My Poor Bank Account (and Piggies)

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Abi_nurse

Abi_nurse

Adult Guinea Pig
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This is not a call for sympathy, more a small vent from myself as I feel fellow guinea pig owners will understand (especially those with larger numbers or rescues).

I thought I was getting on top of my vet bills. But alas no. Despite working in a practice I get very little discount (10% I think). With several rescues/dumped piggies coming to me at the end of last year I racked up a good £500 or more on surgeries and medications along with several of my permanent lot suffering a few respiratory infections and cystitis.

But really now, my little sow Sage has taken the biscuit just a little. In January she started dramatically loosing weight. She had three rounds of blood tests, X-rays, ultrasounds etc probably looking at around £400 She was presumed to be hyperthyroid as her thyroid level was high end normal (but still within normal range). We could not find any cancer, nothing on bloods, no parasites, nothing. We trailed her on treatment for this with little to no results. At the beginning of this month after giving up on the thyroid trial I thought I was going to lose her to be honest. As a last ditch attempt to get some sort of diagnosis we decided to put her through the CT scanner and retake bloods to basically go on a hunt for cancer. (There goes another £300) But guess what we found upon scanning her... Her thyroid is huge! (Despite normal blood results - *facepalm*). Clearly this is something new and unusual and upcoming in the UK and I am truly grateful for working with a European accredited exotic specialist vet! All thyroid problems have been documented in America on guinea pigs so clearly the UK are a little different. (You may be interested to know that cats In America rarely get hyperthyroidism where as in the UK it's a regular occurrence in older cats). So here we go again trialling treatments with her.

So I thought that was it. No. Another sow of mine Dill, went off to vet school with my herd for some teaching and my wonderful vet has found a huge cyst like structure in her abdomen. How I missed this I don't know as I feel their abdomens on a regular basis so it must have come up quickly. So it looks like come Tuesday I will be taking my Dill to theatre to open her up. And either spay (if cystic ovaries) or something else. (Less likely/unusual if cystic ovaries as at 4 months she had a litter from a pet shop pregnancy)

And there goes every last ounce of money I have. : ( the pets always come first so I will always find the money no matter what.

x

Ps. For those who may be interested. Here is little Sage going through the CT scanner...

 
The furry little critters certainly love bankrupting us slaves don't they? :))
 
Poor you! Being at the forefront of research is not cheap... Guinea pigs are going fast from being a small pet not worth bothering about to having as many and as complicated issues as cats and dogs.

Wishing Dill and Sage all the best, and your purse a good period of recovery, too!
 
O wow and Ouch! Bless them. They don't realise the heartache and purse-emptying they can cause. Really interesting to read your account and see the photo. Hope all goes well for them with the treatment x
 
I hear you @Abi_nurse......and completely sympathise .

Like you I am lucky to have very good vets who will go above and beyond for the piggies in my care (with associated diagnostics and bills!) and sometimes you have to take a deep breath and decide if what is proposed by your knowledgeable vets is the best way forwards for the pig ...(or whether maybe it is best for the vet's gaining new knowledge at your expense?).

It's a very difficult decision to make in each individual case (especially for us two given our increased knowledge, experience, qualifcations, status on here etc of piggies ) as we don;t want to retard progress and learning of pgiggie medicine for the common good .and we know we're blessed with very good cavy vets....but there comes a time when our bank balance cannot sustain our ideals and obectives

Do what you are able to - both financially and veterinary.....but don;t feel afraid to step back and call it a day in the best interests of the piggie concerned.

Believe me, i'm in your place myself .
£750 to sort out a prob with a recently adopted Rescue pig in April (successfully!) ....>£500 for a failed treatment plan for another Rescue pig with a ureteral stone in March who had to be helped to The Birdge.....got another £460 bill this month for a piggie who is not even mine and also had to be helped to The Bridge - so can completely understand your feelings atm.......

Hugs - happy to chat on phone if you want.

x
 
Last edited:
Wiebke said:
Poor you! Being at the forefront of research is not cheap... Guinea pigs are going fast from being a small pet not worth bothering about to having as many and as complicated issues as cats and dogs.

Wishing Dill and Sage all the best, and your purse a good period of recovery, too!
Click to expand...
It is great isn't it that guinea pigs are becoming more cared about. I still think too many people just don't realise how much it takes to give them a good life. I count myself as one of those who didn't realise until I came across this forum when googling because one of ours wasn't well.

Thanks for the interesting story - I found the scanner picture really interesting.
 
Yeah I know that feeling as well, mine's not gone to the amount's you've paid but all I seem to do is pay out for the piggies, I've moved home and haven't done a thing to it yet lol. I'm really hoping that nothing else crops up with the guinea's for a while! I love them to bits though and my dog can be just as bad sometimes with arthritis and ear infections.

At least you care and your trying to help them.
 
aww hoping your little piggies get sorted soon, sounds like you are doing a wonderful job for them x
 
It is frightening how the vet bills mount up. Your Sage looks so small and vulnerable in the CT scan. I hope everything goes OK for Sage and Dill.
 
