Sick URI, not eating, larthic.... new pig rescued today...

My pig has had many URIs. There are a few things you can do to help her until tomorrow at 2:00PM. Do you have any small 1-3ml syringes? Maybe 6ml at most? If so, i recommend syringe feeding water and crushed up pellets until you go to the vet.

No, she won't likely be ok until tomorrow. Guinea pigs MUST eat, and as long as they're still pooping, you have to force feed them to get fiber into their gut. See https://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html on how to do that. And if you can find a good emergency vet that you could see tonight, that would be much better than waiting until tomorrow afternoon.

As harsh as it may sound, I think you should try to concentrate on trying to find relatively healthy pigs to rescue from situations where they're not being adequately cared for. Taking in a very sick pig, and this one is, means that you're spending time and money on a pig that probably can't be saved. That means you aren't available to help a pig that could be saved if it was in your care, and two pigs will be lost instead of just one.

You can't save them all. That's the first thing everyone who's interested in rescue has to realize. So you need to apply some logic, not emotion, to which pigs you're going to try to save and which you aren't.

bpatters said:

As harsh as it may sound, I think you should try to concentrate on trying to find relatively healthy pigs to rescue from situations where they're not being adequately cared for. Taking in a very sick pig, and this one is, means that you're spending time and money on a pig that probably can't be saved. That means you aren't available to help a pig that could be saved if it was in your care, and two pigs will be lost instead of just one.

Click to expand...

How could that be moral at all? Is it right to give up on all cases when the odds are against them? I'd be glad if I were that guinea pig, and someone gave me a chance.

If it doesn't make it, then she could get another. I would say that it was good she got that pig, because rarely ever do people want sick pigs. As long as she knows that she signed up for, I'd say go for it. Let someone else get the healthy pig, as they have more of a chance of being adopted anyways.

If she's alright with taking in that responsibility, and she is adopting (not buying from a breeder), then who are we to judge what pig she gets?
@Aigoo, I'd say that it's an honorable thing to take in a sick pig for a second chance.

bpatters said:

No, she won't likely be ok until tomorrow.

Click to expand...

But that doesn't mean you can't try. There are things you can do to improve those odds. Try to get an earlier appointment, if at all possible.

Another thing you can do is keep her warm. Not hot, but just warm.

I hope I don't sound harsh, because I don't want to start a debate.

How could that be moral at all?

Click to expand...

Let's take a BIG leap here and look at it another way. Let's say you're a medic on a battlefield, and there's been an attack. There aren't nearly enough medics available to treat all the incoming wounded, nor are there any qualified surgeons where you are. You have to make decisions about who you can help, and who you can't. It's call triage -- making decisions about treatment in order to save the most people. That sometimes means passing over the most severely wounded that you have no hope of saving in order to treat others who would eventually die if not treated, but can be treated and saved.

Taking in a very sick pet store pig means taking a pig whose chances of survival aren't very good. So in addition to spending your time and money trying to save that pig, you're also creating a spot that another pig will fill -- ordered from the same place as the first one, in all likelihood. So with the best of intentions, you're perpetuating the breeding mill.

It's very hard to pass up a sick pig. But you absolutely can't save every sick pig you come across. Unless you've got Bill Gates' or Warren Buffett's money, you can't afford serious medical care for more than one or two. So if you could save one, or save three or four, which would you pick? It's why I say you have to exercise more logic than emotion if you're going to be effective at it.

bpatters said:

So with the best of intentions, you're perpetuating the breeding mill.

Click to expand...

I think that's taken a little too far. She's doing a good deed by rescuing a pig, is it really our responsibility to dictate what kind?

You could also think of it in another light. I just heard about a story of an adopted (human) girl that died soon after adoption. Was it wrong to adopt her? She got a few months of love, showing that people still care for her.

What about when people adopt elderly dogs? Is it wrong to adopt dogs once their older than a puppy because they have more health problems and less life on them?

Or is it wrong to ever spend money helping those pets we hear about in terrible conditions? (Found in the garbage, on the streets, starving and chained up, left in boxes, etc) Instead, we shouldn't exhaust our resources and only help the healthy ones?

Just food for thought.

bpatters said:

As harsh as it may sound, I think you should try to concentrate on trying to find relatively healthy pigs to rescue from situations where they're not being adequately cared for. Taking in a very sick pig, and this one is, means that you're spending time and money on a pig that probably can't be saved. That means you aren't available to help a pig that could be saved if it was in your care, and two pigs will be lost instead of just one.

