An exotic vet is a must

[honey]

I just wanted to stress how important it is to have an exotic vet in an emergency.

Last week my Blossom went off her food, pellets, veggies, water the lot, diarrhea and very lethargic, of course if they stop eating completely its a matter of life or death. The night befor she was fine, the next morning she was very ill, just like that, no warning signs, very quick.

So off to the vets, and big mistake I took her to my local vets, when I already have an exotic vet an hour away, just because it was close I thought they will be ok they will know, how wrong I was, the vet sent me away and told me to come back in a couple of days, if Id of done that my Blossom would of been dead now.

Anyway I wasnt happy with that and rushed her to my exotic vet an hour away, where they immediately admitted her, they fed her and kept her going, turns out she has a nasty infection and is still recovering at home, brought her home today after a week, diarrhea has cleared up and I'm continuing to feed her, shes started to eat veggies again and hay.

I could kick myself though about the vet issue, I'm quite an experienced piggy keeping after 6 years and I know how important it is for them to eat or they start to shut down.

How silly am I, will never do that again.

[abby]

Hi, how right you are. I thought of myself as an experienced keeper but sometimes under stress you make the wrong decision. I lost Parsley last September because when he got diarrhoea, i stupidly waited and the vet didn't know how to treat it. My first mistake was to wait for an afternoon appointment- never do that, always insist on an emergency appointment. Then the vet said just give him hay as it's bland. Well he wasn't eating so you can't force feed hay. I tried to syringe feed veg baby food but he wouldn't take it. I felt so useless and that I'd let him down. Parsley got much worse and at midnight we had him PTS even though he looked just moments from death i couldn't let him suffer any longer. It is vital to act immediately if they have diarrhoea, a staring coat, are hunched up, off their food or any combination of those symptoms. Their little bodies and tiny digestive systems are just not capable of fighting it. Knowing where a good vet is is essential as well as having a first aid kit. 0.6mls of Kaolin is the 1st line of treatment, how i wish i'd known that then :-( Thanks for posting this.

[fatpiggy2010]

they really should train vets who deal with dogs and cats to deal with guinea pigs to. the exotic vet at my hospital is great, but isn't there everyday. which i can't blame them for not having him work daily since it would be a waste of money to pay him for a full days work and he only actually works on one or two pets.