Hello, I’m Pippin, and I’m a guinea pig. Today I’m going to talk about Lumps. And Mummy also asked me to talk about Leaders, but I’m not sure why.

We’re helping our Mummy, Jemima Pett, who is doing the A2Z this year by putting together all the posts we’ve done here on George’s Guinea Pig World, to make a book on Guinea Pig Care from A to Z. You can see her posts here: jemimapett.com/blog/. We’re filling in the gaps this month.

Lumps

One of the things you should feel for on your weekly checks of our bodies (you are doing weekly checks, aren’t you?) is for any lumps, new or enlarged.

I have a permanent lump on my tummy, which Mummy found when I was very little. Well, I was six months old by the time I came to her, but she found it anyway. I’ll tell you what it is when we get to X. And apart from that one, there are three main types of lumps: abscesses, cysts and sarcomas.

Abscesses

These usually form when an injury gets infected. George got abscesses on his neck when his teeth were bad, either from the teeth roots themselves, or from them causing sores in his mouth. Roscoe got an abscess on his neck after Bertie bit him in a fight. Bertie was very naughty around that time. They made friends later. Colman also had an abscess from a tooth root infection.

We haven’t had any abscesses here for a long time. Mummy thinks it’s because we generally have not had those problems, or she’s caught them earlier.

Abscesses are soft lumps, that burst, or are made to burst (called ‘lanced’), to get rid of the foul-smelling liquid inside. The liquid is very nasty and carries infection, so Mummy has to destroy the swabs to clean it up, and wash her hands carefully. The pig concerned may need to be isolated from his or her cagemates in case they try to lick it clean. That would likely make the cagemate very ill.

Abscesses have to be cleaned until they start to dry up, when they can be packed with honey-cream or other antiseptic, and left to heal. Sometimes this means that Mummy has to re-open the abscess to clean it throughly, which is not nice for Mummy or the pig. Mummy thinks she had this problem with Colman, who used to cry when she treated him, but he knew it was for the best.

Honey-cream is an antiseptic made from manuka honey, and it is very good for all sorts of wounds. A little goes a long way, and it is a bit sticky, but Mummy recommends it.

George’s neck abscesses used to make the skin of his neck very sore. Mummy was advised by Cambridge Cavy Trust to use a barrier cream on it, or nappy rash cream like Bepanthen.

Cysts

Cysts are usually slightly squidgy lumps that you can usually get your fingers right around. If they aren’t growing, or getting in the way, you can leave them. They are mostly sebaceous cysts, which means they contain the fatty substance from the skin called sebum. You can also lance them and squeeze the squidgy stuff out, but you need to be confident about doing this and get what Auntie Shirley used to call ‘the seed’ out. Just squeezing them over and over is not good for the piggy.

Some cysts are hard lumps, and these should be checked by a vet in case they are not cysts at all. Hard cysts can be shelled ‘like a pea’ Mummy says, but best for a vet to do it.

If hard cysts are in the loose skin, you can feel all the way round them. If they seem not attached to anything, they are best left alone. Fred had one in his neck skin from about a year old. It was the size of a pea, and was doing nobody any harm.

I had a cyst on the middle of my back when I was little. It didn’t seem squishy, but not hard either. Dr Rebekah said it was definitely a harmless cyst, but Mummy decided it had better be removed, because it kept getting knocked. So it was and I haven’t missed it at all. Although apparently the hair never grew back and I have a bald spot there, if you search through the hair that lies over it.

Sarcomas

Some hard lumps turn out to be more than a cyst. If a vet checks, she might decide to remove it and have it checked to see whether it is a cancerous lump, that if left will continue to grow. Sarcomas are not dangerous, but can be unsightly and cause problems if they are in a difficult place.

Percy had a sarcoma in his jaw. The vet checked and said it could not be removed, but would eventually interfere with his jaw movement. She said Percy would have to be put to sleep at some stage before it meant he could no longer eat. Mummy asked if she minded a second opinion, which she didn’t, and Mummy took Percy to Northampton to a Guinea pig specialist there. He agreed with Mummy’s vet, but gave Percy a dental while he was there. Mummy changed her mind about early euthanasia, and Percy went following a stroke later in the year, after some nice sunshine and grass time.

Roscoe had a very strange lump on his bottom during the Covid time. Mummy took him to the local vet, who said it was a cyst, and to squeeze it like it says above. But Mummy couldn’t get any squidgy stuff out, and she thought it smelled like an abscess, so she went back, and eventually got Roscoe referred to Dr Rebekah. Thank you Roscoe, from all of us! We’ve been going to Dr Rebekah ever since.

What Dr Rebekah found was that Roscoe may have had a cyst next to an abscess, on top of a sarcoma! So the hard lump that Mummy had been trying to squeeze was solid right through. Dr Rebekah took Roscoe in for a quick operation to remove it, and Roscoe never had any more trouble with it.

Ludo had a lump which grew by his front leg. It irritated him, and he made it bleed, so eventually Mummy decided it was more trouble to him than the risk of an operation was, so he had it taken off. We never knew whether it was a sarcoma or something worse, because we knew Ludo wouldn’t last very long afterwards, so the vet didn’t send it for testing.

Leaders

In all guinea pig communities there are leaders. And would-be leaders. So your guinea pig tribe will have worked itself out already. When someone new arrives, you have a reshuffle of who is more of a leader.

This may lead to fighting. Try not to put pigs who might fight in a place where they can. And if they are fighting, never ever put your bare hand in between them. A guinea pig bite can go right through your finger, or hand, even. If you have leather gauntlets (for tending a fire, or for gardening, Mummy says), put them on, otherwise use a tool such as a metal pan to separate them. Bundle them into a towel to stop them escaping again before you can put them into their own cages, and let them calm down.

Sometimes you have a lovely quiet community and some new pig comes in and says “I’m in charge!” Introductions need to be made slowly, with a separate pen where pigs can sniff each other out and start to make friends.

Unless you have Dylan, who walks in, with his quiet, shy brother Dougall, age six weeks, and announces to everyone he’s in charge. I think Hector, Humphrey, and Victor were so taken aback they just said ‘okay’. Hector may have disputed it a bit, but not till the summer, when they were out on the grass. Far too late for any real action to be taken. Even Colman and Kevin had arrived by then and accepted the situation as it was. Dylan used to go round the runs on the grass to check everyone was okay and in their proper place, even Mummy, sitting at her table watching them. Mummy used to put him back, but gave up after she discovered he went back of his own accord once he’d inspected the troops. She never worked out how he got out of or back into his run though.

I don’t know what else to say about leaders. I don’t think we have a leader now. I mean, I’m the oldest, and Ronnie tries to boss Reggie about, but Reggie mostly ignores him. I get on with Reggie at floor time, but I go in when Ronnie comes out. Mummy thinks it’s best if we don’t have the opportunity to argue. I’m good at arguing. But not with Mummy.

Tomorrow we’re doing letter M. Come and see what that’s about!

love

Pippin