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Poorly Willow

piggieminder

piggieminder

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Willow had lost weight at Friday's weekly weigh in, I wasn't too concerned as all the boars had lost weight after going onto grainless pellets, Willows loss was more though. I kept an eye on him over the weekend and he was behaving normally, eating, popcorning and doing zoomies. I weighed him again yesterday and he'd dropped a bit more and more again today making 100gms in all. All the boys went off to the vet tonight and all got a clean bill of health except Willow. Vet said he's definately not right she can feel he's lost muscle but she can't find anything wrong on examination. He demolished a pot of cucumber and corriander in front of her just to prove he was eating well! Pooped perfect poops in my hand and wee'd down my front. Willow has stayed at the vets tonight with Bracken for company, the house is very quiet without their evening zoomies and I'm trying very hard not to cry. He is going to have a CT scan tomorrow and if that shows nothing bloods will be taken. I decided to leave them in boarding as they were scared in the car and I would of had to take them in a taxi tomorrow, thought this would be the least tramatic for them. I am so scared for him, under all that hair he's a bag of bones today.
 
I'm so sorry hes not his perky self. You worry yourself silly when it's a stay at the vet. I hope there's nothing major wrong. Hugs coming your way.
 
Oh dear, poor you and Willow :( I hope the vet can get to the bottom of his illness! It's great that he is still eating and feeling well though. Good luck x :hug:
 
So sorry. You’ve done exactly what I would have done - leaving him at the vets for further tests. I hope you can soon get to the bottom of what is wrong. Hugs x
 
Thank you everyone.
I've just been on my hands and knees in the cage examining the fleece for blood spots, couldn't see any. Racking my brains in case I've missed something, really missing those two tonight.
 
This morning my beautiful boy was helped over the Bridge. The CT scan showed a kidney stone, bladder stone and pneumonia in his right lung. I am devastated, he was only 10 months old and yesterday he was popcorning round the room, he was such a happy pig. Poor Bracken is going to be so lost without him. The vet said there were too many things wrong to operate and to have stones like that at his age there was probably kidney disease from birth. I have been so careful with their diet and filtered their water. I can't believe I'm writing this.
 
I am sorry for this tragic event... but this story does not sound me good, sorry.
are you saying that a vet put to sleep a piggie who only yesterday " demolished a pot of cucumber and corriander in front of her just to prove he was eating well! Pooped perfect poops in my hand and wee'd down my front" ?
It is not your fault of course, but...
 
@rome_italy he wouldn't have survived longer than the next few days. As the vet said it was incredible the way he was yesterday but as we all know they go down so very fast. The stones were huge there was no way they could have operated on the bladder stone and the only thing to do for the kidney one was remove the kidney. She could have brought him round from the sedation he had for the scan and I could have brought him home for a few days but he had already lost a lot of weight over the weekend and I didn't think that was a fair thing to do. She said if it had only been one thing wrong she would have recommended me to have the operation done but he wouldn't have survived as he was. I would be very happy to try to manage a stone condition in a guinea pig with diet and medication, occasional bladder flushes and operations when necessary, but this was no ordinary piggy not managing calcium condition, this was major, probably a birth defect. My vet is very very piggy savvy and I trust her completely, if she said the kindest thing to do was to PTS as much as it has broken my heart I beileve what she said. I will always wonder what if, could I have done more, different, better? Would he have got those stones if he lived with someone else? Is it all my fault? I'll never know, the only thing I know is I loved that little boar with all my heart and I did the absolute best I could for him for the 5 months he was with me, and I know those 5 months were a lot better than the very unsettled 5 he had before in his very sad and tragicly short life.
 
So sorry to hear about poor Willow. So sad. RIP little piggy.
 
We've just brought them home. Willow has had a little funeral by torch light and has been burried in a very large pot with an acer tree that has been waiting to be transplanted. Bracken is eating grass and corriander and is very happy to be back in his home. The nurses at the vets showed him Willow and he seems to be OK. Obviously I will be keeping an eye on him. My partner and I have had a cry together. I don't think it's really hit me yet but my main concern now has to be Bracken.
 
I'm so sorry :( poor Willow. By the sounds of it you did the best thing possible for him with all those issues.

