Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 01/24/18 > Incompetence abounds in my world…..

Part of being a kid and growing up entails having pets, and when you have more than one kid the chances are you will end up with more than one pet in the house. Seeing that we have four kids we have quite a few pets, here is a quick rundown: 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 turtles, and 2 guinea pigs currently. We also have had the misfortune of a couple of the pets passing away on us, a bird a few years ago and Mrs. Knibbles, a guinea pig, back in September of last year.

Blondie is my oldest daughter and her pet guinea pig was a sibling to Mrs. Knibbles, goes by the name Percy. Well Percy stopped eating and drinking water last Thursday, so a trip to the vet was in order. This is the same vet who treated Mrs. Knibbles before he died, yes that is not a typo, he is correct. Percy is also a male, but when my wife and Blondie took Percy to the vet on Friday the vet said Percy is a female.

The vet concluded that since we had gotten a male to replace Mrs. Knibbles as company for Percy that Percy is probably pregnant and her body is adjusting and she will start eating again. Blondie had insisted that the problem was Percy’s back teeth bothering it, the vet looked at the teeth and said nothing wrong with the teeth. Take some of this special “critical care” feed and mix and give it to by syringe 3 times a day plus syringe water as well until it starts eating and drinking again on its own.
So all weekend long and Monday, Blondie has nursed the guinea pig along with food and water, still insisting it was the back teeth causing the problem. The vet called on Monday to check on Percy about three in the afternoon. My wife said that she asked the vet again about the back teeth, since my wife had gone online all weekend researching symptoms and causes of the loss of eating and drinking and she had found exactly as Blondie had said. The vet told my wife that she couldn’t see the back teeth because guinea pigs back teeth are hard to see without using some scope that she didn’t have. The vet then suggested that we might want to take Percy to an exotic animal specialist.

So the search was on for a vet that specialized in exotics, specifically guinea pigs, and we were able to find one who was able to see Percy on Tuesday. By then, Percy is really weak and dehydrated, despite Blondie’s efforts; Percy was just not getting enough water. So, the vet examined Percy, the back teeth were definitely the problem, and x-rays confirmed exactly what the vet saw. Since Percy’s condition was so weak, they had to give a couple I V’s before they could sedate the guinea pig and work on the teeth. Then Percy had to spend a couple hours in recovery before the wife and Blondie could take Percy home.

To make matters worse I am out of town this week, so the wife has to handle this situation on her own, and she is emotionally spent along with Blondie and Shortie. I’m not going to go through the whole Mrs. Knibbles story again, but for those of you who have been with me you know how tough that was on Shortie. I am generally an optimistic guy, but in this case my optimism is waning. Between the weakened condition and the stress of the procedure along with pain killers and anti-bionics, I don’t know that Percy will survive this situation.

The first vet’s office staff had told my wife they treat guinea pigs with teeth issues “all the time” so being close by we felt that was an advantage. This same vet was the one that told us Mrs. Knibbles was a male and upon closer inspection by my daughters they confirmed that, the girls had also confirmed that Percy was a male about the same time. The astonishing part is that this same vet said Percy is a female and guessing “pregnant”, well the vet who worked on the teeth confirmed Percy is a male, complete with two balls to go along with that pecker.

I am convinced that the first vet doesn’t know a damn thing about guinea pigs. Getting the sex correct is a 50 / 50 proposition, but to say pregnant when obviously the vet couldn’t be positive about the sex is insane. Secondly, saying the teeth were “okay” when Blondie told her specifically the back teeth were the concern, when she never even looked at the back teeth is malpractice in my book. Why would the vet say that in the office that Friday and then on Monday on the phone say she didn’t look at the back teeth?
Like I said, I’m not optimistic on Percy surviving this episode, but regardless of the outcome I will be writing a letter to the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medicine and registering a complaint against the first vet. All that office needed to do was tell us that they didn’t have the expertise and the experience and we would have searched for a vet that did. Had we gotten Percy to this second vet on Friday I would be feeling a lot better about Percy’s chances of making it through this situation.

Looking back on Mrs. Knibbles situation I would bet all I have that her back teeth were her problem as well and not the upper respiratory infection the vet diagnosed her with. I also wish we had saved the medicine that she prescribed for Mrs. Knibbles so I could check that out, Mrs. Knibbles died about 15 minutes after being given the medicine and it wouldn’t surprise me if the medicine killed her.

So right now as it stands we spent $125.00 at the first vet, $355.00 at the second vet and we have a guinea pig that probably won’t survive the night according to what my wife is telling me. I do know that those guinea pigs have been well cared for and loved by my girls and had the first vet been competent or at least honest things might have been completely different for both Mrs. Knibbles and Percy.

I‘ll let you know how this comes out in a future daily dose.
Update : I was just about to post this and my phone rang, Pecry just died in my wife’s lap as she was giving her water by syringe. RIP Percy.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper