat there anxiously waiting for my baby to be returned to my care.  I cringed when I heard the high pitched squeal that guinea pigs make when they are in pain.  Finally they returned and the vet told me there was no sign of an abscess and she felt confident in her diagnosis.  Then she told me Emma was perfectly fine with the needle biopsy; it was the nail trimming she had objected to.

The vet printed me up an estimate of the cost of the surgery and told me to think about what I wanted to do and then call her back.  The proposed cost of the procedure plus bloodwork plus pain meds came to $235.  I collected myestimate and my guinea pig and went to pay the $99 fee I had incurred that day ($48 for the office visit, $11 for aspirating the mass, $25 for cytology, and $15 to trim her nails).

Soooooooo, on Thursday morning I'll be dropping Emma off between 8 and 9 AM to get spayed.  They are going to run bloodwork before the procedure to make sure she is healthy enough to withstand the anesthesia and if all goes as planned, we'll be able to pick her up after 4:00 PM the same day.  When I scheduled the surgery, the tech informed me that Emma needs to be fasting after 6:00 AM.  Yes, my guinea pig requires that I wake up at 5:30 to feed her breakfast, then place her in solitary confinement until it's time to take her to the vet. 

But how could I resist this gorgeous pig? 

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