I'm completely traumatized.
My girlfriend and I's 5 year old rescue guinea pig starting peeing a lot of blood, we noticed it almost right away. The next day before his Vet appointment, he wasn't drinking, peeing, or eating. Clear signs of a UTI and a stone.
We took him to the Vet, and sure enough he had an impassable large stone that needed to be operated. When he was at the vet, he pretty much slumped over, acting nothing like himself.
My girlfriend and I are young (mid 20's). We are struggling financially, well she is mostly. She lives paycheck to paycheck whereas I have a more stable, low paying career.
The quote for the surgery and visit was going to cost us $800~. It was then we made the most difficult decision I've ever been a part of. We chose to put him down to end his suffering and to avoid the large medical bill.
Looking back on it, I wish we had went for the surgery. We panicked. To us, $800 looks like $10,000. I am harboring so much guilt, I wish I would have stepped in and offered to pay. I have been working a new job for 7 months and barely have $2,500 to my name. I feel as if I put a price tag on an innocent, unsuspecting form of life. A friend who trusted us, and I turned my back on him and put him down without even trying.
If it's anyone's fault, it's my fault. Not my girlfriend's. I feel as if she was afraid to ask me to cover it financially.
Please give me some reassurance... did I do the right thing?
BIG HUGS!
You have made the right decision under the circumstances and spared your boy any further suffering. The bad owners either walk straight out to let the piggy die miserably without care or they abandon their pets there and then at the clinic. It happens more often than you'd think!
Sometimes, we only have the choice between a bad and a worse decision. It is normally under those circumstances that the feelings of failure and guilt that we all experience to some degree whenever a beloved one dies can take over. They tell me that you are a very loving and caring owner indeed!
Vet cost - especially in countries with enormous upfront vet fees like the US, Canada or Australia - are the biggest problem when getting a pet, as you need to basically save up weekly for a vet fund right from the start to be able to cover for an emergency or serious operation. Many pet owning people fall into this trap, especially with smaller pets that seem to be easily affordable and/or when they are first time owners that have never been near a vet before. You have done the right thing and had your boy seen by a vet promptly.
You are a very loving owner and have given your boy a good life and life span and a quick end when his suffering required it; that is all that is asked from us - to love, to care and to keep any unavoidable suffering to the minimum.
My suspicion is that the stone had gone into and got stuck in the urethra and had likely started to block it considering the extremely fast decline and collapse. It would have been a very touch-and-go operation that might have well not have come off. Bladder stones in boars can turn out to be inoperable depending on where they fetch up. it would have likely ended with costing you even more.
With quickly growing medical possibilities and the corresponding fast rise in vet fees unfortunately more and more of us are being confronted with the same choice as you have had sprung on you. We all need to have a concept of where to draw the line financially if we want to be long term and not just one time owners unless we have major savings we can throw into it.
I have spent several thousand of pounds (or dollars) on some of my piggies. I am fully aware that I cannot afford to do this for all of mine. It is always a careful weighing-up of the chances of making a good recovery and re-gaining a good quality of life.
I have debated this issue with my vets, so they know where I stand in terms of suggesting further expensive treatments and tests that cannot guarantee success. Walking away from treatment at which point ever is one of the hardest and most heart-breaking decisions you have to make. But as long as the decision is made with love and your piggy's wellbeing upmost in mind, it is always the right one.
If it is any consolation to you, I have had to make the decision to have a piggy pts on the spot on a shock diagnosis more than once, but I have also lost several of mine in life-and-death operations that have not been successful. The feelings of guilt are not much less than when you make the decision to not operate.
More than anything, it is more the shock of the bad news and the shock of having to make your decision on the spot without the grace of being able think through it that is throwing you right now. It has had me sitting in the clinic car park literally shaking like a leaf from reaction once! The shock is in my experience always the hardest to deal with as you can literally not brace for it.
Your heart will eventually catch up with your brain, but it may yet take while. I hope that you can find peace on this issue in the long term, knowing that your instincts and your heart are all in the right place. There is always going to be the regret that it has happened this way, but it should not taint your memory to the extent that you are not able to treasure your time with your beloved boy since you have NOT failed him.
As so many abandoned, dumped or surrendered pets need committed and loving owners like you, I would encourage you to not completely abandon the idea of ever keeping pets again, but I would recommend that you and your partner saved up for a vet fund first and factored those costs into the regular expenditures in the future.
You are welcome to post a tribute to your boy if or whenever you feel that it is right for you; we all grieve differently, so there is no compulsion and no time limit. Our Rainbow Bridge section is simply there for whoever wants to make use of it.