Sleep well little Willow. I hope you guys and Bracken are doing alright :(
 
piggieminder said:
@rome_italy he wouldn't have survived longer than the next few days. As the vet said it was incredible the way he was yesterday but as we all know they go down so very fast. The stones were huge there was no way they could have operated on the bladder stone and the only thing to do for the kidney one was remove the kidney. She could have brought him round from the sedation he had for the scan and I could have brought him home for a few days but he had already lost a lot of weight over the weekend and I didn't think that was a fair thing to do. She said if it had only been one thing wrong she would have recommended me to have the operation done but he wouldn't have survived as he was. I would be very happy to try to manage a stone condition in a guinea pig with diet and medication, occasional bladder flushes and operations when necessary, but this was no ordinary piggy not managing calcium condition, this was major, probably a birth defect. My vet is very very piggy savvy and I trust her completely, if she said the kindest thing to do was to PTS as much as it has broken my heart I beileve what she said. I will always wonder what if, could I have done more, different, better? Would he have got those stones if he lived with someone else? Is it all my fault? I'll never know, the only thing I know is I loved that little boar with all my heart and I did the absolute best I could for him for the 5 months he was with me, and I know those 5 months were a lot better than the very unsettled 5 he had before in his very sad and tragicly short life.
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I tell you what I think: it is not your fault. That is the only true fact. Those stones would have arrived as well, because the diet you have followed was right. It is incredible how he made pee and poo without any sign of sufference and he was about to die... (because here if you aren't in visible sufference and/or you don't have only few hours of life no vet would use the euthanasia).The option of the PTS is our personal choice... Doctors are not Gods and cannot know everything about the future of the pets. Personally I would have contacted another vet, but this is another subject...
Of course I am very very sorry for you, I hope you will delete from your head this wrong thought about some possibile mistake made at home. Also your vet is not having sense of fault for not being able to make a surgery in a "difficult" case of not ordinary stones like that... Long ago a great pediatric surgeon said no for an experimental surgery (bladder defect) for my daughter; another surgeon said yes... Gods don't live in this earth, every doctor simply knows his limits and doesn't run any silly risk...
But, in general, without any reference to your bad experience I say that trusting "completely" a vet or a doctor as many people do, exchanging him for the God Almighty is the greatest mistake people often do.
Hugs to you with all my heart and sorry if I always say what I think and I am not at all emotional in certain situations. What I always say to my piggie super super savvy famous Professor vet, I am not a client of him and anybody else. In case of big troubles I will go to at least 3-4 vets.
 
I'm am sorry for your heartbreaking situation.you gave him the most selfless care,and you put Willows needs first before your own.you really must not blame yourself.
Sweetdreams Willow.RIP.
My thoughts go out to you and your family and Bracken.:(
 
I am so sorry to read this, you must feel devastated. You made the most difficult decision any of us ever has to make. You made it out of total love for Willow. Hugest hugs to you. Popcorn free Willow xx
 
I started this thread thinking I would be asking for advice on a piggie who was taking antibiotics for an infection and would need syringe feeding, I did not expect the final outcome of taking a maybe sick piggie to see the vet.

I thank everyone from the bottom of my very broken heart who has given me comfort over what has been a sudden and terrible shock. Having been told I should have taken a very sick and ailing piggie around 3 or 4 vets for their oppinions I have decided to give the forum a break. The forum has been an invaluable source of information to me since it's start. For many years I lurked as a non member before joining in 2014 after a 6 year break from piggie slaving. I am now struggling with my confidence in knowing what's best for these darling animals and feeling maybe I've got it all wrong. Being a regular stone owner myself due to genetic kidney disease I do know how painful and debilitating stones are. I am currently waiting to have my bi-annual stone removal operation, if I had thought for one moment Willows stones could have been operable I would have given him the chance, as I have been given many times.
RIP my beautiful, joyful boy, you were mine and Brackens sunshine. Miss your zoomies.
 
Please dont for a moment question your decision. While ive not had them myself, my brother gets them...and I can testify to how painful they are. Your quick decision saved your piggy from that. Sometimes there is no way to make things better, and even if you could, for the exact same problem to come back again and again...thats not fair.
We owe our animals the best passing we can give them and you did exactly that. To go while asleep is the best anyone can ask for, so many dont get that.
You made the call with his best intentions at heart and thats all anyone can ask of us as piggie slaves. I understand if you want to take a break from here, but youll be missed. x
 
Please do not question your decision. It was 100% the right one. Just because we can operate does not mean we should. When we have built up a relationship with a vet we trust their judgement as they know what is best for our pigs and us.
 
Please do not for one moment doubt your decision. It was absolutely right for Willow. You and your vets are best judges of when that decision should be made. And in your shoes I would have made exactly the same decision at the same time.
This is a public forum and we do get differences of opinion about treatment from time to time. It’s part of forum life. It doesn’t mean that one persons view counts more than another. In this situation the only opinion that mattered was that if you and your vet.
I’m so sorry for your devastating loss. We are here to support you. Hugest hugs xx
 
For what its worth I would have made the same choice as you. Better a minute too soon they a second too late with euthanasia as Helen has always told me on this forum, I have witnessed piggies passing of natural causes and nature is not kind :( You were right to trust your vet they are medically trained have done the diagnostics and weighed up the options NO vet would ever suggest euthanasia if it wasn't the best cause of action.
Please do not second guess yourself.

Huge hugs I am so sorry
x
 
The fact Willow popcorned showed the happiness that your guinea felt and how happy it was with you.

You will feel better day by day and realise it was the right thing to do, at the moment you are grieving. Pts is a very hard decision as we love our guineas so much and the time that they live to is no way long enough for such a gorgeous animal.

Both of my avatar guineas were pts. The one on the right, TItch had bladder stones and even though I filtered her water, watched the veggies she ate she got sludge six months after getting her. Four years later she got very poorly with them. Ruby was fed the same diet and never suffered but had a tumour. I videod her running around a week before she went downhill, they seem to go quite quickly, like your guinea she was thin at the end, six months before she survived a large cyst removal but when they are thinner and poorly a vet knows when it is too much for them and go on how we feel as well, as we know when it's time. Sometimes, we need a break from the forum, I did. I come on here as I find it cheerful to get my fill of guineas especially Trudie. I too have lost confidence having them so I can understand you blame yourself so I come on here to see guineas instead x
 
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