Mammary tumors?

Earlier this week I noticed one of my females had a wound right where her right top teat is located. We went to the vet and it seems to be a tumor that opened up. We have her on Baytril and are waiting to see if she will begin to heal on her own, if not she'll require surgery to excise the infected tissue. I have moved her into a single level cage, and have her on fleece, which I'm changing each day.

The vet has seen this kind of tumor in other rodents. If it's benign then we should be able to remove it surgically, if it's malignant then there's a good chance it will metastasize and spread to her lungs.

Of course, her appetite is down because of the Baytril. I am giving her acidophilus a few hours after her Baytril, but she is still not eating as well.

Has anyone else had this kind of thing come up? Any suggestions on what else I can do for her? I am going to get CC tomorrow, as what I have is old and doesn't smell right. Does anyone have any experience with tumors in chins?

I have never even heard of this one before sorry but good luck

Are you sure it is a tumor and not mastasis? When I have seen mastasis it was very gruesome and terrible looking, maybe the vet made a mistake? Is is a chin savvy vet? I am very sorry!

Heya, sorry to hear you're dealing with this. I have no experience with tumours in chins, but one of my guinea pigs had a mammary tumour.

The vet we took her to said that the vast majority of mammary tumours are benign, but in my pigs case the thing was still growing so we opted for surgery sooner rather than later. She made it through, and subsequent tests on the excised mass confirmed the tumour was benign.

If the tumour is still growing, then I would have thought that going for surgery straight away would have been better than giving baytril and waiting to see what happens....is your vet good with chins?

Oral baytril does often dim the appetite...could she possibly have injected baytril instead, or maybe a different more "tummy-friendly" antibiotic like Bactrim (trisul, pink stuff)??

My vet has tons of experience with chins, and she is not hesitant to say when she doesn't know something and consult with another expert. She seemed to think that this is most likely caused by a tumor, but we need to clear up the infection first, and go from there. I just feel so bad for my girl! I made a fleece cushion for her to lay on last night. My husband thinks I'm crazy. I just wanted to know if anyone had been through anything similar, and had suggestions on how I could help her. How long did the mastasis take to heal when you dealt with it, chinniechantel?

Nope, never heard of mammary tumors either. My rats get them, but never have had a chin with one.

Mastitis (correct spelling )) can vary in the length of time it takes to heal, depending on how severe the infection is. It can also reach a point where it needs to be lanced and drained because it can't heal on it's own. It becomes a huge pocket of pus/infection, and it can be quite hard and tumor like.

I havent heard of it either, but I would assume anything is possible. I was also assuming mastitis when I first read it.

Every single time a vet has told me a chin had "tumors" it has ended up being abscesses...and the few times that the vet thought the chins had mammary tumors it was just mastitis. Mastitis can be treated with antibiotics and also with warm compresses right up against the mammary being affected. I always recommend injectible Baytril because it doesn't impact the gut and can be a little more effective in getting into the bloodstream.

That really does sound exactly like the mastitis (thank you Tunes!) my girl Oreo had. It was one of the most gruesome things I have seen, and we see a lot with breeding chins. She was nursing at the time we found it, and did not want to risk surgery. We got her on Baytril and blu kote and it started getting better after about a week. It took at least a full month for it to heal. I would have sworn it was a tumor as well, it was very hard and yellow and just swollen and big. I hope she gets better!

That is exactly how this looks. Hopefully you guys are right and all she is dealing with is mastitis. That would be a huge relief!

I'm with AZ on the idea of an abscess. I've personally had less experienced vets tell me that a lump is a tumor only to ask that it be aspirated to make completely sure that it is not an abscess. Both times it was an abscess that happened most likely from a bite that swelled shut and the chins body ends up walling off the infection to prevent it from spreading internally. The mass can feel very hard and tumorish but when aspirated white blood cells were found. I'm not completely sure why I shared my story because mine was always with a less experienced vet, but maybe my point was about the aspiration? Did your vet suggest this at all? It's a great way to find out the type of mass you are looking at with very little stress on the animal. I just dealt with the last case in the last 6 mos so I feel for you. I had oral Baytril which does generally push them off food, although I had great luck with force feedings. As soon as she got over the annoyance of being held down and her mouth opened up she figured out how great this concoction of mine tasted and she ended up looking forward to her regular "force" feedings. I'm sure that she would have ended up much sicker if I hadn't made the decision to take over feeding her. I'm interested to see how this all goes for you as mammary problems are not common ones in chins. Please keep us updated. Oh, and I'm really glad to hear that your vet is a good one, they are still very hard to find. It makes such a difference to have a vet that you trust. - Jessica

Just wanted to give you guys an update. My girl is doing great after a week of Baytril, acidophilus, and CC. Her wound is almost completely closed up, and the swelling is gone!
Thanks so much for your help! I am so relieved that this was just a simple infection. Although, I am still concerned as to what caused it in the first place. She is a six year old, non-breeding female. She is caged with two others, but there was no signs of fighting in the cage, or on any of the animals. Any ideas? I'm just wondering if there's anything I should do to prevent this in the future, or if it's just one of those things that happens sometimes.

It might have started out with a very small scratch you never noticed and that lead to an infection that just snowballed. Did the vet do any culture of the material within the infected pocket? That "might" have given you some answers, but I doubt it. Stuff like this just happens sometimes and you never really know why.

I agree, just a little teensy scratch and then an infection can get started. The thing that really gets me about abscesses is how quickly they can go from being a scratch to a pocket of pus! The other amazing thing is how many wounds chins get that heal up in a few days and never turn into anything more than a scab. Abscesses are a pretty rare occurrence considering how many times chins actually hurt themselves. Most of the time we never even know that there was any injury at all, their fur covers it all so well. Unless you see blood in the cage or actually can see or feel a wound, how would you know?

I'm glad that your little girl is doing better now! YAY!