Tinuviel44
Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- May 11, 2012
- Messages
- 12
Hello all! I have been reading and enjoying posts from this site for several weeks now, but this is the first time I have been able to post an intro. I am heartbroken to say that this will not be the intro I had planned on writing. I am a mom of four amazing children and three fabulous piggies, one of whom crossed over the rainbow bridge early this morning.
I grew up with guinea pigs, but am a fairly new owner as an adult. I can't tell you what a great group you have here and how much I have learned about cavies that I never knew growing up with them. On the down side, we had purchased two from a large pet store before I found your site, nievely thinking I knew all I needed to based on my experiences.
In so many ways I will regret this choice...and in others, I guess I can say that for a short while (three weeks) we loved, and we're very loved by our little Lucy. Because of all of you, we were able to do everything we could for her, including figuring out that our vet(who claimed to be experienced with small animals) knew less than we did! Unfortunately this was after trusting them in diagnosing her with a very mild fungal infection and nothing more.
When Lucy still seemed to get worse even though her eye looked better, I rushed her back only to have them tell us she likely had a URI and they wanted to give her penicillin! I flipped out and showed her where that was wrong! I couldn't believe they didn't know not to do that! I was furious, but had no where else to go at 9:00pm last night. I allowed them to give her Bactrim, and insisted I was bringing her home to hand feed her through the night and get her to the local exotic animal specialist at 7:00am this morning.
We got her to eat and drink a bit several times through the night, and she slept on and off a but, snuggled in my arms. At about 4am she got up and tarted walking around. It seemed to be such an improvement! I was worried she would fall off the chair or couch if I fell asleep, so I put her back in her cozy bed in her cage and she walked in there for a bit too. I felt she had a chance and e would get to the vet this morning. Only three hours to go! I got a pillow and slept next to her cage for two hours.
When I awoke at 6am to check on her before the kids got up, I found her, already gone, and snuggled up next to her cage, as close to me as she could get. My heart broke into a thousand pieces. I'm still crying.
The pet shop horror stories continue...never again for this family! I am so glad to have found such a good and honest group with the right heart and mindset to get our future advice and info from. It helps insure that our other two little beauties (Sally and Pepper) get only the best care and we are educated with proper information from those that truly love their babies. Thank you so much. I just wanted you to know that what you do truly makes a difference. As sad as my heart is at this moment, I couldn't be happier to be a part of this group.
I grew up with guinea pigs, but am a fairly new owner as an adult. I can't tell you what a great group you have here and how much I have learned about cavies that I never knew growing up with them. On the down side, we had purchased two from a large pet store before I found your site, nievely thinking I knew all I needed to based on my experiences.
In so many ways I will regret this choice...and in others, I guess I can say that for a short while (three weeks) we loved, and we're very loved by our little Lucy. Because of all of you, we were able to do everything we could for her, including figuring out that our vet(who claimed to be experienced with small animals) knew less than we did! Unfortunately this was after trusting them in diagnosing her with a very mild fungal infection and nothing more.
When Lucy still seemed to get worse even though her eye looked better, I rushed her back only to have them tell us she likely had a URI and they wanted to give her penicillin! I flipped out and showed her where that was wrong! I couldn't believe they didn't know not to do that! I was furious, but had no where else to go at 9:00pm last night. I allowed them to give her Bactrim, and insisted I was bringing her home to hand feed her through the night and get her to the local exotic animal specialist at 7:00am this morning.
We got her to eat and drink a bit several times through the night, and she slept on and off a but, snuggled in my arms. At about 4am she got up and tarted walking around. It seemed to be such an improvement! I was worried she would fall off the chair or couch if I fell asleep, so I put her back in her cozy bed in her cage and she walked in there for a bit too. I felt she had a chance and e would get to the vet this morning. Only three hours to go! I got a pillow and slept next to her cage for two hours.
When I awoke at 6am to check on her before the kids got up, I found her, already gone, and snuggled up next to her cage, as close to me as she could get. My heart broke into a thousand pieces. I'm still crying.
The pet shop horror stories continue...never again for this family! I am so glad to have found such a good and honest group with the right heart and mindset to get our future advice and info from. It helps insure that our other two little beauties (Sally and Pepper) get only the best care and we are educated with proper information from those that truly love their babies. Thank you so much. I just wanted you to know that what you do truly makes a difference. As sad as my heart is at this moment, I couldn't be happier to be a part of this group.
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