Hey all,

I read this mailing list daily but have never posted before. I could
not, however, fail to reply to Alexandra's note about Tribble the
guinea pig.

I'm finishing my second year (of four total) of vet school. I am not a
full-fledged vet yet, don't have much guinea pig-specific experience,
and haven't actually seen Tribble in "person" (must get the disclaimers
in there!), but this sounds very much to me like a bacterial infection
of Tribble's teat. In my opinion she very clearly does NOT have cancer!
I would like to second, third, and fourth your recommendation to take
Tribble to a veterinarian. The recurring nature of this problem means
the little microbe buggers have a good infection set up and Tribble
will most likely need antibiotics.

I hope you are able to convince her owners to see a vet. Tribble's
condition IS treatable, so Tribble's parents shouldn't write her off
as "going to die and therefore not worth a vet visit."

Best of luck,
Jennifer in OK

[Posted in FML 5571]