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Absolute Horror At The Vets!

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jrogers

jrogers

Junior Guinea Pig
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Being a new owner and caring for my piggy I decided to book her in for a checkup at my local supposed "small animal and exotic animal vet" only to leave there absolutely appauled, upset and angry!

Upon examination the vet was holding her completely wrong, poking and prodding at her without a care in the word, after a odd few minutes I had to step in and tell her to stop and I was going to just leave and get her looked at somewhere else!

Then to be told she was actually probably just a large hamster and I'm not helping her health by feeding her guinea pig food:cen:!

After storming out, logging a formal complaint I am beyond disgusted and appauled at this so called 'vet' - I will be ringing up again tomorrow to make sure proper action was taken in regards to my piggys treatment and blatent misconduct of the vet!

I am sorry for the very large rant, however does anyone know of any actual piggy vets around the South East that I can take her to?:cen::(
 
Dear god! I'm so sorry you've been through that.
Have you looked at the vet locator at the top of the page?
 
it was awful I felt like crying!

I've had a brief look through and couldn't see anything close enough to me.

I live in hertfordshire
 
Probably just a large hamster? What on earth was the vet thinking. Could it have been a very poor attempt at a joke?

I hope your piggy (and yourself) are okay.
 
:(I'm hoping so, and that I took it the wrong way due to being annoyed. Yet the way it came across didn't seem like it.

She is happily munching on her dinner, hopefully I haven't put her and myself through enough trauma to attempt another vet visit
 
With any luck someone in your part of the world will be able to point you in the direction of a better vet. It's very nice if you can see someone who is obviously fond of ( as well as knowledgeable about ) guinea pigs. A vet we used to see called one of ours "pumpkin" - it was so sweet!

I guess your piggy is not too upset if she is scoffing her food normally!
 
I hope so, I'm still so disappointed that someone could employ a person at a small animal vets that obviously knows nothing:mal:.

Aw so sweet, how many do you have?
 
jrogers said:
I hope so, I'm still so disappointed that someone could employ a person at a small animal vets that obviously knows nothing:mal:.

Aw so sweet, how many do you have?
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Yes, it is very disappointing. I have had some bad experiences with vets myself.

We have 4 piggies, although sadly the "pumpkin" girlie is no longer with us.
 
Oh blimey am so sorry you had to go through that. Are you anywhere near Broxbourne?
 
It's about a 40 minute drive away from me depending on traffic.

Obviously if that's the closest one to me and is recommended it would be well worth the travel.
 
It is recommended and there is a monthly (ish) guinea pig clinic there run by my friend. She is not a vet but has years of experience and does general health checks and refers anything medical to the vet. If you are near Letchworth at all my own vets are good for general stuff.
 
Oh my word, you poor thing. What a dreadful experience for you. I'd definitely take your business elsewhere -it's dreadful when you know more than the vet.
 
it was horrible, it had really good reviews online as well, but I read a thread on here earlier that bad a similar bad experience to me, I feel so guilty that I didn't do enough research!

I live very close to letchworth, I was going to go there but took my chances with somewhere that was supposedly meant to be very good:(

What's the place in brouxbourne?might have to have a look there too!

Thank you very much for the advice it's greatly appreciated by me and my piggy:luv:
 
Don't feel bad you weren't to know. I would be interested to know where it was though so I know to avoid it.

Letchworth are good but there are 2 specific ones I see, they have learnt a lot about pigs over the years www.letchworthvets.co.uk

The Broxbourne one is

www.vetsandpetsltd.co.uk and it is Amir you would need to see.
 
Do you mind if I message you it personally? as far as I'm disgusted in how they treated us, I don't want to taint it as a whole, as hopefully I just got a very rubbish vet!
 
Yes, don't post it on here. Was going to suggest that. It may be that you had a locum vet even.
 
I still find it hard to believe that a gp isn't known as a domestic pet. If we can learn about them on here, why can't vets go that little bit further?
 
If they're supposedly large hamsters, they so should be!

Its a popular per due to their kind nature, but silly how so silly vets know a lot about them!
 
I would seriously question the qualifications of the 'vet' if they can't even tell the difference between two very different species!

Finding a vet who is good with piggies can be difficult, but it's incredibly frustrating and upsetting when you encounter one who is indifferent and incompetent!
 
Where in herts are you? I'm in herts too and would love to know which vet that was! I can also recommend a really good vet too near me!
 
I think it's sad how little pig savvy vets there are considering how quickly an illness can escalate with them.

You'd think due to the popularity itd be one of the types of animals all vets have a wide knowledge about!

MyGuineaPigPals said:
Where in herts are you? I'm in herts too and would love to know which vet that was! I can also recommend a really good vet too near me!
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Can you give me a message?dont want to oust what could be a good vet and just my one off bad experience
 
:yikes: OMG! How shocking!What on earth was this vet thinking?! no wonder you're questioning the vets qualification! Reminds me of the time when I needed a vet appt for one of our previous piggies & had to ring a local vet at random (as our usual one was closed during a bank holiday) I was transferred to the vet directly on the phone who arranged an appt which was fine but he kept repeatedly telling me that he didn't know much about guinea pigs and would I like the phone no. for exotic pets vet in Swindon instead! ( a 45 min drive was too far away to travel with a sick pig) I was so shocked at the vets response - after all, when you've got a sick pet you're so worried for them, you just desperately want the vet to help,not to be told otherwise! And are Guinea Pigs classed as Exotic?! - I phoned back shortly after to cancel the appt & booked an appt somewhere else where I felt much happier.
 
"Large hamster?" Yeah, being able to identify SPECIES correctly is something I would think a layman could do, let alone a vet! I've had some vets who didn't have the level of knowledge they should have too, but nothing even close to that! That's just crazy!
 
Cavywavy said:
:yikes: OMG! How shocking!What on earth was this vet thinking?! no wonder you're questioning the vets qualification! Reminds me of the time when I needed a vet appt for one of our previous piggies & had to ring a local vet at random (as our usual one was closed during a bank holiday) I was transferred to the vet directly on the phone who arranged an appt which was fine but he kept repeatedly telling me that he didn't know much about guinea pigs and would I like the phone no. for exotic pets vet in Swindon instead! ( a 45 min drive was too far away to travel with a sick pig) I was so shocked at the vets response - after all, when you've got a sick pet you're so worried for them, you just desperately want the vet to help,not to be told otherwise! And are Guinea Pigs classed as Exotic?! - I phoned back shortly after to cancel the appt & booked an appt somewhere else where I felt much happier.
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oh no, I hope your piggy is ok now! It's either they're not experience or charge silly amounts! Seems like people don't actually care about the animals anymore it's all just to make money:soz:
 
OMG! I would have lost it there and then. Glad you have lodged a complaint as that's beyond incompetent.
 
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