Published on: February 18, 2026 • By: nartcdawg ยท In Forum: Rodents & Small Furries
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Author
Topic
nartcdawg
Participant
February 18, 2026 at 12:24pm
Hello all.
I have a Guinea Pig called Anakin. She presented with weight loss, wonky teeth and a large weeping mass on her jaw last November. Since then, she has been on antibiotics for about a week initally, then saw a Small Animal Vet who performed a teeth burring, xrays and potential abcess drainage. However, the Xrays showed no abcess or tumor so they just burred down her teeth and sent over the xray pics. Unfortunatley a few days after the lump was still weeping, so we took her back to the vet and they prescribed baytril. Upon monitoring her up until now from that point, her teeth are back to being diagonal and the lump is hard and unmoving, still with pus. We are kind of at a loss. She has already been under anasthesia once, and we are not sure if it's fair to do it again. She is stable with her weight, but only at 0.61kg. Any advice is appreciated.
X-Ray pics below:
Oh, that's not very nice at all. And she's not making it easier for you to get to the bottom of it!
We have a policy here that we can't give second opinions on X-rays; however, I definitely think this needs more intervention. Baytril is a great antibiotic, but if there is an abscess in there, it's unlikely to resolve unless either it drains or the underlying cause is removed. I think it's really worth having a chat with your vet about what the next steps are here - is it worth lancing the abscess? Or is a repeat dental exam needed, to carefully compare with the findings last time? Would follow-up radiographs reveal anything useful?
Remember too that you can always ask for a second opinion, or a referral to a small mammal or exotic pet Advanced Practitioner or Specialist, which might be an avenue worth exploring if your vet is struggling to get on top of it.
Good luck, please let us know how it goes!