Sian25
Adult Guinea Pig
It's been 4 months since we lost our beautiful little Hugo and I am still really struggling and feel like I need to vent.
Alot of people will know the story about how we spent months researching and deciding what was best for our boys after they fell out and in the end, we had them both neutered and planned to pair them up with a sow each. I thought I had found the perfect vet to do the job but we had problems after problems from day one. Both boys developed abscesses and both had them lanced and drained but Hugos felt as though it had returned and the vet agreed and suggested surgery to remove asap. The surgery went ahead and the vet told me that no abscess was found and that she had just removed dead tissue. Hugo was doing great for the first few days- he acted as though nothing had happened! He was eating and drinking well and my main concern was trying to slow him down a bit while healing as he was even popcorning and standing up at the cage bars!
A few days later, Hugo was his normal self at bed time, enjoyed his night time veg and cuddles in our bed but then come morning time, I noticed something was wrong. He was very quiet and sat in a corner and didn't appear to have touched any of his food. It was a Sunday so we couldn't get him booked in with an exotic vet and had to choose between travelling an hour to the emergency vet practise that is used by his vet or my local vet that I used for my dog.. I decided to use my local vet as neither were exotic vets and I thought it would be more beneficial to get him seen to earlier, especially because I had noticed that he seemed to be starting to get a bit bloated.
We took him to our local vet and I mentioned the fact that he felt bloated but the vet said it seems to be more illius (unsure of spelling). He injected with emeprid and gave us some to take away and he was also injected with a stronger pain killer than metacam and b12. I can't remember the name of the stronger painkiller though. Throughout the day, it was clear that Hugo was really bloating and I immediately got back on the phone to the vet who told me that I would need to give the emeprid time to work. It was honestly the worse day ever because I felt so helpless and couldn't get anyone to help us. Very soon after putting the phone down, Hugo was blowing up like a balloon and the noises he made will never ever leave my mind. I just knew at that point that the only thing I wanted for Hugo at that point was to immediately get him out of that pain and help him on his way to the rainbow bridge. I phoned the vet again and briefly explained the situation and asked him to meet me at the surgery now to put him to sleep (as the vet was back home). He kept avoiding answering me whether he was going to come to the surgery and instead told me that he sounds as though he is choking and had something stuck in his throat and directed me to tip the poor boy upside down. I blatantly refused to do this and emphasised on fact that he was not choking and instear my boy was blowing up to a massive size and I need him put to sleep right now. The vet kept insisting to tip him up and I kept refusing and to be honest, I ended up being very rude to the vet because I was sat with Hugo, watching him in pain and it was the most distressing thing I've ever had to witness. In the end, I told him that I'm leaving now and would like him to meet me at the surgery and he finally agreed but told me he was 20 minutes away. I jumped in the car (my partner was driving) and before we even got out of our road, Hugo started gasping for breath and crossing the rainbow bridge on his own. I took him back inside as I wanted him to pass away at home rather than in the car and we cuddled him until the end. The very end was quick but he must have suffered badly beforehand.
My partner and i were absolutely distraught and she plucked up the courage to phone the vet to explain (while blubbering down the phone) he had already past away. She was told down the phone that we HAD to still bring Hugo to the surgery as we had made the appointment and the vet was on his way. All I wanted to do was cuddle my boy at home and in peace and the last thing on my mind was to face the vet that took too long to agree to meet us there in the first place. My head was all over the place and I wouldn't have normally but I agreed to go to the surgery. When we arrived, the vet basically just told us yes, he's no longer with us and also charged us for the emergency appointment.
I know that loosing a pet is so so so difficult regardless but I can't even put it into words how that day has affected us. I have always been a firm believer that I will NEVER let any of my pets suffer and that day I had to watch it in front of my eyes while not being able to find a vet to help. It also makes it worse because I chose to put him through that neutering and we would still have our happy little boy hear if my decision was different. The guilt is unreal and there's not a day that goes by where I don't think about it all. My boy had to suffer which was probably a twisted gut and I couldn't take him out of that pain. I can't look at his cremation box and I just can't come to terms with the way this happened and not sure whether I ever will?
