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3 new pigs from pets at home...all have ringworm.

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Walt

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As title says, we bought 3 pigs and have today had confirmed they all have ringworm, mites and one a respiratory problem.

We are keeping them despite being told it would be wise to give them back. Have had 2nd injection for mites today, started on treatment for ringworm, been shaved :( and we now embark (or should I say I embark) on a period of isolation and trying to get them well.

My problems are I have a 5 year old who has handled them often prior to finding this out. I also have my own dog and my mums dog staying and worry for them. I am treating both dogs with malaseb baths as a precaution, can I do the same for us humans who have had contact?

I will be the only contact for them now and will be wearing gloves and apron and showering fully after contact. They are back in plastic hutch and wooden hutch is being destroyed along with all wooden toys and play items. I have boiled all plastic items they have. They will be sprayed twice daily, unsure of medicine name until tomorrow when I go to collect. With regards to household furniture they have been in contact with, mainly our wooden coffee table that their indoor cage sits on, should I get rid of that also?

This is costing a fortune, with vet bills of over £200 already, plus loss of cage, wooden toys, extra hay, sawdust for cleaning out. The worry that mine or my parents visiting dog may get it and worst of all my 5 year old son.

Any advice on what needs to go, what we should do to make sure we are as free of them as we can totally be would be gratefully received. Pets at home did offer to pay vet bill up to £100 ( not good enough) and replace wooden items but I still think it's terrible they will sell animals that are unwell and treat them with such little regard.

We are in it for the long haul, we all love our boys but we never thought that this is how life as a guinea pig owner would be.

Thanks for reading if you got this far, sorry for the waffle I'm just a little overwhelmed by it all. God only knows how bad the poor little piggies feel being clipped and injected :(
 
I can't really offer much in terms of advise but I just wanted to say sorry about this happening :( unfortunately pets@home are notorious for there not so well animals... they gave us a piggie with badly deformed hips without saying a thing. I just say make the biggest fuss you can and try and get as much out of P@H if they aren't legally obliged to give you anymore.

Just a quick prewarning (if it is three boys you've got together) make sure you have a large cage/ hutch and a spare ready just in case, when three boys hit their hormonal stage it doesn't end well a lot of the time :{.

Hopefully someone with more experience with ringworm will come around soon/ tomorrow and will able to answer your questions :). BTW welcome to the forum, you'll soon be getting the real joys of owning piggies :D.
 
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that's horrible! i'm so sorry for all the stuff you have to deal with. maybe call the head office of pets at home and threaten to sue or someting and maybe they'll replace your things or pay vets bills.
 
Oh that is just awful. Poor piggies. There have been many reportings of piggies from there with ringworm. I am sorry for all you have to go through. I really hope you demand they pay your vet bills. You are so nice to keep the piggies and make them well rather then just hand them back.
 
I;m so sorry!

Pets at home surely must have to cover all vet bills and replace the toys etc you have had to chuck? I would threaten them with trading standards and see how far that gets you, there have been so many cases on here of people buying from pets at home and there animal has either been, sick, pregnant or the wrong sex, to name but a few problems!

Good luck, hope you piggies make a speedy recovery, one of my piggies has just got over a mites problem and i have to say she had 2 nizoral baths, a course of baytril which actually was primarily for an ear infection, i also put sudocream on the effected area's and she made a really speedy recovery, all of the hiar has grown back now and you would never know!
 
Thank you so much for the words of encouragement, it means a lot.:))

I have just been in to feed the boys and Trigger seems to be sneezing more and has quite alot of gunk from his nose. I am back at the vets this morning so will just mention it again. Apart from that they have drank water and eaten food in the night and all seemed happy to see the parsley, carrot and carrot tops and apple this morning.

We did have a good size cage outside but they are now in a smaller inside one. Purely because it's plastic and easier to disinfect and clean. Oh and the wood one has gone! I have been looking into the cubes that clip together to make a bigger space for them, it's on my list of to do's today. I know that if we have problems I can then separate, yet still keep together. They are aged around 4 months and then the other 2 are 10 weeks. How soon are we likely to run into problems?

