Why Have Pets If You're Not Prepared To Pay For Their Care? >:(

LozzyBee

LozzyBee

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jan 17, 2016
Messages
199
Reaction score
225
Points
305
Location
London
I'm dubious about posting exactly what the situation is in case the person it's about happens to stumble across this...but I recently found out about someone who has a set amount of money they'd spend on their piggie (not a huge amount), and if the bill came to more than that she'd have them PTS. Is that even allowed? I'm a little shocked and disappointed to be honest. They are shocked at how much time and money we've spent on ours. Surely you have to do the best you can by them?...but then what if the best you can do means you can only spend a certain amount? I have to admit, I did get the impression that they didn't think they were worth more than this magical amount as opposed to it being the limit to what they could afford. I feel bad for being so judgemental, but it just seems so wrong to me.
 
That's awful, but sadly the reality of small pets in this country. A lot of people still see them as disposable :(
 
I know people who feel like that about ANY pet, especially the small ones. I know someone who put her dog down because doing a hip repair was very expensive. So they put her down and got another dog. It makes me angry, but it's the way a lot of people think. Honestly, most people I talk to are surprised that my pigs get any vet care. Where I live, the amount that most people are willing to pay for a small animal is probably zero. Sad but true and I've encountered it many, MANY times.
 
Gosh....I had no idea it was so common :(

The idea of just disposing of them seems so
alien and cruel to me. We chose to bring these little beings in to our homes - surely we should be doing the very best we can by them? :'(

Really sad
 
Unfortunately it is quite common for most piggies to never even see a vet. I volunteered at a vet for a year (I was doing about 1 and a half hours every week during peak time) and I only ever saw pigs 2-3 times. My pigs were the main rodent clients. I was quite shocked and disappointed as I believe all animals are equal. Since then I have swapped to a much better guinea pig vet, who sees more, but still not that many. My last vet thought it was ridiculous how much some people spent on their pigs. I know it's not my money, but I still wouldn't see it as excessive vet bills as I love piggies.

The only vet I've ever been to who I actually have seen other guinea pigs at was Simon Maddock, who is well known.

I wish people did value guinea pigs more, but they are seen as far too disposable and as very easy pets.
 
Yes, people do that... it is awful the fact that they don't have even the balls for accepting the destiny of the piggie. I mean: I don't want to spend a lot of family money for a surgery, for a MRI, for something really specialised, but I take care of the piggie until his last day, giving him the best palliative cares, the ones I can afford. But the fault is only of the vet and here things go differently... here the vet does not put to sleep any pet if it isn't at the very end of his days. My neighbour took her ill dog (cancer) to the vet for PTS and came back home with the alive dog, because the vet refused to proceed. The dog was not ready.
Years ago I saw another story, totally different and equally wrong in my opinion. In my daughter's classroom (it was a private primary school) there was a girl who had arrived from another school and of course had some little difficulty for integrating herself with the group. At the end of the year the girl had reached the same level of the other fellows, but her parents did not reconfirm her enrollment because the family dog was diagnosed with a cancer and needed an expensive chemotherapy (1000€ a dose!). The dog had a cancer which cound not respond to any chemo... just like for us humans, the chemo is not always a treatment for recovering and coming back clear... The girl was sent again to another public school. Three different schools in three years.That is excessive, I guess.
 
Impulse buys, no thought to the Vet bills that may occur. Get bored of impulse buy, animal needs vet care but owner doesn't care about the poor animal anymore so will no way spend money on them to get them better.

Throw away society :(
 
It makes me so angry but that does seem to be the general attitude to small animals with a lot of people (and pets in general for some people).

99% of people I talk to about the pigs are absolutely speechless when I tell them how much time/care/effort and money I put into them. Due to them both needing so many medications which are keeping them free from pain/further health problems - I pretty much have to schedule my life around this, which I'm absolutely fine with but most people find it ridiculous.

So many people see them as disposable, I even had a family member say to me that small animals are only used as pets to teach children how to look after proper pets i.e dogs/cats. It really does make me so angry that (most) people are willing to go to the ends of the earth for their dogs/cats but when it comes to a small animal like a guinea pig they think it's laughable to even take them to the vet.
 
