Guinea Woes

So we got in some guinea pigs yesterday from our supplier. Just like three...which is semi concerning when we have Black Friday around the corner and who knows what sort of animals people will be wanting that day.

In any case, upon opening the back room this morning, I noticed that one of the guinea pigs was acting...off. Very lethargic, hardly moving from it's spot.

Picking him up, I knew right away that this guinea pig wasn't doing well as he was pretty limp in my grip. Hardly struggling at all. And I noted that when he tried to move, it was rather shaky, like he couldn't stand up straight. 

It wasn't a good sign.

And I was already semi preparing for the worst case scenario being that he wouldn't last the day.

I took him over to our head manager and they agreed that we needed to get him to a vet.

So I called our regular vet asking if they could see him today...but they couldn't.

So I tried calling our back up vet...only to discover that they no longer had an exotics vet at their location...

So last resort was I took the guinea pig to the vet in the store, which they don't normally see exotics because none of the vets there are familiar with their care, but it was better than nothing.

And the vet on duty decided that we probably should try and get some baytril into him, but he would need time to create a dosage specifically for guinea pigs.

So I took said guinea pig to our iso room to wait for the meds...but checking on him a little bit later, like I don't think an hour had passed...I noted that he was lying on his side now...barely moving. Kinda struggling to breathe...and I figured that that he probably wasn't going to make it.

Like if he lived the hour I would have been surprised.

I ended up flagging down the vet and informing him that I seriously doubted he was going to live.

And the vet was like "Well maybe we should just inject him with straight baytril, bring him over."

I didn't think it would do much, and upon bringing him back over to the vet and seeing the state he was in--which the vet was shocked at how quickly the guinea pig had gone down hill, he agreed that at this stage -where he was lying on his side barely moving and hardly breathing....that we should go ahead and euthanize him because he'd passed the point of recovery.

*exhales* :( I hate it when we have to euthanize pets...especially when this guinea pig had been in our care under 24 hours. Like...that's quick for him to go downhill especially when he'd looked okay in my brief glimpse of him when he came in yesterday.

*exhales* Not easy...but hopefully he's resting easier now. 

-Sarnic Dirchi