Once again thank you for words of kindness, there was never a question of giving them back they are part of our family now and we don't give up on family. I will try to post a picture of them, not sure I will be able to though.
 
Hi There -

A great disinfectant for Ringworm is F10 might be worth investing. I'm sorry you are going though this hell, your Ringworm precautions are best gloves, apron - shower and wash clothes.

Anything wooden the Guinea Pig's have been in contact you will have to dispose of perhaps try treating the coffee table with F10.

The pig with the URI is he being treated? If he stop's eating at any time you will need to syringe feed him. Monitor him closely as URI's can have the potential to kill pig's.

Well Done in Refusing to return the boys - keep all recipes and ask the vet to right a statement stating these illnesses occurred within Pet's at Home or should we say 'Pet's at Risk' I love that moto shame I can't take the credit for thinking it up :)). Be a good idea to take your complaint to head office!

As for three boys living together this rarely works as they go though the hormone stage unfortunately it's Pet's at Home new special offer - stupid springs to mind. Just says they clearly know nothing about there pigs! Be prepared in the future to separate your boys best friend at the moment is 'space', the more space the better, one hide each, food bowl each etc.

Those little boys are lucky to have found someone that's in it for the long haul!

Welcome to the forum! x
 
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Dave and Trigger


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Walt, who now has been clipped totally for treatment :(
 
What gorgeous piggies you have :))

However as the others say boys can be very tempermental. Space is the best thing you can give them to prevent any arguements. Also make sure they have a food bowl/water bottle/hidey EACH. This will give them less to argue over. A C&C cage would be fantastic have a look at this link http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53210&highlight=housing Should give you some ideas.

As for your piggie with the sticky nose I think asking the vet about antibiotics would be a good idea. URI can be very difficult to treat and sadly can be fatal :(

I hope you piggies are getting on ok x
 
hope your piggies are feeling better today, i know 3 boys dont always work but i had 3 boars together and they did get on they had a huge area they were free range in my flat as floor was laminate so it was easy to clean (and was rented so not my flooring :(|) ) and had 3 of everything and there was bickering however it does depend on there personalities and you may have to split them up but just wanted to share my experince of 3 boys.

cant help with the ring worm sorry, but my horse had it and i didnt know she had it so had been handling her and i never caught it.

Good luck and just keep moaning to pets at homethey should pay as its there fault there is a thread on here by Clairelove asking about bad experinces from P@H
 
Hope they all feel better soon :). Love the names Dave and Trigger :)) and Walt's hair is just drool.

I think it's about the 4 month stage that you might get problems (anyone feel free to correct me if this isn't right). My best advise would be to stay optimistic (Dylansmummy is just one example of how it can go right) but at the same time realistic, if it's not going right you've gotta know when to separate. You sound like you'll do fine should problems arise :).

I think your talking about C&C cages? I absolutly love mine.
 
Well first treatment given by me, went ok. They are having a spray twice daily called Mycozole.
When I went to collect the medicine I mentioned Triggers nose and sneezing had got worse and so he is on Antibiotics. I have to keep an eye on the others to see if they start and then obviously they will be treated also. I ordered a litre of the F10 from the vets, it will be there in the morning so that's sorted.

My vet wrote me a letter to give to the shop and an itemised bill for treatment so far. I took it in, along with all receipts and was given £280 cash. I am also taking any further bills I pay into them, although they did say they will have to review it next week to see how they are doing? Can they force me to change to their vets?

I am going to get a C&C cage. I'm quite excited to build it for them and make it fab. I will keep in mind the fact I may need to separate at some point when building it though.

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded, me and the boys are all very grateful for your help in getting them better and look forward to posting about happier things in future:))
 
BLOODY PETS AT HOME! Grrrrrrrrrr Something HAS to be done about this chain!

Its totally disgusting that this is going on, if it was Tescos selling sick animals it would be all over the press and everyone would know about it.

Seriously people what can we do? I know that Clairelove has a thread going about this, but we need actions not words.

