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Fudge is in the Vets

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Priestess

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Hi
I posted last week about 9 days ago about my piggie Fudge having to take him to the Vets as when we woke up he was very ill.

The vet said he had a chest infection and prescribed him Baytril.
It has been a nightmare trying to get it down his mouth but we have managed it.

On Thursday i noticed that he was really not eating. Only munching every now and again . Phoned Vet and the Vet nurse said to continue with the Baytril.

On Saturday i phoned the Vets and the nurse said come in a collect some Recovery to syringe feed him and if he was not much better by Monday to bring him to see the vet again.

Well Saturday he was having non of it. Fort 2 people in thier forties like a pig possessed. He continued to just take nibbles of his food but that was it.

Sunday tried again and he was having non of it again. By this time my stress level was high.

Sunday night i decided that i was phoning the Vet first thing today and asking if they delivered a service that would take a animal in to give antibiotics and syringe feed. As far as i am concerned he needed someone who had the skills to do this. Even though i give my piggies everything they want and need we are not confident enough to be forceful when feeding him. We were stressing him out too much and he did not need to go through this being so ill.

I had a speech prepared and was to tell them that if they could not provide me with this service could they suggest some other vet that did . Bearing in mind that i have been a loyal customer on and off for the last 25yrs.
If they did not know a vet that did this i was going to phone every vet in the area to see who would offer this service and my custom would stay there in the future.

Well after the build up of what i was going to say i phoned. They were more than happy to help me. There was no problem at all.

We took him in today with his fleece, toys and veg and all the medication and recovery we had bought through the week .

The vet who saw him today was a expert with piggies. She has 4 piggies of her own. She absolutely loves them. This made me sigh with relief. I felt really upset leaving him but i know this is the best chance he has of getting better.
I have to phone tomorrow morning to see how he is doing.

The cost is £21 a night. They have 24 hour nursing care and a vet who sleeps in at night. I think it is worth every penny.

I know some people will say we are fools to pay this amount daily but i feel we had no option if it is to make him better.

The only regret i have is that i did not ask last week when we first took him, because i would of took this option straight away.
 
Your Piggy commitment made me SMILE!

Sending Healing vibes too fudge, get well soon.

xx>>>.
 
Thank you Flintstone.

Your reply has made me smile. It is the first smile i have had on my face all week due to the worry of my piggie.

Hopefully he has a better chance of getting through this now he will be treated probably.

Thank you
 
Get well Fudge! What a great service the vet offers... when we had a sick piggy on syringe feeds I would have considered this worth the money too because it was very tricky to get the hang of! I hope he recovers and is home very soon.
 
Looks like he is in safe hands, hope he is feeling much better soon.
 
I'd pay any money if it meant my pig got better. Hope Fudge gets well soon hon. Bet you're feeling a little relieved and Will sleep better tonight knowing he's in safe hands. Alyson x
 
Oh gosh what you and little Fudge have gone thru :{:(
What a great idea to be able to have them looked after 24/7 at the vets with all the meds etc.. !
Best of luck for little Fudge many many healing wheeeeeeeks and loves from us all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
Get well soon Fudge!

I would have never thought about asking about such a service. I will keep that in mind just in case.

Your vet sounds amazing.

Also I am so glad that there are people like you who care so much about your little ones.xx>>>
 
We did this with our boy two weeks ago, I was working all day. Our surgery charged £25 and I dropped him off at 9am and collected him at 7pm, I'm not sure if it's expensive but I thought it was pretty good. My only comparison is childcare costs! It did involve lots of driving (I think about 150 miles altogether!) but he came home a perkier pig I have to say.
I'm SO lucky that my youngest daughter is a whizz at helping me syringe feed/get the Baytril down the hatch. I can't do it on my own, I'm not even very good at picking our guys up, so sometimes it's good to hand over to the experts.
I can totally sympathise with the anxiety caused by Poorly Pigs. My hair is very grey now! Enjoy the relief and try to chill.
Good luck for your Fudgey x x
 
Hope Fudge gets well soon. Love the service that your vet provides, I have had to syringe feed and really didn't find it easy.

Misty, Storm and Rogue (my piggie girls) send love and squeaks! x
 
Update on Fudge

Hi Everyone

Thank you all for the well wishes to Fudge.
I phoned the Vets today and they said he is doing well.They syringe fed him last night and he took a little bit.
He has had a injection to kick start his gut. He was syringed fed this morning and they said this afternoon he started to eat his veg and hay on his own. They also said his chest was a little better and he has gained 20 grammes since last night. They said they wanted to keep him for at least another day as they want to make sure that he is passing good poops.

As much as i want him home i have told them that he can stay until the vet thinks he has got over the worse.

Sid our other piggie seems to be really missing him. At home they are in a C&C cage across our back kitchen wall. I have put grids in the middle so they are separate and have thier own space as Sid is a grumpy thing with Fudge. They do lie next to each other by the grids but they also like thier own space. You can tell that Sid knows Fudge is missing.

I am really pleased with my Vets. They have 4 surgeries across the city. The one i use is very local but is a sub branch of the main one.
The main surgery is about 10 miles away , this one opens 7 days a week and any animal that need to stay in for a few days has to go to the main one as the smaller surgeries do not have animals staying overnight and do not open at weekends.
It was at the main surgery i met the Vet who is the expert with piggies and she has 4 piggies of her own. She does not do the smaller surgeries when the vets rotate surgeries. I said to her last night now i know she is at the main branch i will be travelling the 10 miles for her to see my piggies when they are ill. I will still use the smaller local surgery if they need thier nails cut as it is the vet nurse who does this and she is very good.

