Bosworth visits the vet. BEWARE GRAPHIC CONTENT.

Agent Plantagenet reporting.

You wouldn't know it from this pigture but I had a nasty looking cyst develop on my back just above my grease gland.

Our wonderful Rodentologists have retired and moved away so our Slave took us to see Lyn from Palace Piggies rescue, who has completed the CCT Rodentology course. She decided that my cyst needed to be excised by a vet so we came home again and our Slave made an appointment for me to see Etienne, our lovely vet.

We parked right outside the vet's office and went inside. Rafferty, my best friend, came with me for moral support.

Here we are on the vet's table, hiding in our box of hay. Etienne poked about at my cyst and told Slave that I would have to be sedated for him to remove it. Slave was very worried as she is paranoid about anaesthetics. Etienne was going home to Belgium for a few days at Christmas but as soon as he was back at work, Slave took me in for my operation. He is the only vet in the practice that sees guinea pigs. The others always refer piggies to him as he is a piggy expert.

When she called the vet in the afternoon, the nice nurse said that I was awake and eating hay and could come home straight away. Slave was very relieved and she and her son, our pigsitter, who was staying with us over Christmas came to fetch me home asap.

Below is a pigture of my incision, all sewn up. It doesn't look very nice so don't look if you are squeamish. I couldn't see it but Slave took this pigture. Eeek! I am bald!

I had to be kept on my own in case Rafferty chewed at the stitches and she had to watch that I didn't either. We didn't like this at all and moped so much that Slave put us back together, telling us to be good boars, which we were.

We went back to the vets on Monday for Etienne to remove the stitches but there was still a bit of scab left so he said that we should leave it for a few days and go back this Saturday. My coat is growing back already.

He said that he had never seen a cyst like mine before and looked through all his piggy reference books so that Slave could take a photo to show you. He could not find one so drew a picture instead. He laughed when Slave took a photo of his drawing. Here it is. He is a much better vet than artist!

He said that the cyst was like a honeycomb with each tiny sac filled with pus. It would have been possible to remove the pus from each little sac individually but it was easier to remove the whole thing.

He always used to say that Slave should write a book about guinea pig care but was happy when she said that she contributes to this blog instead.

We have just been to see the vet again and although he was able to remove 4 of my stitches, he decided that we should wait another week to have the rest taken out as there is still quite a large scab.

Here is a pigture of my progress. It does not look very nice but it is only a scab over what our vet said was quite a large hole.


As you can see my coat is growing back over my bald patch. I have to go back to see the vet again next week, when he hopes that the remainder of my stitches can be removed but I thought that I would post this and maybe post another pigture later on when I am all mended.