Ruptured sebaceous cysts?

[CavyHouse]

I'm currently boarding a guinea pig who has two large ruptured cysts.




The owners have taken the piggy to the vet before the cysts ruptured. They determined that it was not cancerous or infected (at the time). However, things are starting to smell now so I'm suspecting that infection may be setting in.
The guinea pig seems comfortable, is eating well, the weight is stable, and moves around well. The vet said if she seems comfortable then perhaps they don't have to do surgery yet. If surgery is recommended, their financial situation would require them to wait until late December to do it.

I've never had to deal with ruptured cysts of this size because I always had them removed before they got big when the rescue piggies had them. Any thoughts of whether or not surgery will be required, if it is required how long can it wait, should they be treating it with anything now, the prognosis with or without surgery? Their vet told her many piggies don't make it through surgery so they are weighing their options.
Thanks

[Lynx]

They look pretty awful.

I vaguely remember reading about someone who very carefully removed individual long thin deposits of keratinous material from various chambers. Don't know if this could be done. The odor is indeed worrisome. Do you think warm, wet compresses might help?

[CavyHouse]

I hadn't thought of that. Are you thinking to squeeze stuff out once warmed up with compresses?

[Lynx]

I don't recall precisely the procedure but seem to remember using a very thin tweezers to remove the plugs in the ducts. It was tedious. Done by a vet. I'll search here and see if I can find anything.

[Sef]

I do think there was a similar case on here a few years ago, but I'm drawing a blank. There was also a guinea pig that our local rescue took in awhile back that had what she originally thought was a cigarette burn but it turned out to be a ruptured cyst. I am not sure how it was treated, though. I could ask if you like.

In the meantime, any chance you could send the photos to your vet for his/her opinion of it?

[CavyHouse]

I was thinking of sending it to my vet after here. But my vet and the owner's vet work for same clinic so I didn't know if that would be stepping on any toes.

[CavyHouse]

I asked my vet and sent him photos. He said it looks like a ruptured sebaceous cysts. He said once they burst that he recommends surgically removing them because they rarely heal over. They're prone to picking up fur and bedding and getting infected.
Thanks everyone!

[Sef]

Oh good; that's pretty much what I suspected. You can always tell the owner that you started to smell an odor that made you worry about infection, and you asked your vet if there was anything you should do while the animal is in your care. I'd certainly be okay with that if it were my own pig in the care of someone else.

[Bookfan]

Ditto sef.

[GPIG]

I don't think those are going to heal on their own. They are just too big and having 2 is obviously more difficult. We had some experience with 2 pigs having burst sebaceous cysts, never quite that large and never multiples at once

We worked hard to help them heal and not get infected but it was futile. They both ended up having surgery. One GP did well, unfortunately the other's health began to deteriorate 2 days before her surgery and didn't recover from the surgery. I would do whatever I could to expedite surgery based on my limited experience.