Thanks again for all your get well wishes. I am really happy
 
This is great news, and such dedication.

When my girl was ill (last week she was pts), She was ill for roughly 3 weeks. I wasn't happy with my vets, they seemed to think I was just a silly little girl and had no interest in the fact she was ill.

The vet I found posted on another forum about how he liked Guinea Pigs and I thought well what do I have to lose. When we got there she looked great you wouldn't have thought she was ill, but he still listened to everything I had to say and gave her a full check over, sadly it became very apparent she was very ill very quickly, well we were trying to find the cause. In the end it was Diabetes.

I went with my girl, we had to get a bus, train and Taxi to get their but it was the best decision I ever made. Although Sadly my girl didn't make it, despite everything.

All we can do is our best, and by the sounds of things your best is working. :)p xx

Still sending they healthy vibes though!
 
I'm glad to hear fudge is getting better. Please do share with us where this great vet is. Good cavy savvy vets are hard to find.
 
Flintstones i am very sorry for your loss. I know you would have done the best for her and i am absolutely sure she was loved.

These are our first piggies so we are learning a lot from this forum.

Making the decision of having a animal pts is horrible. I had to make the decision approx 10 yrs ago when my dog was very old and ill (she was 17yrs).

I do think it was the right decision to make as i could not continue to watch her suffer. I also had it in my head this week that Fudge was not going to make it or i was going to have to make the decision again to have him pts.

If the vet had advised me of this i would of done it as he is loved too much to have him suffer. I know you also made the decision because you loved your piggie too.
 
Priestess said:
it as he is loved too much to have him suffer. I know you also made the decision because you loved your piggie too.
Click to expand...

It has too be right up there with one of the worse decisions, I've ever had to make. I only had her 4 months, She was a rescue and roughly 4 years old. The first pig I've lost, I would have much preferred her just too not wake up. The dash to the vets was the worse one I've ever had to make.

It does go to show, pigs can be on there death beds and bounce back. Never give up hope :).

Now, one promise though, when he's back home and healthy I want pictures :)! xx
 
Hi Katiepops.

The Vets are up North in the Liverpool area. I would advise anyone who are in or close to Liverpool to use them.

Name is Crawford & Crawford. Main surgery Green Lane, Mossley Hill

My OH said that last night he seen a certificate on the wall stating that the practice is in the top 100 of vets in the country for treating small animals.
 
Flintstones

I have taken some pictures of them and thier new C&C cage / i am waiting for my OH to show me how to download the pictures as this is a new camera.

I have been saying for ages i will have to put the pictures on to introduce my piggies to the forum.

So i am promising that i will put the pictures on very soon
 
So pleased to hear that Fudge is getting better, what a relief for you. Am glad that you have found a good vet, they really do sound amazing. I changed vets when Storm was ill - the vet at my original practice didn't seem familiar with piggies (later found out he was their large animal vet, helpful!) and said that most people didn't look into piggie problems in huge detail (he did give her baytril and pain relief though) as it was expensive and you could buy another piggie for the cost! Swiftly left practice and our new one is so good with my girls.

Hope that Fudge can come home soon to his friend x
 
Update On Fudge

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all your replies.

Had to make a very hard decision this evening and let my beloved Fudge go over to the bridge.

Yesterday the vets phoned and said that Fudge was not doing as well as Tuesday. He still had not past any poops. They said come in for a hour and hold him to see if he cheered up as he might be missing home.
We went in last night, took some fruit and veg in for him and stayed with him about a hour. When we put him back in the cage he seemed to cheer up and ate a little veg. The vets said come in any time to see him if we wanted to.

This morning i phoned to see how he was doing and the vet nurse stated that they had changed medication to get his gut working. His breathing and chest were fine now.They said he still had not pooped and he had been having intensive care from them and to call back this afternoon.

I received a call approx 3.45 from the vet nurse to say they had done a xray on him and he had a massive amount of gas in his guts. The vet nurse said he had never seen so much gas in a piggie. They had removed his gas and were waiting to see if he would improve. They said that if a lot of gas built up again then there would be a underlining reason for what was going on inside.
They said after work come in and see him to try and cheer him up.

Approx 4.20pm the Vet nurse phoned me to say the vet wanted to see me and my partner straight away as fudge had deteriorated in the last 5 minutes and he was not too good. I said that i would wait for my partner to pick me up and we would come straight away.

Approx 4.30pm the Vet phoned me to say that Fudge had gone into toxic shock and there was northing more they could do for him and he needed to be PTS sooner than later. I told him i did not want my animal to suffer any more and it would be at least a hour before we could get there to see him due to peak traffic. I instructed the vet to ahead with the procedure as he needed to be put out of his suffering asap.

We are gutted. We loved him dearly with all our heart. I know the vets tried everything possible to make him better. They said last night to me to name the drug and he has had it. They said he was a lucky pig to be getting such treatment but unfortunately is was not to be.

We have come home tonight to our other piggie Sid and he looks lost / I feel so sorry for him. I know they were separated in thier C&C cage but they slept next to each other close to the grids.
 
I'm very sorry for your loss. Sleep well little fudge, your mummy and Sid I'm sure will miss you dearly!
 
So sorry for your loss, please try and take comfort for the 100% care and attention he got. Best wishes to you and Sid x
 
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