J's Cafe Nette

Archive for December 10th, 2008

A little over a year ago I bought a guinea pig from my aunt as she was tired of caring for it and her grandchildren seemed not to be interested in it any longer.

Our grandchildren loved him and changed his name to Chewey after Chewbacca of Star Wars fame. This name was chosen by our then five year old grandson.

We decided Chewey was lonely so we bought another male guinea pig and named him Patches. Chewey perked up and was happy to share his home with his new brother.

Last summer Chewey began to lose weight and we noticed he was losing fur. A trip to the vet confirmed he had mange and we should separate the boys because by then Patches was bigger and a bully.

Whatever the vet gave them for mange must be a certain cure for baldness as Chewey grew hair that went about two inches beyond his rear end.

After Chewey seemed to have lost his appetite over the weekend and I checked him to find his eyes crusted over along with his nose being crusty we decided to take him to the vet and have him put to sleep as pets like this never survive colds.

The vet told us he had a 50-50 or 60-40 chance of making it and she didn’t want to euthanize him. She gave him an antibiotic shot and an oral version of the same antibiotic and told my husband we needed to liquify his food and force-feed him.

We did that yesterday and again last night. Last night he looked like a very sick guinea pig. He felt cold and wanted to snuggle when I held him. We force-fed him, but he wouldn’t swallow the food and just let it run out of his mouth.

We put him back into his cage and kept checking on him. His breathing seemed fast and shallow, and when I checked on him he twitched each time.

Because our eleven year old granddaughter comes here to get a ride to school, my husband checked on Chewey first thing this morning. There was no longer any need for us to force-feed or medicate Chewey. His body was still limp, but was also cold. I had gone to bed sometime between 2 and 3 am and he was still alive when I checked on him.

This is not a big deal in the scheme of things but our granddaughter was very upset because she played with the guinea pigs every morning. She had been told by her father on their way here this morning so she said she had her cry in the car. She got Patches out and held him while she was here and then put him back into his cage.

I guess what bothers me is we were charged $110 and change for having the guinea pig checked yesterday and the vet refused to euthanize him, even though a cold often takes these and other rodents. If she had done that he wouldn’t have suffered the way he did last night.

My husband will bury Chewey in the back yard today and we won’t be replacing him. I’m just ticked off that he was that sick and she didn’t put him out of his misery and pain. I can’t complain to her because she is scheduled to have a C-section for her third child sometime today. Maybe her new son is already born. I wish her and her young growing family God’s blessings and much happiness.

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