I am so sorry that you and your beautiful little babies are having to go through all this stress, its so unfair! Keep taking your bills to the vet, and I would still contact someone - Trading Standards, Local Authority anyone to get this store checked. Out of interest which store is it?

Sorry for the rant, but I am so SICK of reading these stories as I'm sure we all are. We dont let pigs suffer in someones homes do we, so why are we not doing soemthing about these people? :(:{
 
Walt said:
Well first treatment given by me, went ok. They are having a spray twice daily called Mycozole.
When I went to collect the medicine I mentioned Triggers nose and sneezing had got worse and so he is on Antibiotics. I have to keep an eye on the others to see if they start and then obviously they will be treated also. I ordered a litre of the F10 from the vets, it will be there in the morning so that's sorted.

My vet wrote me a letter to give to the shop and an itemised bill for treatment so far. I took it in, along with all receipts and was given £280 cash. I am also taking any further bills I pay into them, although they did say they will have to review it next week to see how they are doing? Can they force me to change to their vets?

I am going to get a C&C cage. I'm quite excited to build it for them and make it fab. I will keep in mind the fact I may need to separate at some point when building it though.

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded, me and the boys are all very grateful for your help in getting them better and look forward to posting about happier things in future:))
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I'm glad they have refunded you so far - just keep all the receipts and as long as your vet's on side and helping they are obligated to refund you the full amount of your bill.

No they can't force you to change vets but they can ask that there vet looks at the pigs I guess I would just refuse and say you don't trust them after they sold you 3 ill animals and your going to contact trading standards along with anyone else that will listen! :)). I would stand your ground!

C&C are fabulous cages - I have a 3 storey cage 2 pigs on each level (Maximise Space)!

Your vet your using sounds fabulous and is doing all the right things what ABS did you get for the URI?
 
What terrible news. I had a very poorly piggy from Pets at home a few weeks ago who sadly had to be PTS! The shop should be paying your bills, it's their responsibility.
Well done you though for looking after them properly, as if you gave them back I would doubt that would happen.
At the end of the day we want the best for them.
I have 3 boys who all get on fine, although the older is humping as bit, but settling as they are fairly new to each other.
I really hope you get them all sorted out and better. Can't really give much advice about your son or dogs, just hope they are ok.
I am sending a complaint to pets at home about the piggy i had as he had been ill for weeks and hadnt been detected! think you should do the same, the more pressure thats on them the quicker this will stop happening!
Take care and best wishes.
x
 
Pets at home, AGAIN! No surprise to be honest. This chain needs to be stopped for selling live pets that are unwell. They make me so angry.

Unfortunatly your 3 are just another few added to to huge long list of unwell pets brought from this shop.

They are all absolutely gorgeous! Poor little fellas, i hope they start feeling better soon. Make sure you go into Pets at home, at a busy time and hold up the till que by complaining and talking loudly about how they sold you ill animals and demand you have your vet fees paid for. You should be sorted then. I think this shop spends more money on there sick animals vet bills than they gain selling the poor creatures. Just make sure you kick up a fuss if you can. I have done enough times in the shop myself and it usually works.

x.
 
Just wanted to say...i think there was a member on here a while ago who was in a similar situation to you (sorry i have no idea which member it was/how long ago) She complained to P@H head office and eventually got all her bills paid and given a new hutch by the shop, so perhaps you could contact their head office? Like someone said mention trading standards and they should take it seriously.

Sorry to hear about your piggies :(
Two of my boys recently had ringworm and one even had a URI too as it happens! I've finally managed to be all clear of it! In the end I used Imaverol and it worked very very well on my piggies and their cage. I did also catch the ringworm, I had two patches on my arm but mine cleared up a lot quicker than the piggies. I also have two other guinea pigs, rabbit, dog and a boyfriend and none of these caught the ringworm, so hopefully your family and other pets will be ok too. x
 
Insurance

Hi I'm so sorry - I bought my 2 girls from pets at home and was very lucky that they were o.k - but I have since known many people who have had problems.

