teadragon
Adult Guinea Pig
My disclaimer is that I have discussed two accounts of treatable guinea pig neglect; one of which I was involved with alongside the mentioned rescue. Some people may find the level of neglect in the first case upsetting; I did which is why I'm ranting! grrrr
I'm going to rant here because I don't want to upset boyToy who, like me, is tired and run down from a week of train-studying and since he's currently quarantining a pig for me I don't want to give him a heart attack with my current train of thought.
I have a friend who works for a small yet old rescue in North Carolina. Every so often we rant about the silly things we've seen online to do with guinea pig care or animal care in general. We co-moderate a guinea pig community, so we're both exposed to the same amount of stupid on there at the same time and sometimes we need to vent to each other so we can be productive, "professional" and useful in the community.
Today mine was a Yahoo Q&A entry where someone said you should pick rabbits/guinea pigs to teach a child responsibility because they'd sell quicker when you wanted to get rid of them {:|
She began to tell me hers... people disgust me.
They have a network of fosterer's and adopters and people who just do transports ("piggie trains") from the house where the pig is to the fosterer's. She was called a few days ago by one of the collection ladies who was sobbing, hysterically saying that Rescuer had to find an emergency vet en-route to where the pig was going as soon as possible to stabilize the pig. The pig's mite infection was so bad that the vibrations from the car were making the pig seize and scream.
The pig died a week later, despite being on the most intensive course of Revolution that was still within safe limits.
And now I'm faced with that surge of injustice and anger at people who are jerks with their responsibility to their pets again. And that anger makes me want to reach out and pick out all the piggies in the world who are being neglected and give them somewhere better to live. It wants to protect them and snuggle them and then whack the owners with a mallet.
I once visited an idiot of a friend in North Carolina called R. He had two piggies and both had mites. I'd spent a month talking to him, advising him on what to get to treat the mite problem and telling him that the care his vet was proposing was... well... stupid. You don't put revolution on a pig to treat them for mites and then - the next day - wash it off with a shampoo! When I went to visit him, the mites had progressed to the point where one boy was seizing because the itch was so bad...
Susie_q came to my flat yesterday to drop off a piggie who needed a new home (this boy was a lucky, lucky boy in that his owners spoiled him! He's the sweetest thing!) and while we were talking I mentioned that I'd always liked the idea of running a rescue or fostering but that I was scared I'd walk in on a collection, punch the neglector and run away with the pigs. I mentioned that I don't think I'm diplomatic enough to deal with owners who neglect their pigs in a way that would promote the rescue. But in hindsight I think I'm wrong.
When I saw Dom' seizing from something which should have been cured months ago I remember feeling sudden lump in the back of my throat and I couldn't say anything. I gawked at the pig for a long time before saying... "you realise what he's doing?" and when R said "Oh, he's just scratching his back!" I felt sick rise up in my throat.
I remember talking in a slow, non-threatening way and saying very, very quietly "He is not scratching his back. That is a seizure. Guinea pigs are prey animals and do not flip onto their backs to scratch; they use their hind feet." and then I asked permission to cuddle him. I held him and held cool cloths to his hot, inflamed skin and encouraged them to take him to the vet again and that I would go with them...
The pig was treated and made a full recovery but, besides realising that I'm not as bad-ass as I once thought I was
I guess I learned a few things on my self-reflection. I'm an altruistic softie and this path is only going to lead to me getting my heart hurt over and over again when I take the step toward offering myself to a rescue as a guinea pig foster and open my bank to another leak .
I just had to get all of that off my chest.
I'm going to rant here because I don't want to upset boyToy who, like me, is tired and run down from a week of train-studying and since he's currently quarantining a pig for me I don't want to give him a heart attack with my current train of thought.
I have a friend who works for a small yet old rescue in North Carolina. Every so often we rant about the silly things we've seen online to do with guinea pig care or animal care in general. We co-moderate a guinea pig community, so we're both exposed to the same amount of stupid on there at the same time and sometimes we need to vent to each other so we can be productive, "professional" and useful in the community.
Today mine was a Yahoo Q&A entry where someone said you should pick rabbits/guinea pigs to teach a child responsibility because they'd sell quicker when you wanted to get rid of them {:|
She began to tell me hers... people disgust me.
They have a network of fosterer's and adopters and people who just do transports ("piggie trains") from the house where the pig is to the fosterer's. She was called a few days ago by one of the collection ladies who was sobbing, hysterically saying that Rescuer had to find an emergency vet en-route to where the pig was going as soon as possible to stabilize the pig. The pig's mite infection was so bad that the vibrations from the car were making the pig seize and scream.
The pig died a week later, despite being on the most intensive course of Revolution that was still within safe limits.
And now I'm faced with that surge of injustice and anger at people who are jerks with their responsibility to their pets again. And that anger makes me want to reach out and pick out all the piggies in the world who are being neglected and give them somewhere better to live. It wants to protect them and snuggle them and then whack the owners with a mallet.
I once visited an idiot of a friend in North Carolina called R. He had two piggies and both had mites. I'd spent a month talking to him, advising him on what to get to treat the mite problem and telling him that the care his vet was proposing was... well... stupid. You don't put revolution on a pig to treat them for mites and then - the next day - wash it off with a shampoo! When I went to visit him, the mites had progressed to the point where one boy was seizing because the itch was so bad...
Susie_q came to my flat yesterday to drop off a piggie who needed a new home (this boy was a lucky, lucky boy in that his owners spoiled him! He's the sweetest thing!) and while we were talking I mentioned that I'd always liked the idea of running a rescue or fostering but that I was scared I'd walk in on a collection, punch the neglector and run away with the pigs. I mentioned that I don't think I'm diplomatic enough to deal with owners who neglect their pigs in a way that would promote the rescue. But in hindsight I think I'm wrong.
When I saw Dom' seizing from something which should have been cured months ago I remember feeling sudden lump in the back of my throat and I couldn't say anything. I gawked at the pig for a long time before saying... "you realise what he's doing?" and when R said "Oh, he's just scratching his back!" I felt sick rise up in my throat.
I remember talking in a slow, non-threatening way and saying very, very quietly "He is not scratching his back. That is a seizure. Guinea pigs are prey animals and do not flip onto their backs to scratch; they use their hind feet." and then I asked permission to cuddle him. I held him and held cool cloths to his hot, inflamed skin and encouraged them to take him to the vet again and that I would go with them...
The pig was treated and made a full recovery but, besides realising that I'm not as bad-ass as I once thought I was
I guess I learned a few things on my self-reflection. I'm an altruistic softie and this path is only going to lead to me getting my heart hurt over and over again when I take the step toward offering myself to a rescue as a guinea pig foster and open my bank to another leak .I just had to get all of that off my chest.
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) rant to turn into vet bashing. I don't hate vets but I find a minority of vets who I encounter to be so unbelievably frustrating but that's on a personal level where one of my boys didn't get the treatment he needed because a vet told me there was nothing he could do; that there was no way he could take blood from him. When I later found a vet that could, I was livid at the other vet for what he'd done during that consultation and also what he'd told me about the hopelessness of the pigs prospects. 