Alot of people will know the story about how we spent months researching and deciding what was best for our boys after they fell out and in the end, we had them both neutered and planned to pair them up with a sow each. I thought I had found the perfect vet to do the job but we had problems after problems from day one. Both boys developed abscesses and both had them lanced and drained but Hugos felt as though it had returned and the vet agreed and suggested surgery to remove asap. The surgery went ahead and the vet told me that no abscess was found and that she had just removed dead tissue. Hugo was doing great for the first few days- he acted as though nothing had happened! He was eating and drinking well and my main concern was trying to slow him down a bit while healing as he was even popcorning and standing up at the cage bars!
A few days later, Hugo was his normal self at bed time, enjoyed his night time veg and cuddles in our bed but then come morning time, I noticed something was wrong. He was very quiet and sat in a corner and didn't appear to have touched any of his food. It was a Sunday so we couldn't get him booked in with an exotic vet and had to choose between travelling an hour to the emergency vet practise that is used by his vet or my local vet that I used for my dog.. I decided to use my local vet as neither were exotic vets and I thought it would be more beneficial to get him seen to earlier, especially because I had noticed that he seemed to be starting to get a bit bloated.
We took him to our local vet and I mentioned the fact that he felt bloated but the vet said it seems to be more illius (unsure of spelling). He injected with emeprid and gave us some to take away and he was also injected with a stronger pain killer than metacam and b12. I can't remember the name of the stronger painkiller though. Throughout the day, it was clear that Hugo was really bloating and I immediately got back on the phone to the vet who told me that I would need to give the emeprid time to work. It was honestly the worse day ever because I felt so helpless and couldn't get anyone to help us. Very soon after putting the phone down, Hugo was blowing up like a balloon and the noises he made will never ever leave my mind. I just knew at that point that the only thing I wanted for Hugo at that point was to immediately get him out of that pain and help him on his way to the rainbow bridge. I phoned the vet again and briefly explained the situation and asked him to meet me at the surgery now to put him to sleep (as the vet was back home). He kept avoiding answering me whether he was going to come to the surgery and instead told me that he sounds as though he is choking and had something stuck in his throat and directed me to tip the poor boy upside down. I blatantly refused to do this and emphasised on fact that he was not choking and instear my boy was blowing up to a massive size and I need him put to sleep right now. The vet kept insisting to tip him up and I kept refusing and to be honest, I ended up being very rude to the vet because I was sat with Hugo, watching him in pain and it was the most distressing thing I've ever had to witness. In the end, I told him that I'm leaving now and would like him to meet me at the surgery and he finally agreed but told me he was 20 minutes away. I jumped in the car (my partner was driving) and before we even got out of our road, Hugo started gasping for breath and crossing the rainbow bridge on his own. I took him back inside as I wanted him to pass away at home rather than in the car and we cuddled him until the end. The very end was quick but he must have suffered badly beforehand.
My partner and i were absolutely distraught and she plucked up the courage to phone the vet to explain (while blubbering down the phone) he had already past away. She was told down the phone that we HAD to still bring Hugo to the surgery as we had made the appointment and the vet was on his way. All I wanted to do was cuddle my boy at home and in peace and the last thing on my mind was to face the vet that took too long to agree to meet us there in the first place. My head was all over the place and I wouldn't have normally but I agreed to go to the surgery. When we arrived, the vet basically just told us yes, he's no longer with us and also charged us for the emergency appointment.
I know that loosing a pet is so so so difficult regardless but I can't even put it into words how that day has affected us. I have always been a firm believer that I will NEVER let any of my pets suffer and that day I had to watch it in front of my eyes while not being able to find a vet to help. It also makes it worse because I chose to put him through that neutering and we would still have our happy little boy hear if my decision was different. The guilt is unreal and there's not a day that goes by where I don't think about it all. My boy had to suffer which was probably a twisted gut and I couldn't take him out of that pain. I can't look at his cremation box and I just can't come to terms with the way this happened and not sure whether I ever will?
