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]