Discovering a great guinea pig veterinarian will be troublesome, as most vets don’t have the {qualifications} to deal with guinea pigs. Search for an unique pet vet, not a daily canine and cat veterinarian. Keep away from vets who give poor care recommendation, advocate fasting your guinea pig or limiting their hay, or who don’t adequately reply questions you’ve got about your piggy’s well being.
On this article, we’ll take a deeper look into what makes a great guinea pig veterinarian and the way yow will discover one in your space.
Do Guinea Pigs Have to Go to the Vet?
Your guinea pig ought to at all times have a main veterinarian. Like for people, it tends to take longer to get an preliminary appointment–and a few vets aren’t taking new sufferers in any respect.
For those who wait till your guinea pig is sick, you won’t be capable to make an appointment in time to assist them. Guinea pig diseases usually progress quickly.
This is only one motive why guinea pigs ought to see the vet as quickly as attainable after adoption. They need to even have a checkup as soon as to twice a 12 months, a sick go to each time they present signs of sickness, and common at-home well being checks.
Ideally, you’ll analysis vets close by earlier than adopting your new guinea pigs. However whether or not you’re researching previous to adoption or now that your guinea pig is sick, we’ve you lined on this article.
Why Guinea Pigs Shouldn’t See Cat and Canine Veterinarians
Many cat and canine veterinarians will tackle guinea pigs as purchasers, however this isn’t ultimate. It’s because they don’t have the identical schooling as unique pet veterinarians nor as a lot hands-on expertise with pets like guinea pigs. They spend most of their days seeing canines and cats!
A few of these veterinarians could do effectively with guinea pigs, however for others their lack of schooling could cause them to offer poor recommendation. As an example, I’ve seen a couple of piggy mother and father discuss their vet recommending fasting earlier than a surgical procedure. That is commonplace follow for canines and cats, however may kill a guinea pig by inflicting GI stasis.
It’s additionally pretty widespread for a non-exotics vet to easily not know what to do to assist a guinea pig, particularly with extra advanced instances. Or, they may dismiss signs that aren’t as critical within the animals they’re used to seeing, however are emergent for guinea pigs–corresponding to not consuming for plenty of hours.
Unique pet veterinarians usually see lots of guinea pigs, since they’re fairly widespread unique pets. Additionally they have extra specialised schooling to assist them diagnose and deal with guinea pigs precisely.
How one can Discover an Unique Pet Vet for Your Guinea Pig
I’ve seen personally that when I attempt to Google “unique pet vet close to me” or related, {that a} bunch of non-exotic pet vets seem. Sadly, it’s simply not a great way to search out them.
Fortunately, there’s this list of exotic pet veterinarians that you may search to make issues simpler. Sort in your handle, or simply your metropolis or zip code, and choose how far you need to search.
Understand that unique pet vets aren’t as widespread as these for canines and cats. You may need to journey a methods to get to 1–nevertheless it’s worthwhile, and the price we tackle once we undertake unique pets who want specialised care.
One other means yow will discover unique pet vets is to get suggestions from others who’ve guinea pigs. This could be a buddy or somebody in a guinea pig group on-line. (As an example, Scotty’s Animals has a list of vets advisable by his group.)
Not all unique pet vets are created equal, and a few have extra data about guinea pigs in particular. This may also help you to search out somebody who’s already trusted by piggy homeowners!
Crimson Flags in Guinea Pig Veterinarians
1. They Give Poor Care Recommendation
Some vets supply outdated or incorrect care recommendation, particularly for pocket pets. This may occasionally embrace suggesting dangerous merchandise corresponding to vitamin C drops or salt licks. Perhaps they advocate poor housing recommendation corresponding to a cage under minimal necessities, housing a guinea pig alone, or retaining them with a rabbit companion (which might trigger accidents and sickness).
In case your vet doesn’t hold up-to-date on fundamental care, I’d advocate discovering somebody new. In the event that they aren’t educated in regards to the fundamentals, how will you belief their medical experience?
2. They Advocate Weight Loss or Limiting Meals
Guinea pigs will be too fats, nevertheless it’s not widespread–particularly in the event that they’re fed correctly. A very good vet could advocate feeding a greater weight loss program or limiting pellets, however they aren’t going to advocate feeding much less hay, for example.
Good veterinarians know that guinea pigs must eat continually. Simply 6-8 hours with out meals could make their digestive system shut down, which will be lethal.
3. Limiting Meals Earlier than Surgical procedure
Equally, you must run from any veterinarian who recommends fasting your guinea pig earlier than a surgical procedure. That is harmful and signifies that they don’t know the animal effectively sufficient to be treating them.
For a lot of animals, together with individuals, fasting earlier than surgical procedure is advisable as a result of it makes surgery safer. Nonetheless, a human or a canine doesn’t digest meals like a guinea pig! We eat meals, whereas guinea pigs should be consuming continually to maintain their guts transferring.
4. Brushing Off Severe Signs
In case your guinea pig has nasal discharge and is wheezing, your veterinarian shouldn’t dismiss these signs as a chilly. Guinea pigs are liable to upper respiratory infections and pneumonia, each of which will be lethal with out immediate remedy.
Equally, your vet ought to take weight reduction and lack of urge for food extremely significantly. Guinea pigs are tiny animals that may go downhill in a short time as soon as they begin shedding pounds and, as we beforehand mentioned, their guts can cease transferring in the event that they don’t eat continually.
5. They’re Unable or Unwilling to Reply Your Questions
Your veterinarian ought to take their time with you and your pet, present an intensive examination, and reply any questions you’ve got about your guinea pig’s prognosis and coverings.
It’s essential to advocate on your guinea pig and your self. For those who don’t perceive one thing, a great vet has no downside explaining.
In fact, your vet can’t do issues like diagnose your pet with out operating checks first to see what’s incorrect. Particularly in advanced instances, they won’t have solutions straight away–however they need to be keen and in a position to search them out, as long as you’re additionally in a position to afford the diagnostics wanted.
But when your vet received’t reply easy questions, you must positively discover one other!
Discovering a vet will be difficult for unique pets like guinea pigs, however I hope this publish has helped you be taught the place to discover a good vet and when to stroll away if the vet isn’t a great match.
Bear in mind to search for a veterinarian who focuses on exotics, is educated about guinea pig care, and solutions questions in a means that permits you to perceive what’s taking place together with your fur child’s well being.
