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New Girl rescued from ignorant petstore.

tehdoc809

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So my wife and I are a sucker for any kind of animal, and the rescues in our area only carry dogs and cats, the only close Guinea pig rescue is in Atlanta (2hrs away). Not the point, anyway, Heres the story.

So we like to stop and look at the pets at a local petstore called PetLand because they actually house, atleast their guinea pigs, in a proper size, ventilated, cage. It looks atleast as big as a 3x3 CC cage. You can reach over and handle the pets, according to the sign "if you can." So we are playing with the piggies and I noticed that they had a female housed with two males and they all looked like they were atleast a month old, maybe a little older/younger. On top of that, her eyes were a little cloudy and she didn't try to run from me when I picked her up until I touched her. And since, physically she looked fine, nothing around her eyes, nose plus ears and mouth looked fine. I thought she might be a little blind since she didn't run in terror like the other two. So we brought this to the attention of one of the employees, who said three very, very wrong things in response:

1 "We got them a week ago and they are just a month old, so they can't get pregnant yet."

2 "Plus thats better for us because if they do get pregnant we can just sell them and not have to order more, like our hampsters." (manager denied this when asked, but I suspect he was lying to me)

3 "Well, I'll just take her to the back so she can get some treatment" (I'm so glad you can cure blindness :p)

I know that, in the back for treatment is usually petshop code for "Be put down" and I wasn't about to let that happen. I also picked up one of the males who had "Yellow" on his face and explained why it was significant, then explained that we might be interested in her even though she is possibly blind and pregnant, as opposed to us not getting her and her getting put down. Then we exchanged what I like to call, the "Look." So she went to the manager and in the end after much disscussion on the legality of a petstore breeding and selling their own pets without the proper permits, which it turns out the technically had (in the state of GA anyway), We got her for free with the purchase of the only thing we needed which was a 6 dollar waterbottle.

So we brought her home, gave her some bermuda hay, already order some alfalfa, gave her some veggies which haven't even been glanced at, pellets, water. Vet visit is next tuesday.


And, Introducing our new Baby Quinn:
https://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pb160048.jpg
 

pigluvinARK

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She is absolutely adorable! It is so nice to hear people standing up to bad pet stores. I hope everything turns out good for your little girl. Please keep us updated. Keeping our fingers crossed for her.
 

akstrohm

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She is adorable! I hope the vet visit goes well. You're a good example for people who can't find guinea pigs in rescues or shelters and still don't support pet stores.
 

jamie15701

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Glad you are getting her the proper care she needs. She is so darn adorable! Thanks for standing up to the owner.
 

Barb1222

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Petland sucks! I got my newest piggy from someone who "rescued" her from a petland. The piggie, Hershey, had a broken/hurt leg and they were going to take her to the back. The woman believed they were going to put her to sleep because the employee offered Hershey to her for free. She took her because she loves animals & didn't want her put down for a foot injury.

The woman posted an ad on craigslist about her. I responded to her ad. After emailing back and forth, I found out that Hershey was kept in an aquarium with two or three other piggies and rabbits! :eek:hmy: ...which is probably how her foot got injured.

The woman dropped Hershey off at my house, which is when I saw the Petland carrier. Petland told her Hershey was born on January 12th, which is three days before my preggy piggy gave birth. I believe they lied...Hershey was probably only two or three weeks old...she was smaller than my other babies. She weighed about 8 oz while my other babies weighed just over 11 oz

Anyway, the woman took Hershey to the vet prior to bringing her to me & the vet said that her foot was broken & mostly healed already! There was nothing more anyone could do.

Aside from lice, Hershey is doing great!

Petland does not know how to take care of pets. I hope no one supports them by shopping there.
 

hilary

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She is precious! I'm so happy there are people like you who put their foot down to what happens in petstores and talk to the managers.
 

rabbitsncavyluv

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Petland is terrible. Allowing anyone to come in and handle them is a recipe for disaster. 2 hours isn't that far to go to a rescue and you can usually find pigs to adopt at nearby shelters or rehoming ads. Even if you got her for free, they are just going to buy more from their breeders to replace her and they are absolved from paying any vet care bills.
 

pigsforlife

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Beautiful pig! She does not look like she has anything wrong with her eyes - although only one eye is visible in that photo.

Yes I agree with rabbitsncavyluv. Just because you got her for free doesn't mean much - yes they don't get any money from that one pig. But it frees up a space for them to breed another and so the cycle continues.
 

tehdoc809

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Quick Update:

After looking closer at her eyes, I do notice that it looks fine in the picture, but I don't think shes blind now. What it really looks like if something clear caught in her eye. But she's eating her veggies, atleast picking at some of them, and the vet is still on for tuesday as of now.

