[Gpdd] Health: Blossom here

[corrine sakumoto]

Hello everyone and everypig!  Just wanted to say that my daddy Michael could never spell my name correctly no matter how many times mommy Corrine tells him!!  My name is spelled B-l-o-s-s-o-m  (TWO O's daddy!!!).

Well, the vet finally returned daddy Michael's call and said she recommends surgery for me.  daddy and mommy weren't too thrilled with that since she's not, uh, very knowledgeable.  She's really nice but doesn't seem to know much about us guinea pigs.  She says she wants to take an x-ray of me and my daughter, Baby Truffles, to compare our ovaries.  daddy Michael didn't say anything because what had happened when she first saw me is that daddy Michael had asked for her to take x-rays to make sure but she said there's no need to do so.

As for me, I'm always very scared but I'm also timid.  mommy Corrine loves to hold me because she says I'm so warm and snugly.  I am acting somewhat normal except that I wasn't moving around much.  Even during fresh food time I preferred to 'hide.'  mommy Corrine always worries about us so she thought and thought and she put a portable heater close to us.  I've been staying on that side of our pen ever since.  It's been pretty chilly here lately and since I have thinning hair on both of my sides, I was getting pretty cold.  So now I'm a bit more active and eat my fresh food when it's there!

The vet told daddy Michael that she'll look into the HCG shots but she wants to verify first that I have ovarian cysts.  On the visit to her, she took skin scrapings and hair samples from me to test for mites and fungus.  Those came back negative.  She had also felt me and at that time said she didn't feel anything unusual.  She's worried about doing surgery because she's worried about us piggies being so small, about us getting out of the anesthesia.  mommy Corrine and daddy Michael strongly feel and from what they've read and heard from others, that HCG shots are better.  She doesn't like to give us shots either because she said guinea pigs have such thick skins that it's difficult to give us shots.

(By the way, we're on the Big Island of Hawaii.)  My question, is an x-ray a good way to determine if it is an ovarian cyst?  Could it be something else?  As the vet has seen me and given me a looking over, she didn't mention feeling anything unusual.  Any info regarding diagnosis and treatment would be appreciated, also if it isn't an ovarian cyst, what else could it be and things on the x-ray to look for.  Well any info that I can pass along to the vet is appreciated 

Thanks
Blossom