Tips for anyone who has been misinformed by a vet

[laurens758]

I appreciate the feedback I received about Gus on my last post! My whole family was so worried about our poor baby... as I said, the first vet told us she was positive Gus was actually a girl, even though he’s been to the vet before and there was no mention of this.
Since the information seemed questionable and Gus was still showing signs of pain and illness, we took him to an emergency vet and were informed he is NOT a girl and actually had a parasite. We were very angry with the other vet because, had we brought him home like she suggested, he could have died overnight! He was not okay!
I know it is expensive, but for anyone who is doubtful of what their vet has informed them, go with your gut feeling! We are requesting money back from the first vet because she failed so miserably. She had every opportunity to do a feces test (he had multiple solid poops in the carrier from the car ride) and refused to do it. I would hate for anyone to have to experience the same thing.
The good news is, Gus is doing great in the hospital right now and is ready to come home to us this evening. The poor thing... I feel so awful that it came to this. He was so uncomfortable, and I know Moe is going to be over the moon when his brother comes home. If anyone has any long-term dietary tweaks to help him gain weight, I’d love to hear it. The first vet had told us to completely remove fiber to help him lose weight (which I didn’t personally think he needed to begin with - he is much smaller than Moe and always has been, but I’d noticed him feeling lighter in these past weeks). We give them both pellets and unlimited amounts of hay.. the pellets are scaled out, and we also give them a lot of lettuce, peppers (red), lettuce, and occasionally some fruit but not much. They don’t seem to like or tolerate fruits as well. They also take vitamin C supplements because they aren’t very enthusiastic about oranges. We have also incorporated a digestive supplement for them. The original vet believed Gus wasn’t consuming nutritional poops from himself or Moe, but I’m questioning everything she’s told us now that we found out she didn’t seem to know much. I also saw Gus consume a solid poop of his on the way to the emergency vet.
I hope this is the right thread to post this. Thanks again for all of the great staff on here! You all are so attentive and caring! I remember some of you from when I posted my memorials for both Peaches and Peanut years back. <3

 

[Wiebke]

If you are not happy, you are always within your rights to seek a second opinion. Unfortunately, guinea pigs fall very much into the gap between being classed as an exotic and therefore not featuring large (or indeed hardly at all) on a general vet's curriculum and being too pedestrian for most vets interested in the really exotic animal species. They also still suffer very much from still being considered a 'children's pet' and resulting lack of research as a species.

Finding a good vet can sometimes be a rather long and sadly often painful journey. We do have a member recommended vets locator on the top bar, but is by its very nature very patchy. We simply cannot check the hundreds of vet clinics just in the UK, never mind all thousands of vets that are active and keep up with them - and even less with vets around the world.
Vets specialising specifically in guinea pigs are worth their weight in gold - and as rare!

But I am very happy for you that you have found a vet just in time to save Gus.

 

[Freela]

I'm glad you were able to get a second opinion. Unfortunately there are plenty of vets who are willing to treat guinea pigs without actually having much up-to-date knowledge about guinea pig medicine. I've been there myself too, and actually lost a pig who might have been saved with a more experienced vet (or then again, maybe not. There's really no way to know.) Having a vet you're comfortable with is so important, I'm glad you've found one now. All the best to Gus!