Pigsforlife and rabbitsncavyluv: Yes, I'm aware that I didn't put some significant dent in the petstore giant cycle. I was simple telling the story of how we came to have this little girl. And I agree, to an extent, but the cycle is going to contiune whether I had been there or not and it's going to continue until some major happenes to put a stop to it.

rabbitsncavyluv: Yes, actually. 2 hours is rather much when you don't have the money for the gas it would take to get you there, and you're intent isn't to actually adopt a piggie. Yes, we ended up with one, but it wasn't the intent. But if we were setting out to actually adopt her, then yes I would have taken the 2 hour drive to the shelter.

I don't particularly like pet stores, I've never been to one that was remotely acceptable. But in the town I live in, its the only place you can go to see small animals. None of the shelters around her keep them. If someone brings anything other than a cat or dog in, it gets put down. Its also a rare occasion when we decide to go into a petstore. For somereason we felt like it, and we ended up saving this little girl. Because if I hadn't, one of three things would have happened. 1)Since they said they were going to let them breed, she would have been breed to death. 2) Eventually they would have noticed the eye thing and she could have been put down. 3) She would have went home with people who, more likely than not, wouldn't have cared for her properly and possible would have either given her back or taken her to the shelter to be put down. I choose for her to live and get the care she needs. I would not have felt right if I had left her there after the conversation I had with the employee.
 

AnimalHouse36

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Tehdoc: She's adorable.

However, you knew what you were doing when you got her and even if you didn't pay for her, you still added to the overpopulation problem.

I say this with all resepcet but if you can't afford to drive 2 hours, how can you afford to pay for your cavies vet bills?


What happens when your new piggie has birth problems? Because you did know that by taking a pregnant pig there are risks to ever pregnancy.
 

pigsforlife

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I think thats a bit harsh animalhouse. It would be to early to tell if she was pregnant, and if she is she may not have any problems giving birth. The original poster did say that they had not intent to get a pig when they saw this little bub, and that if they did they would have made the 2 hour trip. I don't know how you can comment on the money situation - you don't know anything/much about this persons financial position.
 

pennykit&amanda

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I too think that post was a bit harsh.

What happens when your new piggie has birth problems?

You're saying that like she's bound to have problems, There is only a %20 chance of that happening.
 

AnimalHouse36

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I didn't mean to sound harsh..however:

I don't know how you can comment on the money situation - you don't know anything/much about this persons financial position.

I based my post off of this quote:

2 hours is rather much when you don't have the money for the gas it would take to get you there

Penny: There is a 20% chance of death not complications. I don't know the exact percentage of complications however.

It would be to early to tell if she was pregnant,
Considering she was with two other males, she's most likely preggo.
 

pigsforlife

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I didn't mean to sound harsh..however:



I based my post off of this quote:

2 hours is rather much when you don't have the money for the gas it would take to get you there

You forgot this bit which came straight after it -
and you're intent isn't to actually adopt a piggie

I agree, I wouldn't drive 2 hours to somewhere for no reason - that is a waste of money. The original person said that this was a spare of the moment decision - one that we know was wrong and one I am sure this person now realises.

Penny: There is a 20% chance of death not complications. I don't know the exact percentage of complications however.

There is actually a 25% chance that something will go wrong - that does not mean death, it means complications. Still that is a high percentage. However it does not mean that IF this pig is pregnant she is going to have problems. You make it sound like she is going to have problems no matter what.

By no means am I endorsing anything to do with breeding/petstores - I think I made my self and my position pretty clear in my earlier post in regards to buying pigs from petstores, even free. However it is no reason to be so harsh and cruel about it all. This person has done something wrong, this person realises it and now we help - not be awful about it.


Considering she was with two other males, she's most likely preggo.

Maybe, maybe not. There is a good chance she isn't considering she is only 4 weeks old - so she would have only just become sexually mature, if she even is.
 

Gwendolyn

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Thank you for taking her in! She is very adorable! By not paying for her you DID help rescue her without adding to the problem. By taking her for free Petland did not add another sold pig to their records, thus not encouraging supply. You certainly did the right thing, she is a lucky cavy to have you! Thanks for sharing the story. :)

Oh, and I also have no doubt that IF she was pregnant and IF she had complications you would do the best you could for her and her babies. I think you made that clear when you took her interest to heart. :)
 

rabbitsncavyluv

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20% chance seems pretty high to me.
 

pigsforlife

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Yes I never said it wasn't. Animalhouse basically said she was pregnant and that she would have birth problems. I acknowledge that there is a chance that both of those things are correct, but making it sound so doom and gloom is not right. It is likely (taking in her age) that she is not pregnant, there is also an 80% chance that nothing will go wrong.
 

Somanypets

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Baby Quinn is lucky to have found you techdoc. I absolutly think you did the right thing for her.
 

AnimalHouse36

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pigs: By taking in any animal you need to be prepared for anything.

So, by taking in a probably pregnant piggie, he should be prepared for birth complications. I don't understand why I have to argue that point.??

Tehdoc: I do hope you understand I wasn't trying to be harsh in the least.
 

pigsforlife

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You don't - because thats fact. It is just the way you worded it before that made the tone come across harsh and the meaning wrong.
 
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