I completely understand where you are coming from, l volunteer for a rescue and although they pay for neutering etc, l tend to pay everything else ( my way of contributing), l am so lucky that l can afford to do this, but otherwise l would be having to ask the rescue to pay for everything and although they would, l would have to use their vet who l don't trust with piggies! And then all the poorly piggies who l cant rehome end up staying here. I save on costs by asking the vet for a prescription for medication such as metacam, its loads cheaper on line. Hope the piggies do well xx
 
I sympathise with you deeply, I had probably half the trouble and cost you are experiencing last year when both Tango and Cash got seriously ill, and in Cash's case underwent almost half a year of diagnosis and treatment. That was hard enough to manage (even with insurance!) so I can't imagine how stressed and upset you must be. Wishing you and your piggies the best, I hope you can all turn a corner soon. X

Also, if it is any consolation I think the diagnostic efforts you are going to are incredible and indeed, invaluable to not just helping your own piggies but others as well. Cash was 90% diagnosed with hyperthyroidism though similar to Sage wasn't showing *extremely* high levels in his bloods but high end normal - on that note what we also found frustrating was the baseline for 'normal' thyroid levels seemed to differ a lot, @jenniferanneharris vet had a totally different normal range than our vet, and both are respected and recommended piggy vets! Sadly we didn't get to trial thyroid meds on Cash as he didn't make it through surgery to remove a lump under his chin which we suspected to be linked to the thyroid and was more of a priority. This has turned into a bit of a ramble but I think what I'm trying to say is this touches something very close up my heart and I really wish you all the best!
 
It is hard. No matter how much we love our piggies it's only human to feel the pain of a wallet-stripped-bare. Shadow, my first pig rehomed from owners who couldn't really be bothered with her, had a UTI that came and went for over a year. I don't think it ever cleared up, but perhaps went into remission on and off, but she was robust, happy and healthy in other ways. Many trips to the vets, an x-ray (early on) to rule out stones, and many rounds of antibiotics later I finally thought she had beaten it, when all at once she started peeing quite a lot of blood and squealing in pain. Another x-ray later revealed many lumps in her bladder, but not stones. opening her up revealed a severe case of ulcerative cystitis, and the vet decided there and then that her best chance was to remove these ulcers from the bladder. After all, antibiotics hadn't worked and her bladder was in a really bad state. This final vet bill cost £360, after many smaller vet bills. I never did tally it up, but it must have cost at least £700 over the year for this condition. She also had an operation to remove a sebaceous cyst, again this cost another £100 or so all-in.
Sadly her body couldn't cope with the bladder operation. Her body shut down and she died two days after the op. I believe the most likely cause was that her body went into shock, but it could be surgical issue, I'll never know.
All that money, and in the end no positive outcome. We wouldn't be human if that kind of thing didn't sting a little, even though we put the money issues secondary to their wellbeing.
We love our guinea pigs. They do not love our bank accounts!
 
Thank you all for your kind words.

@Tbag So sorry about your little hyperthyroid fella. I would be very interested to see more on him if/when i get time to get some of this published out in to the veterinary word, and of course only if your willing to. They do break our hearts dont they. Sage has lost yet more weight today so feeling at a bit of a loss again. And shes a manic as ever, her thyoid must be making her mental again.

@Pebble Thank you. Believe me, i am not afraid to take a step back or call it a day when the time comes. I have endless discussions with my best friend whos a vet nurse and with my vets about when to stop. (Ive seen far too many cats and dogs taken far to far to end of life and i refuse to do so with my own animals) The main reason for the CT was it was non invasive and a last ditch attempt at a diagnosis. If it had come up as nothing she would have had steriods and then been PTS due to extreme weightloss. My team of exotic vets and myself are very honest with one another and on more than one occation i have asked their opinion on the above. As for Dill, her daughter went to surgery last year for a similar presentation and had a blocked gall bladder duct. Needless to say there was no need for much discussion and she was left to go peacefully under the aneasthetic. If the same is with Dill then i will (not happily) let her go if needs must. My piggies always come first and i wont be putting them through unecessary testing. If anything, a post mortem will be my defining contribution to the research and then i will lay them at peace if the time is right.

^^ well thats a morbid paragraph.

Will keep you all updated on goings on if people are interested.

Thanks again all.

x.
 
I would be happy to provide you with what info I have on his case history whenever you feel you're in a position to have a good look into things, just drop me a pm. Jenny who I tagged earlier would probably be happy to supply details of her experience with the condition too.

Big hugs to you Dill and Sage!
 
It was a cyst! Yay. (Best result possible)

Dill is home this evening after having her surgery. She's already eating and pooing! And upon opening her up we found her to have a massive cystic ovary. (Unusual as she had a pet shop pregnancy at a young age). So we went ahead and spayed her. She's snoozy but doing well, home with some strong pain relief and nursing care at home. She was eating within 2 hours of coming round and she's poo'd, so fingers crossed for a continued recovery.

Here she is this evening.



The following images are surgery so please skip if your squeamish...










 
Blimey that's huge. Glad all has gone well with the op and it wasn't as bad news as you were expecting.
 
Oh poor baby, hope she will recover quickly and successfully from her op. Very interesting photos( not squeamish!), that's one big cyst. Sending hugs x
 
Gosh poor girl having had that inside her! Bet she's just as relieved as you are that its out, very glad to hear it wasn't anything more sinister.
 
Crikey, that huge... Hope all goes well with recovery xx
 
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