Guinea pig animal-assisted therapy and management questionnaire

MCarly8

MCarly8

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Hi!
I'm a 3rd year student of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Milan in Italy. I'm currently completing my thesis work in Behavioural Medicine and this questionnaire is an essential part of it. It aims to collect data about guinea pig ownership and the possibility of the guinea pig being used as an assisted therapy animal with benefits for both humans and animals.

I would be extremely grateful if you could help me by completing this questionnaire. It takes only between 4 - 6 minutes of your time but offers a fundamental input for science. The questionnaire is entirely based on published scientific articles. Would you like to help me?

Link for the questionnaire: Microsoft Forms
 
ScrufflesRules said:
Welcome to the forum :)
I think it might be worth having a read of this thread: Guinea Pigs for Animal Assisted Therapy
I personally think that for most guinea pigs, the risks of Animal Assisted Therapy will outweigh any potential benefits sadly.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the response! This is exactly one of the aims of the study. I wanted to find out the general opinion of guinea pig owners about AAT not only in the 'normal version' as we see with dogs or cats (possibly not ideal because of the guinea pig being a stress-prone prey species) but AAT as the sole ownership and care for the guinea pig. Owning and caring appropriately for a guinea pig as a sort of therapy for humans (already researched in some studies) in connection with the benefits for the animal (Does human interaction offer any benefit for the animal?) if cared for correctly.
 
MCarly8 said:
Hi!
I'm a 3rd year student of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Milan in Italy. I'm currently completing my thesis work in Behavioural Medicine and this questionnaire is an essential part of it. It aims to collect data about guinea pig ownership and the possibility of the guinea pig being used as an assisted therapy animal with benefits for both humans and animals.

I would be extremely grateful if you could help me by completing this questionnaire. It takes only between 4 - 6 minutes of your time but offers a fundamental input for science. The questionnaire is entirely based on published scientific articles. Would you like to help me?

Link for the questionnaire: Microsoft Forms
Click to expand...
Update: 965 responses in. The goal is 1000. Want to help?
 
I started to do this but the answers are to specific to the questions and are not relevant.
For example how many times in a year does guinea pig go to vet - it would depend how often it was ill.
The question on toys - mine has all of those things but you can only tick one answer.
I gave up half way through.
 
piggieminder said:
I started to do this but the answers are to specific to the questions and are not relevant.
For example how many times in a year does guinea pig go to vet - it would depend how often it was ill.
The question on toys - mine has all of those things but you can only tick one answer.
I gave up half way through.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that. Some of the questions might seem not relevant at first glance, like the one asking "what features do you like best in your guinea pig". It's there to understand whether neoteny can be considered relevant in guinea pigs (why somebody may choose a guinea pig and not a dog for example). Other questions, like the one about toys, ask only for 1 choice for statistical purposes. I don't need to know how many different toys an animal may have, only if enrichment is present at all. Idem about the vet visits. Usually a general check up every 6 months is a sign of good husbandry so everything above 2 is generaly good. I'm not researching health and diseases in detail. The problem with this field of study is that, there are not many studies considering guinea pigs so the first ones, especially if conducted primarily online, need to be really generic. It's a preliminary study. The question about food doesn't mention herbs, not relevant in basic husbandry, but good for the piggies. To remedy this, in a later phase of the study I will be interviewing a selected group of guinea pig owners with specific questions and medical history etc. This wouldn't be possibile with an extended pool of responses. I hope this explains some of the reasoning behind the questionnaire.
 
MCarly8 said:
Hi!
I'm a 3rd year student of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Milan in Italy. I'm currently completing my thesis work in Behavioural Medicine and this questionnaire is an essential part of it. It aims to collect data about guinea pig ownership and the possibility of the guinea pig being used as an assisted therapy animal with benefits for both humans and animals.

I would be extremely grateful if you could help me by completing this questionnaire. It takes only between 4 - 6 minutes of your time but offers a fundamental input for science. The questionnaire is entirely based on published scientific articles. Would you like to help me?

Link for the questionnaire: Microsoft Forms
Click to expand...
Do I have to be a current guinea pig owner? I had guineas for years, but not since Feb. 2023.
 
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