# Guinea pig abcess



## TInkerBelle13665 (Jul 28, 2015)

Hi,
I signed up to follow a thread to then realised it was four years old! So could anyone advise me on the following please?
My pig has an abcess and I took her to the vets. The amount of gunk I had squeezed from it was amazing and, bless her, she was so good. The lump had come up in a matter of days. The vet - without looking- accepted my diagnosis and immediately suggested an operation! He never even examined poor Honey! I decided to try to get rid of it with frequent saline washes and antibiotics before subjecting her to the ordeal of an op. He said to give her the antibiotics for 10 days but has only given us enough for 5 - presumably a mistake. My question is- does anyone know how long a course for this problem would normally be? I suspect I'm going to have a problem with the vet. We will be changing vets! The antibiotics are called Baytril and the dose is 2.5% at 5ml once a day. 
Many thanks in advance,
Tink and Honey


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## wind1 (Oct 24, 2010)

I have had a couple of guinea pigs in the past with abscesses. The first one I bathed daily, picking off the scab and squeezing the pus out for about a week. She had baytril and recovered very well. The second one went into the vet to have the abscess lanced but when I went to pick him up they had operated on him, knocking him out to clean out the abscess and stitching him up. I seem to remember being advised to use a higher dose of antibiotic so spoke to the vet and they agreed it was ok to do so. He also recovered very well. You should give your guinea pig some pro-biotic alongside the anti-biotic. You can buy it from pet shops in powder form and sprinkle onto food or put it in the water. I sprinkle it onto cucumber and it soaks into it. Here's a link to a guinea pig forum, there are some very knowledgeable people on there, I would suggest asking them for advice

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/


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