I can only hope that they have a good vets who would refuse to put an animal to sleep unnecessarily. Hopefully if it ever came to that the vets would get the animal to a rescue
 
It's sadly the world we live in. I know when my Alby was really elderly and stopped eating he was syringe fed for 3 weeks solid with no signs of improvement after numerous different treatments for pain and urine infections (He persistently had uti's which were always treated & he had scans and everything to try and diagnose these bouts of blood in urine. But nothing was found) when me and the vet discussed letting Alby go to sleep as he was greatly suffering and had given up, she said to me I had done a lot lot more than most people would do. Which was really sad to hear.
Also the amount of guinea pigs surrendered to rescues as they are ill is terrible. ;(
 
Yeah, it's awful isn't it. And something I would never do. I save up and also have a credit card if I need it

But I can see some people's difficulties, especially if they're tricked into buying a pig by a pet shop at a low price. They don't know how expensive pigs can be.

If you can't afford vets then you need to weigh up owning a pet. There are things like the PDSA that can help.
 
When I took my two to the vet for a check up a couple months back the vet nurse was sayining that they used to get quite a few guinea pigs in for check ups etc but they don't get many in anymore because no one wants to spend money on vet bills anymore on such a cheap and small animal. When did the amount you spend to buy a animal or it's size define it's worth? Very sad!
 
:agr: Your pets are living breathing animals with feelings! When mine need a visit to the vet that is exactly what they get! I love my piggies :love:and only want the best for them. As @Kylie80 says its very sad that unfeeling people think that just cos they paid a small amount for a pet that spending loads on vets bills isn't worth it as you can just go and buy another.
 
Flutterby said:
That's awful, but sadly the reality of small pets in this country. A lot of people still see them as disposable :(
Click to expand...
you are right and it pains me so much. they don't ask to be a pet but true honest loving people take it responsibly. I worked with a guy who had his dog pts cos they were going on holiday. I never let him forget it when he join in sayin oh we had a dog etc. Moron
 
David Pet Lover said:
you are right and it pains me so much. they don't ask to be a pet but true honest loving people take it responsibly. I worked with a guy who had his dog pts cos they were going on holiday. I never let him forget it when he join in sayin oh we had a dog etc. Moron
Click to expand...

That's awful :(
 
I know a lady who 'rescued' a pit bull type mix only to have it PTS 2 years later because it looked at her funny.. . The year before she also had her 7 year old Staffy male PTS because he was a bit unwell, nothing serious at all but God told her to end his suffering.. :rant:
 
Eileen's Mum said:
I know a lady who 'rescued' a pit bull type mix only to have it PTS 2 years later because it looked at her funny.. . The year before she also had her 7 year old Staffy male PTS because he was a bit unwell, nothing serious at all but God told her to end his suffering.. :rant:
Click to expand...
So wrong. :hb:
 
chesca_27 said:
Unfortunately it is quite common for most piggies to never even see a vet. I volunteered at a vet for a year (I was doing about 1 and a half hours every week during peak time) and I only ever saw pigs 2-3 times. My pigs were the main rodent clients. I was quite shocked and disappointed as I believe all animals are equal. Since then I have swapped to a much better guinea pig vet, who sees more, but still not that many. My last vet thought it was ridiculous how much some people spent on their pigs. I know it's not my money, but I still wouldn't see it as excessive vet bills as I love piggies.

The only vet I've ever been to who I actually have seen other guinea pigs at was Simon Maddock, who is well known.

I wish people did value guinea pigs more, but they are seen as far too disposable and as very easy pets.
Click to expand...

I just can't imagine a world where you sit there and know your piggie is in pain/I'll, but don't bother at least trying to take them to a vet.

I'm the same as you - I believe all animals are equal. In the specific situation I talked about it, the person is happy to spend on their dog, but not their piggies :(

I too used to use an inexperienced vet but now use an exotic vet 20 miles away (even then you have to ask for specific vets at the practice to get a decent opinion...), and up to Kim and Simon for teeth.

It just feels very wrong, I still can't get my head around it!
 
rome_italy said:
Yes, people do that... it is awful the fact that they don't have even the balls for accepting the destiny of the piggie. I mean: I don't want to spend a lot of family money for a surgery, for a MRI, for something really specialised, but I take care of the piggie until his last day, giving him the best palliative cares, the ones I can afford. But the fault is only of the vet and here things go differently... here the vet does [you]not[/you] put to sleep any pet if it isn't at the very end of his days. My neighbour took her ill dog (cancer) to the vet for PTS and came back home with the alive dog, because the vet refused to proceed. The dog was not ready.
Years ago I saw another story, totally different and equally wrong in my opinion. In my daughter's classroom (it was a private primary school) there was a girl who had arrived from another school and of course had some little difficulty for integrating herself with the group. At the end of the year the girl had reached the same level of the other fellows, but her parents did not reconfirm her enrollment because the family dog was diagnosed with a cancer and needed an expensive chemotherapy (1000€ a dose!). The dog had a cancer which cound not respond to any chemo... just like for us humans, the chemo is not always a treatment for recovering and coming back clear... The girl was sent again to another public school. Three different schools in three years.That is excessive, I guess.
Click to expand...

