[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Piggies with tumors

[sherry bevins]

Greetings to our friends @ GPDD,

Two of my piggies, C.J., and Pepper ( his mother), have tumors. C.J 
underwent surgery last November to remove a large tumor from beneath his 
lower jaw. He was over 4 years old at the time, but came through the surgery 
very well. While under anesthesia, our vets also found a lipoma on his chest 
and some calcifications farther down, in the mammary area. They decided to 
leave these alone, as they didn't want to keep him under anesthesia for any 
longer than absolutely necessary. I was told that as long as these didn't 
begin to grow larger, that he could probably live comfortably with them. So 
far there has been no increase in their size, which is a relief because I 
really don't want him to have to go through another surgery. There were no 
swollen lymph nodes under his chin or in his neck area, which was also good 
news. However, the area around the large tumor showed signs of inflammation, 
which could have meant that it was a malignancy. I was told that there was 
very little that could be done for him if he did have cancer, which they 
would not know for certain unless the tumor was sent to a lab for analysis. 
Since there was nothing that they could do to help him in that worst case 
scenario, I opted not to send the tumor to a lab. I knew that I would just 
worry myself sick if I knew that he had cancer. I decided to take him home 
and love and care for him as though all would be well, and just pray that it 
would be. Our vets agreed that this was the best I could do for him either 
way. So, for several months after his surgery, I watched him closely, 
looking for changes in his eating habits or behavior. At his check-up, there 
were still no signs of swollen lymph nodes, his incision had completely 
healed, and he seemed to be on the road to complete recovery. And he is 
still doing well. I still keep an eye on his lipoma, but it doesn't seem to 
have changed much, if any.
Now, Pepper is a different story. She has a large mass on her left hip that 
is inoperable. It is attached to muscle and bone and cannot be removed. It 
is amazing to me how this little girl gets around with this huge growth 
sticking out from her hip. She is such a little fighter. I make sure that 
she gets plenty of exercise, so that her legs will remain strong. She moves 
around the floor as quickly as ever, and doesn't seem to be in any pain. I 
keep hoping that this thing will only get so large and then stop growing. It 
would be wonderful if there were some treatment that could cause it to 
shrink somehow. Has anyone ever heard of a treatment for something like 
this, or had a similar experience? If so, I would love to hear from you. 
Pepper is over 5 years old now, although she is as feisty as ever, and seems 
perfectly healthy in every way except for this mass.

Susan, please give your Mattie a cuddle for us. We hope that all will be 
well with him soon. He sounds like such a sweet piggie!

With warmest wishes,
Sherry and the piggie pals