Helen 1986
Junior Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2014
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 12
- Points
- 155
Hello All,
Bit of a sad post today. We lost our boy Link yesterday evening when he had to be put to sleep I was away for most of the week and my other half feels dreadful as it happened on his watch. He is also incredibly angry at what he views as a catalog of errors made by our vets. I was hoping for some opinions on whether you believe it was just a horrible thing to happen or whether our vets made some huge errors in judgement in which case we plan to educate them. Breakdown of events below to simplify:
Wednesday 20th Feb - Husband goes to do evening feed, Link eats one piece of parsley very slowly and turns his nose up at the rest, immediately ringing alarm bells. Husband notices breathing is not normal. Each breath is taken with a body throb. Husband phones emergency vets and then rushes him there. Vets find abscess on the left hand side of the jaw, not huge but very painful. Vets dose him up with Metacam and Baytrill and provide critical care to cover the night with feeds every three hours . Husband does feeds throughout the night with no real issues, Link takes it with little to no fuss.
Thursday 21st Feb - Take Link to normal vets. They say it's not urgent and can wait for a week. Husband argues and they offer Monday 25th. Husband asks for other vets in the area or recommendations to get him surgery sooner to remove abscess. Vets suddenly find free appointment for Friday 22nd Feb. Link still not eating and now doesn't like the new formula from normal vets and they have no other alternative. Force feeding resumes in earnest. No change in breathing, still throbbing with each breath and when Metacam wears off he squeaks with every breath, clearly in pain. Vets give him another shot of painkillers and antibiotics and give husband doses for syringes to see him through next 24 hours.
Friday 22nd Feb - Link taken to vets for 10:30am for surgery. No news until i phone at 15:50. Told surgery went well and now waiting for him to come around. Vets phone at 16:30 to ask collection time is moved from 17:30 to 18:00, told he is coming around well and surgery was a success. Lots of pus came out of the abscess which is why he was in so much pain. 18:00 arrive to collect Link. Told he is not doing well at all, breathing still an issue and he is not coming around from GA well at all. Told to rush him ourselves to emergency vet for overnight cover. Rush to emergency vets with Link 20 mins drive away. Vet asks to do a chest xray as she is concerned about the breathing. Advised that the xray our normal vets took of the abscess was not useful as didn't actually capture much of the area or the lungs (despite him being under GA at that point). They get him on Oxygen and warm him up in the meantime. Chest Xray done, fluid found on the lungs plus air in the stomach from gulping while breathing and has probably been there since breathing issue was originally spotted Wednesday night. Vet also found a significant amount of additional pus in the wound which had allegedly been cleared out two hours prior during surgery. Vet recommends he is put to sleep as they don't have the drugs needed to help clear the lungs and cannot get them till Monday. Other alternative was chest tap, oxygen and warmth all night with stomach massage to try and keep things going. Also told that the abscess was likely very deep and affected the lymphatic system and would probably become Chronic. My Husband and i decided it would be kinder to him to put him to sleep given everything he has already been through and the guidance from the vet.
My Husband is mainly furious that the breathing issue has been reported right from the get go and it took the 5th vet we saw to recommend a chest xray. In your experience, was it already too late to do anything on Wednesday night? Could the 24 hour delay in operating have worsened his condition? He was four and a half years old, a good weight and an otherwise healthy guinea pig. He did have a tilt which they put down to neurological problems but other than a small seizure last year it rarely effected him.
We have had several guinea pigs before and i must admit i think Link was our last. I don't think my heart can cope with loosing any more, especially when they hide it so well in the first place
Many thanks for any advise/guidance you can provide. I can understand why the other half is very angry. Myself, i'm just very sad that we lost a valued member of our family and he went through so much suffering before he could finally have his long sleep
Helen xx
Bit of a sad post today. We lost our boy Link yesterday evening when he had to be put to sleep I was away for most of the week and my other half feels dreadful as it happened on his watch. He is also incredibly angry at what he views as a catalog of errors made by our vets. I was hoping for some opinions on whether you believe it was just a horrible thing to happen or whether our vets made some huge errors in judgement in which case we plan to educate them. Breakdown of events below to simplify:
Wednesday 20th Feb - Husband goes to do evening feed, Link eats one piece of parsley very slowly and turns his nose up at the rest, immediately ringing alarm bells. Husband notices breathing is not normal. Each breath is taken with a body throb. Husband phones emergency vets and then rushes him there. Vets find abscess on the left hand side of the jaw, not huge but very painful. Vets dose him up with Metacam and Baytrill and provide critical care to cover the night with feeds every three hours . Husband does feeds throughout the night with no real issues, Link takes it with little to no fuss.
Thursday 21st Feb - Take Link to normal vets. They say it's not urgent and can wait for a week. Husband argues and they offer Monday 25th. Husband asks for other vets in the area or recommendations to get him surgery sooner to remove abscess. Vets suddenly find free appointment for Friday 22nd Feb. Link still not eating and now doesn't like the new formula from normal vets and they have no other alternative. Force feeding resumes in earnest. No change in breathing, still throbbing with each breath and when Metacam wears off he squeaks with every breath, clearly in pain. Vets give him another shot of painkillers and antibiotics and give husband doses for syringes to see him through next 24 hours.
Friday 22nd Feb - Link taken to vets for 10:30am for surgery. No news until i phone at 15:50. Told surgery went well and now waiting for him to come around. Vets phone at 16:30 to ask collection time is moved from 17:30 to 18:00, told he is coming around well and surgery was a success. Lots of pus came out of the abscess which is why he was in so much pain. 18:00 arrive to collect Link. Told he is not doing well at all, breathing still an issue and he is not coming around from GA well at all. Told to rush him ourselves to emergency vet for overnight cover. Rush to emergency vets with Link 20 mins drive away. Vet asks to do a chest xray as she is concerned about the breathing. Advised that the xray our normal vets took of the abscess was not useful as didn't actually capture much of the area or the lungs (despite him being under GA at that point). They get him on Oxygen and warm him up in the meantime. Chest Xray done, fluid found on the lungs plus air in the stomach from gulping while breathing and has probably been there since breathing issue was originally spotted Wednesday night. Vet also found a significant amount of additional pus in the wound which had allegedly been cleared out two hours prior during surgery. Vet recommends he is put to sleep as they don't have the drugs needed to help clear the lungs and cannot get them till Monday. Other alternative was chest tap, oxygen and warmth all night with stomach massage to try and keep things going. Also told that the abscess was likely very deep and affected the lymphatic system and would probably become Chronic. My Husband and i decided it would be kinder to him to put him to sleep given everything he has already been through and the guidance from the vet.
My Husband is mainly furious that the breathing issue has been reported right from the get go and it took the 5th vet we saw to recommend a chest xray. In your experience, was it already too late to do anything on Wednesday night? Could the 24 hour delay in operating have worsened his condition? He was four and a half years old, a good weight and an otherwise healthy guinea pig. He did have a tilt which they put down to neurological problems but other than a small seizure last year it rarely effected him.
We have had several guinea pigs before and i must admit i think Link was our last. I don't think my heart can cope with loosing any more, especially when they hide it so well in the first place
Many thanks for any advise/guidance you can provide. I can understand why the other half is very angry. Myself, i'm just very sad that we lost a valued member of our family and he went through so much suffering before he could finally have his long sleep
Helen xx