With regards to vets cost etc ,for future you might want to consider insurance - I know a lot of piggy owners on the forum dont do it - they put some money away in a jar every week for a "piggy Vet fund " - but as I'm a single parent one income household ,for me its worth paying £6.20 a month per piggy - there is a £50 excess per treatment and they dont cover you for teeth trimming or pregnancy - but if a piggy were to say break a leg ,you could be talking £350 - I have only had to spend £25 on my 3 piggies in 18 months - that was when Truffles got conjunctivitis - but I couldnt afford a large vets bill if it were to happen - and if it did,knowing my luck,it would also come along at the same time as a car repair bill / oil bill /Christmas etc.

Hugs to your new additions - (or battery free alarm clocks as i call mine )
 
TAN said:
Hi I'm so sorry - I bought my 2 girls from pets at home and was very lucky that they were o.k - but I have since known many people who have had problems.

With regards to vets cost etc ,for future you might want to consider insurance - I know a lot of piggy owners on the forum dont do it - they put some money away in a jar every week for a "piggy Vet fund " - but as I'm a single parent one income household ,for me its worth paying £6.20 a month per piggy - there is a £50 excess per treatment and they dont cover you for teeth trimming or pregnancy - but if a piggy were to say break a leg ,you could be talking £350 - I have only had to spend £25 on my 3 piggies in 18 months - that was when Truffles got conjunctivitis - but I couldnt afford a large vets bill if it were to happen - and if it did,knowing my luck,it would also come along at the same time as a car repair bill / oil bill /Christmas etc.

Hugs to your new additions - (or battery free alarm clocks as i call mine )
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Can I ask who your insurance is with?
 
Sorry for the late response we are living in Ringworm hell:...

I can't remember all the questions so sorry if I miss something off my brain is frazzled.

The antibiotic trigger is on is baytril and he is having 0.13 once a day.
Still obviously treating them and they still do not like it, infact I honestly think Walt hates me.

The bad news is my friend who lives with us and is a nursery nurse has it on her thigh and my 5 year old has a very suspect red mark upon returning from school today. Both have showered with Nizoral as will everyone else once we are finished blitzing and bathing the dogs with Malaseb. My friend has a hamster and she has cleaned her out and used F10 to clean everything, I hope this is correct?

We are in the process of washing every item of clothes, bedding and towels that we think we need to. I have been putting F10 in the machine, using our own and the local launderette. We have spent £30 on that at £6 a wash and I have thrown both dogs duvets and husband has gone to buy new. I have washed and then sprayed with F10 in their beds and they are airing outside now.

Kitchen has been bleached and blitzed, will mop with diluted F10 whefinished.

What else can I use the spray on? I'm worried about spores obviously lying around and would like to eliminate as much and this seems to be the best stuff, I'm just not sure if it's ok for wood? I have oak panelled hallway :(

I will after finishing with the dogs, be moving on to the piggies for their second meds of the day and then cleaning their cage down as well before showering myself and hopefully have a very large glass of wine and most likely a few tears.... Might then ask my son how his first day at school went and get some food for me and the hubby.

Wow I do sound pathetic, sorry for being a drama queen I just think Gemma confirmed with it and the real possibility we all could get it hit me today!

Right off to continue on, any advice on how and what I can use the F10 on and any other cleaning tips so very gratefully received.:))

Oh yeah, I forgot to say I HATE Pets at Home. They don't seem to have any idea or care one bit the effect their selling of animals has on the animals or the families that pick up the mess.
 
Forgot to say got some of the C&C stuff from Screwfix today, just need to get the floor and then hopefully they can get in a bigger space again. Poor things are beyond depressed in the cage.
 
You asked who my piggy insurance is with

My piggy insurance is with Exotic Direct - they are part of Pet Plan - You can get a quote on-line for any number of piggies, it comes under a group policy so will pay out up to £2000 (two thousand) per year in total for all your piggies - £50 excess per treatment and obviously not covered for pregnancy and dental problems - my sister has just had to rush her cat into the vets today and she has no insurance - shes going to get a quote now though!
 
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