[Cavyslavesteph]

I just have a story as well, no pics. My first guinea pigs were Sally and Eleanor, a Petsmart purchase. Sally was ok, but we realized something was wrong with Eleanor right away. She kept sneezing and was wheezing a lot. Not knowing anything about guinea pigs, we took her back to Petsmart, hoping they would let her see their vet under the 14-day health guarantee. Instead, the person working in the small animals department told us it was probably a cold and to not handle her too much until she got over it. As we were walking out, he added "but I'm not a vet".

Well, it wasn't too long after, that we came home and saw Eleanor's head tilted sideways. We rushed her into the vet and her white blood cell count was 3 times higher than that of a normal pig! The vet said she had a URI that had probably clogged up around her ear and that's why she was tilting her head. Two weeks of antibiotics later and she showed no improvement. So, we went back and she was put on a stronger antibiotic for two more weeks. She was still sneezing. Back to the vet we went for a third time. This time she was treated for a sinus infection. There was some improvement, but she was still sneezing. She spent two more weeks on the medication.

The last (and fourth) time, the vet told us she may never fully recover. He explained that if this round of meds didn't do the trick, Eleanor would probably permanently sneeze. He said that when a guinea pig gets sick and is not treated properly and right away, they usually die. He said if they don't (and this was Eleanor's case) their body builds up a protective wall around the infected area in the lung. It helps them survive, but makes treatment nearly impossible because the medicines are usually unable to penetrate the wall to fully take care of the infection. He told us she had probably suffered all this before we had her.

Eleanor still sneezes. We just have to keep an extra eye on her to make sure she doesn't go downhill. We footed a bill of over $350 to treat her and she will never fully recover.

I am so angry at the breeder and Petsmart for Eleanor. How long did they listen to her wheeze and do nothing? How could they claim she was "vet-checked" when we could hear her wheeze immediately after getting her home? Had we not gotten her, she would probably be dead. I don't know too many people (family and friends included) who agreed with us for spending the money we did to treat her. If nothing else convinces people not buy a petstore pig, at least think of the bill. It is true, many petstore pigs are sold already sick! Eleanor is proof of that. On the other side, we adopted Lizzie, and have yet to have any health problems with her.

I would never trade any of my pigs, but I will never buy a pig again. The money I gave them just allowed them to breed and sell many more "Eleanors" to unsuspecting owners - and if they don't end up in an educated home willing to foot a large vet bill, they may not fair as well as our little pig did.