You can't save them all. That's the first thing everyone who's interested in rescue has to realize. So you need to apply some logic, not emotion, to which pigs you're going to try to save and which you aren't.

Click to expand...

Is this the stance this forum has on sick pigs? Because if its I don't want to be here.

Seriously its UTI! Very much treatable. How can you make the choice on this pig without even seeing this animal? Yes, its sick but that doesn't warrant it a death sentence because you want to apply logic.

There is nothing logical about having Guinea Pigs or any pet. All they do is take up time, money and hard work. But we keep them because we love them and want to care for them. Emotion.

Where do you draw the line on helping a pig? Oh it has mites. Nope no good. I wont' waste the time on it. An injured leg or bumblefoot? Nope not worth my time.

All your post is saying to me is that this Pig because it has a totally treatable illness isn't good enough in your opinion to rescue and that the OP did wrong be saving it.

bpatters said:

It's why I say you have to exercise more logic than emotion if you're going to be effective at it.

Click to expand...

Yes, but logic isn't always humane.

I see what you are trying to say, but I don't understand how you could condemn a person for getting a sick pig. Some pigs, I believe, do need second chances.

URIs must be treated quickly. 2pm tomorrow is a longtime for it to wait and suffer. Piggy needs see the vet like several hours ago. I lost my sweet Atticus to a URI and I know if we would have made it to the vet a few hours earlier he would still be alive. That is how serious a URI is and it is horrible to watch them die from that.

No, it's not the stance of the forum. It's my own personal view.

S/he certainly has every right to try to save the pig. It's not wrong to do so. But I think any rescuer also has the responsibility of looking at the bigger picture. Can I save this one in front of me, or can I save several more if I put my resources elsewhere? If I take this one, am I promoting the practices that got this one into the unhealthy state that it's in?

You also don't know the situation that got the pig sick

How do you know this was not a well cared for, love pig, that the owner lost his/her job and couldn't afford to get the pig treatment right away and was hoping to be able to scrape up the cash. You don't know and I find it very wrong that moderator on a rescue sight is against saving ill pigs when they have no idea of the situation

Where did @Aigoo get this pig? I find it odd that s/he keeps finding and rescuing all of these sick pigs.

@Guineapigpro, you said,

I see what you are trying to say, but I don't understand how you could condemn a person for getting a sick pig.

Click to expand...

I didn't condemn anybody. I didn't say she she was wrong. If you're going to discuss an issue, please try to do so without making statements that aren't supported by what's already been said.

The point I'm trying to make, and it's the only point I'm trying to make, is that not every pig can be saved, and as a rescuer, you should be aware that the choices you make may have consequences for other pigs. Unless you've got unlimited money to spend, there's a place where you have to stop trying to save any of them because you've reached the limit of what you can do. Only you know where that is. The hope is that there are enough rescuers to get to them all, but that's not the case either.

bpatters said:

I didn't condemn anybody. I didn't say she she was wrong. If you're going to discuss an issue, please try to do so without making statements that aren't supported by what's already been said.

Click to expand...

I apologize for any misinterpretation. I had thought that was one point you were trying to make. I understood what you said after that, apparently all that you were trying to say, but the fact that I thought you were condemning her for it was the part I really had a problem with. I'm sorry, as I thought you were doing that. (Sometimes it can be so hard over the computer! )

No hard feelings!

Hey everybody I didn't make this post to be a debate post. I only can have 3 pigs in my home. My local Petco have been selling sick pigs. My first two pigs was purchased from Petco by my friend and they couldn't keep them so I took them in. They was healthy in first place then one of pig got URI. I was planning to add one more pig in my herd. Then later a incident happened at Petco that prevented me from buying it. So the fourth pig is this one. It is free so I have money on my hands. I don't work so I have time to take care of the pig.

Why would you continue to go to Petco if they keep selling sick pigs? If you are going to buy from a pet store maybe you should find somewhere different to make your purchase.

@Rainshadow, you wrote:

You also don't know the situation that got the pig sick... You don't know and I find it very wrong that moderator on a rescue sight is against saving ill pigs when they have no idea of the situation

Click to expand...

I may have misread the original post, but I understood it to say that this was a sick pet from a big pet store.

No. It wasn't from the big store. I promised myself to not get anymore from PETCO from a incident 2 days ago. I called them to check on the sick pig they sent to the back doors. They don't have it anymore. So that pig don't exist anymore. I got this pig from somebody's home. It is not from PETCO.