On Tuesday morning, I discovered a very large lump on poor little Maggie's neck. It seemed to have appeared overnight. Comparatively, it would be as though you or I had a basketball hanging from our necks (assuming you are human, of course…)

I panicked the entire day, and my worried mom searched for a nearby vet. I was afraid to have her examined, because I feared she had cancer. Lucky for us, mom found an exotic vet and we made the earliest appointment possible- Wednesday at 6pm.

I did my research beforehand and guessed it was an abscess- basically, a big pocket of infected pus. (you can see her lump in the photo below, taken right before we went to the vet).

I wrapped my girl up in her blanket and off to the vet we went. Of course, all the receptionists and technicians fussed over how adorable and fun she is. Oh yeah, there also might have been a comment of how incredibly furry she is =)

The vet examined her, and sure enough, my "guessed diagnosis" was correct. The only surprise to me was that we really didn't have too much time to act: the vet recommended doing surgery within the next two days. I've always said that I won't put my pigs under anesthesia, for fear of them not coming out of it (I've heard a lot of horror stories… and pigs are just so little!). He assured me that he hadn't yet lost a pig while operating, and he'd done much more serious surgery on older pigs.

Without surgery, there would be no way for her to heal. So, I bit the bullet, signed the forms, and prayed for the best.

Maggie had to fast for about 4 hours before the surgery, since guinea pigs have the tendency to regurgitate food, and during surgery, this would be very bad.  We went home and waited… and waited. We got a call at 1:45 am to tell us that the surgery was successful, and that the abscess was indeed "very large and very disgusting". Her skin was stapled back together, and she was awake. I was glad and could finally sleep.

(Maggie post-surgery)

At 7:30 the next morning (Thursday), we drove back to the vet to pick up my little sweetheart.  A technician brought her out to me, wrapped in her little blanket. As soon as she saw me, she started making her little happy noises (wheek wheek wheek).  I was given some pain killers, antibiotic, and  "Critical Care" (special food), all of which are injected orally. It's not an easy task! She also gets a warm compress on her wound 3-4 times a day.  I'm really glad it's spring break now, so I can actually take good care of her.

She is eating on her own, which makes me very very happy. Sadly, she has to live separate from Juni for the next couple weeks. Their cages are side-by-side, and this morning they touched noses through the bars and even gave some kisses. They miss each other. Well, Juni misses Maggie. Maggie might just miss being the boss of someone.