Vet experience ?

[LittleGems]

Hello ! I haven’t been on the forum for absolutely ages sorry guys !
Who ever knows the story with Bella she is still a lone pig as we haven’t found any rescues around her age near north London ☹
She is four now and doing fine I play with her and interact with her every day .
Anyway back to the point .. Our local vet is just at the bottom of our road and is very lovely but she has experience with animals like cats and dogs and not guinea pigs.
Although she does know the basics about them and that. We do have a pets at home fairly near us .... is it better going there instead of our local vets?
Thank you , hope you are all well Xx

 

[KayBalor]

I had a terrible experience with the vets in my local pets at home, but eacjlh one is different because its a franchise vets. I found a great exotics vet that I will always use going forward now, even for my dogs! Have you used the vet locator on here to see if there's a recommended one near you?

 

[Lady Kelly]

I agree with checking the vets locator. It's also worth reading about the team at your pets at home vets. If it's a vets for pets they are usually quite informative on additional qualifications and interests that might indicate whether they will be good with piggies

 

[Wiebke]

A general vet who is open to asking other vets and reading up/doing their research or who has online contact to a stand by small furries/exotic specialist is often better than an exotics vet without interest in 'mundane' guinea pig. Unfortunately you will find these things out only the hard way if you haven't got anybody in your area to give you recommendations. All you can do is ask the various vet clinics.

It is generally useful to find a good general vet and out-of-hours services in your area (especially an urban one) and then also have an exotics vet a bit further away if necessary for all those problems/tricky ops that surpass the knowledge of a general vet.

We have a recommended vets locator on the top bar. In the end, it all comes down to how far you are prepared to travel for vets and rescue piggies.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Every Vets4Pets is different, as mentioned it is a franchise so the vets are individually and independantly qualified and trained and just renting the premises and brand name in exchange for providing some Pets@Home vet checks and insurance and vaccination schemes. Our Vets4Pets is great, very piggy savvy, they are attached to a Pets@Home that has no new animals just "pre-loved" reject piggies and bunnies that they fix up ready for rehoming. But our vet team does include 2 excellent piggy vets, also they often have contact with different vets at other Vets4Pets branches who visit sometimes, so a real piggy expert vet (who advises on GuineaLynx) was visiting for Tallulah's abscess surgery as she'd treated skinny pigs before. You can always ask what qualifications and experience they have beforehand, and what expert contacts, any good vet should be happy to be open and honest about their experience and CV and refer you on or consult a colleague if they feel something is outside of their area!