I love that they won't PTS if deemed unnecessary - that's the way it should be in my opinion. I have to admit, I took one of ours to be PTS a couple of weeks ago as he just didn't seem to be responding to treatment and keeping him alive just seemed wrong. Thankfully, the vet didn't listen to me, changed his medication and told me to give it another few days - seemed to do the trick and he's getting better every day. Had that been another vet, I have no doubt they would have put him to sleep!
 
Beans&Toast said:
It makes me so angry but that does seem to be the general attitude to small animals with a lot of people (and pets in general for some people).

99% of people I talk to about the pigs are absolutely speechless when I tell them how much time/care/effort and money I put into them. Due to them both needing so many medications which are keeping them free from pain/further health problems - I pretty much have to schedule my life around this, which I'm absolutely fine with but most people find it ridiculous.

So many people see them as disposable, I even had a family member say to me that small animals are only used as pets to teach children how to look after proper pets i.e dogs/cats. It really does make me so angry that (most) people are willing to go to the ends of the earth for their dogs/cats but when it comes to a small animal like a guinea pig they think it's laughable to even take them to the vet.
Click to expand...

I am exactly the same right now. Scheduling everything around trips to 2 vets, feeds and medication (although today they've both had a good go at eating by themselves *touches wood*!). I've had a particular comment a couple of times that drives me insane...'you're doing all this for them, but they don't live for very long anyway do they?!' And?! Crazy!
 
Jaycey said:
Yeah, it's awful isn't it. And something I would never do. I save up and also have a credit card if I need it

But I can see some people's difficulties, especially if they're tricked into buying a pig by a pet shop at a low price. They don't know how expensive pigs can be.

If you can't afford vets then you need to weigh up owning a pet. There are things like the PDSA that can help.
Click to expand...

I agree. When we were first thinking of gettting piggies, we spoke to a lady in a pet shop about it. She said the only problem piggies ever run into is ringworm! Fortunately, I read up about them (and found a rescue to adopt from rather than buy) and was prepared for a heck of a lot more than ringworm. I can see how people would take their word for it and go into it very poorly prepared.
 
David Pet Lover said:
you are right and it pains me so much. they don't ask to be a pet but true honest loving people take it responsibly. I worked with a guy who had his dog pts cos they were going on holiday. I never let him forget it when he join in sayin oh we had a dog etc. Moron
Click to expand...

:(((((
 
Eileen's Mum said:
I know a lady who 'rescued' a pit bull type mix only to have it PTS 2 years later because it looked at her funny.. . The year before she also had her 7 year old Staffy male PTS because he was a bit unwell, nothing serious at all but God told her to end his suffering.. :rant:
Click to expand...

Oh my gosh! How can someone do that?! Just don't get a flippin' pet if that's the way you feel! Awful
 
LozzyBee said:
I love that they won't PTS if deemed unnecessary - that's the way it should be in my opinion. I have to admit, I took one of ours to be PTS a couple of weeks ago as he just didn't seem to be responding to treatment and keeping him alive just seemed wrong. Thankfully, the vet didn't listen to me, changed his medication and told me to give it another few days - seemed to do the trick and he's getting better every day. Had that been another vet, I have no doubt they would have put him to sleep!
Click to expand...
the PTS procedure is often only a fear we have for the future... I would have PTS also my father although he was not suffering phisically... but I knew very well there was no hope and I had fear of the future pain and other bad consequences...which never arrived though. My father left this world naturally during the sleep and pain free.
With the pets we have a choice and also great excuses. For example where is the point of running to the emergency vet in the night with a little pet dying? that pet will die into the car and not even at home. We western people have a big fear of the death and vets do their job of course. Into this building there lives a lady whom I admire for her strenght and style of living: she is a teacher and a cat lover, she spends all her money for her rescue cats. She did not PTS a cat as suggested by two vets and the cat lived FOUR years (of course he was ill and was necessary to feed him in a certain way) and with another cat she assured him a great care and painkillers; when the cat was ready to pass it was clear as he went under the bed and stayed hidden there. This lady left the home, closed the windows and waited outside (crying of course).
Therefore you are saying that your pet is recovering?? a similar story happened at the lady of the rescue where I have adopted my sows: her piggie caught a pneumonia and there was no hope at all for him. She then stopped the treatment and did nothing... It was two years ago and the piggie is alive!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top