dodge update and new guinea pig

**Dodge** · #1 03-04-08, 02:50 pm

i posted last night that we got a guinea pig named dodge that has ringworm, well we brought her to the petstore who is taking her to the vet and then giving her back to us in a few weeks when she is better.
anyhoo in the meantime we got Pig, a coronet guinea pig. he was born jan 7th 2008 and is big and beautiful. just thought i would share with you that.

**Pumpkin_RIP** · #2 03-04-08, 02:54 pm

Did you get your pigs at the pet sotre? or is the petstore willing to be a vets office for you? If they are, then that's kinda convient and cool.

**Sammy and Peanut** · #3 03-04-08, 02:57 pm

If you did get it from a petstore(which you shouldn't) and it was sick, they'd better take it to the vet! I bought Peanut sick, but the 14 Day Garuntee (sp?) was up. Good luck with your new babies!

**Percy's Mom** · #4 03-04-08, 03:08 pm

IF you can get your pig back, you would be better off taking Dodge to a vet yourself and demanding that the store pay you back for the vet bills. If the vet they take Dodge to, if they treat him at all, is a store based vet, you'll be lucky to get him back. For the most part, store vets typically know very little about guinea pigs.

Where did you get Pig from? I hope not another pet store guinea pig.

**Dodge** · #5 03-04-08, 04:13 pm

the store i got her from was petsmart and they have a vet office right next door to them. the new pig i got was from a nice lady who bred her guinea pigs, they were very healthy and BIG!

**Sammy and Peanut** · #6 03-04-08, 04:29 pm

Please, please, please adopt next time. Please!

**OSUCavies** · #7 03-04-08, 05:13 pm

I had a similar situation happen a year ago. I bought my pig Shelby from Petco (before I knew better). She was almost dead when we got her home due to a terrible URI. She was half dead the next morning when we woke up. We took her to the store and made sure they took her to a vet. They had her for a couple of weeks and quarantined her in the back of the store. We called almost every few days and checked up on her (luckily they took her to a cavy savy vet, oddly enough). I made sure to be persistent so that they kept taking care of her and making sure she got her Baytril, etc. I got lucky that they did what they were supposed to and took care of her, but by no means would I EVER buy from a petstore, again.

I doubt they took your pig to a cavy savy vet (again, I got LUCKY Petco did, I really didn't expect this). And you must be persistent. There are horror stories that are out there of petstores taking the ill pigs and just throwing them in the back and not caring. I was SHOCKED they even sold me my guinea pig because even when I got her she had greenish yellow gunk in her eye. And a MANAGER gave her to us. Just wiped it off and said "oh! Just a little sleep!". I mean, I really think if we had waited one more day, she would have been dead. Now she is a healthy, happy, popcorning girl living in a huge cage getting veggies, hay, playing with her fellow pigs, etc.

This is what happens when you buy from breeders/petstores. The pigs are ill and suffering. This is why we are anti-breeding at this website and we are strong supporters of rescuing and adopting homeless pets. PLEASE take the information you learn here and run with it and make sure your piggies have the best life. And PLEASE if you are going to trust Petsmart to take your piggy to a vet, be persistent and make sure they are taking care of him/her. We even visited Shelby TWICE while she was quarantined in the back of the store. JUST to make sure she was getting what she needed.

Good luck with your piggy, I hope he/she gets well.

**mommyoffive** · #8 03-04-08, 05:27 pm

Ok so if you want to make sure Dodge is ok and you want him back, PLEASE check in everyday weather going to the store or calling. Do not trust employees because when some think you are not watching they'll lax on giving the animal its medication, or oops, they accidently skipped a dose or what not.

**sophistacavy** · #9 03-04-08, 09:14 pm

Banfield is PetSmart's instore vet clinic, and they are real vets, so you can trust them.

I know adopting any animal is important, but is the big deal about not buying pigs from PetSmart the fact that you would be supporting the cavy mills? Or is is that they're sick? Because if they're sick, thats probably because of the mills anyway.

I cry when I see those ASPCA commercials, and the Pedigree Adoption Drive commercials(by the way NEVER feed that brand to your poor dog, ok?). So, its painful for me to watch people right in front of me in the store get fooled into thinking that Petsmart takes such great care of their cavies. Would it be inappropraite if I told people who were looking at the cavies there to adopt one instead, and that PetDumbA$$ is disgusting and practically sells dead animals? Ok maybe I wouldn't say that exactly, but I'm afraid I might seem to the customers to be like those crazy homeless men who preach on the streetcorner about the end of the world coming tomorrow....

**Percy's Mom** · #10 03-04-08, 09:25 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by sophistacavy

Banfield is PetSmart's instore vet clinic, and they are real vets, so you can trust them.

They might be real vets, but they have a horrible reputation. It's entirely possible that the vets there know nothing about guinea pigs.

Quote:

I know adopting any animal is important, but is the big deal about not buying pigs from PetSmart the fact that you would be supporting the cavy mills? Or is is that they're sick? Because if they're sick, thats probably because of the mills anyway.

The big deal about buying an animal from any petstore is that there is a huge overpopulation in shelters, rescues, and rehoming situation, and buying instead of adopting supports breeders and pet mills and adds to this overpopulation. Buying also means that it is highly likely that animals in the shelters will end up being put to sleep more often because there are not enough homes for the ones that need to be adopted.

Quote:

Would it be inappropraite if I told people who were looking at the cavies there to adopt one instead,

If you give out the information constructively, it would be entirely appropriate.

**mommyoffive** · #11 03-04-08, 09:44 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by sophistacavy

Banfield is PetSmart's instore vet clinic, and they are real vets, so you can trust them.

Let me enlighten you on Banfield:

-The majority of technicians there are not licensed RVT. In gernal they are hires from off the street
-Medicine practiced at Banfield is "low cost" yes, but it is also low quality.
-The majority of Doctors at Banfield treat the animals in store illegally. They are not certified to treat small pets and they do it anyways.
-The only type of medication they would be willing to use for pocket pets (at least in my store) is Baytril, which is not the strongest medication out there at all.

Banfield is bad. Period.

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