[Gpdd] care: lymphoma & prednisone

Carla Martinez cmartinez36 at houston.rr.com
Tue Dec 20 12:40:44 EST 2005


Sandi,  In the last six months I have had a couple of situations that
caused me to reply to your question. One was that I found a couple of
lumps near the nipples or belly of my silkie pig Snickers. I got him
checked right away and the vet did fine needle aspirations and sent the
tissue off to a diagnostic lab to see whether they were cancerous. 

While waiting for the results I looked up info on Peter Gurney's
website. He said that cancer in guinea pigs is very rare. As we later
discovered Snickers' lumps were not cancerous either. But first the lab
results came back inconclusive. The vet said it is difficult to get
enough tissue to make a proper diagnosis. So that leads me to ask if
your vet is confident in the diagnosis.

Secondly about prednisone. I found some other internet info for my other
piggie Snowball who has teeth problems. This was someone in the UK who
recommended treating with prednisone. I forgot how that related to
malocclusion, but somehow it did. So I asked my exotics specialist about
the use of prednisone. And boy did she have reasons *not* to use it. I
am in no way qualified to have a medical opinion myself, and that
doesn't mean it is always wrong, but just to let you be aware of the
risks my vet cited. 

She said of all small animals, the ones she least liked the use of
steroids for is guinea pigs. I think the worst thing she cited was that
it lowers their resistance to infections, and cumulatively becomes more
risky the longer you use it. There were other things she said which I
don't recall, so if you haven't already done it, ask your vet about how
guinea pigs react to steroids . Wishing you the best in treating your
piggie.

Carla, Snickers and Snowball








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