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All Vets are not created equal

Maryjames

Maryjames

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hampshire, UK
Hello all. I just want to talk about my experience with a Vet that had me scratching my head when I left. My female guinea pig had an ovarian cyst. We brought her to Companion Care at Pets At Home Salisbury. This vet was so arrogant, that he felt around and said she had cancer. Without taking a single test, no ultrasound, nothing. Just take her home and hope for the best. Thankfully I went with my gut and took her to another Vets in Poole and they did an ultrasound and found that she had a liquid filled ovarian cyst. It is fully treatable and we are going to have it removed. All surgery is risky but to act like that was really out of order. I plan on making a formal complaint to the owner later on. This is just horrible.
 
Hi again yes you really should complain if they can't be bothered to do their job properly they shouldn't be in the job treating our beloved pets in this manner. Before complaining though I would ask for the notes from the appointment showing what was done and the diagnosis she was given.
 
Maryjames said:
Hello all. I just want to talk about my experience with a Vet that had me scratching my head when I left. My female guinea pig had an ovarian cyst. We brought her to Companion Care at Pets At Home Salisbury. This vet was so arrogant, that he felt around and said she had cancer. Without taking a single test, no ultrasound, nothing. Just take her home and hope for the best. Thankfully I went with my gut and took her to another Vets in Poole and they did an ultrasound and found that she had a liquid filled ovarian cyst. It is fully treatable and we are going to have it removed. All surgery is risky but to act like that was really out of order. I plan on making a formal complaint to the owner later on. This is just horrible.
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You are well within your rights to make a formal complaint.

Please be aware that guinea pigs are classed as exotics pets and do not specially feature on a general vet's curriculum - usually only minimally when rodents are shortly touched upon or when aspiring vets come across piggies during one of their practical training stints.

However, if they are working at a location connected to a chain pet shop that sells small exotics pets because they are bound to see guinea pigs on a rather regular basis then you would expect them to swot up.

The other point worth mentioning is that the clinics associated with pets@home are usually 'no frills' clinics and operate on a very different level/more limited budget and range of medications kept in stock/diagnostic services offered to exotics vets for instance; this is reflected in lower consultation cost. The other general small pets vet clinics generally range in between the two extremes.
There is in fact quite a wide band in terms of both vets and clinics... and not all vets and vet clinics are indeed equal, and that is apart from the individual personality.

Good on you for seeking a second opinion!
 
Wiebke said:
You are well within your rights to make a formal complaint.

Please be aware that guinea pigs are classed as exotics pets and do not feature on a general vet's curriculum, usually only minimally when rodents are shortly touched or they come across piggies during one of their practical training stints.

However, if they are working at a location connected to a chain pet shop that sells small exotics pets because they are bound to see guinea pigs on a rather regular basis, then you would expect them to swot up.

The other point worth mentioning is that the clinics associated with pets@home are usually 'no frills' clinics and operate on a very different level/more limited budget and range of medications kept in stock/diagnostic services offered to exotics vets for instance; this is reflected in lower consultation cost. The other general small pets vet clinics generally range in between the two extremes.
There is in fact quite a wide band... and not all vets and vet clinics are indeed equal apart from the individual variation.

Good on you for seeking a second opinion!
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Agreed. Which is why she is going to an exotic pet vet. I thought since they sold guinea pigs there that the vets would be up on it but he was horrible. I really do intend to complain because I would hate for anyone to experience what I did. Thanks again. You really know a lot about guinea pigs. Impressive.
 
Maryjames said:
Hello all. I just want to talk about my experience with a Vet that had me scratching my head when I left. My female guinea pig had an ovarian cyst. We brought her to Companion Care at Pets At Home Salisbury. This vet was so arrogant, that he felt around and said she had cancer. Without taking a single test, no ultrasound, nothing. Just take her home and hope for the best. Thankfully I went with my gut and took her to another Vets in Poole and they did an ultrasound and found that she had a liquid filled ovarian cyst. It is fully treatable and we are going to have it removed. All surgery is risky but to act like that was really out of order. I plan on making a formal complaint to the owner later on. This is just horrible.
Click to expand...
I'm so sorry you had to go through a situation like this.Ive had similar vets just guess without doing tests for anything and say you should PTS.I'm so glad you went with your gut and saw a different vet.
 
I had similar but the other way round. The 'pig specialist' at a local vet looked at my pig who had lost 100g and just said 'she looks fine to me', after a quick squeeze and nothing else. I had suspected ovarian cysts as she had crusty nips and I was right, but on top of that she had cervical cancer! I found this out by taking her to a different vet (cat and rabbit, a whole different league) and they took the weight loss seriously and ran bloods, an ultrasound and an xray. They found the cancer during a spay, once all other less invasive treatments had been exhausted. She went on to live for another year.

I've since changed local vets. Once, when I was with the old vet, Tico had a weird eye (not hay poke, it turns out - infected tear duct?). The vet was very rough with her and prescribed isathal, with no diagnosing beyond a quick look. She got hay poke again with the new vet and the difference was unbelievable. The vet was careful and made sure Tico was comfortable. She checked it really was hay poke and not complications from something else, and then prescribed maxitrol and painkillers. Neither vet was more than just a local general vet used to seeing cats and dogs, but the difference in care and compassion was unbelievable.

Well done for standing up for your pig. They need us to be their champions and you have done that perfectly.
 
Vets definitely are not created equal and it's worth seeking one that has experience with "small exotics." Early on in my piggie career I lost a pig who had a dental abscess. At the time I thought the care she received was the standard because I was an inexperienced owner and didn't know any better. Later on I realized that this vet had NO clue what he was doing. We may have lost her anyhow or she might have recovered with a more experienced vet- I'll never know, and all these years later I still have deep regret that I let her down because I didn't know better.

That said, misdiagnoses happen even with good vets... I had a pig in the same situation as yours, she was diagnosed with a malignancy when what she really had was a very large fluid-filled ovarian cyst. The vet was an exotic vet and she did do imaging (in our case it was an x-ray rather than an ultrasound, which might have been clearer as to what was actually inside the mass. In our area a lot of smaller vet offices don't have their own ultrasound machine, you have to go to a larger vet's office who may have less experience with guinea pigs, ironically.) Luckily we chose to take our girl home to live out her 'final days' with pain relief... she lived another 10 months before dying of unrelated issues at 6.5. The cyst basically drained out and she survived that, seemingly comfortably, because she was on tramadol the whole time! We still see that vet, although she's not my main vet at the practice. She did have the good grace to admit that she was wrong in her diagnosis when she saw Leela for followup imaging a few months later when the cyst was much reduced in size, so I like to think that Leela taught her something and some future piggie might get a clearer diagnosis because of her.

I would definitely let the vet's office know that they made a mistake in diagnosis, even if it doesn't go to the level of filing a formal complaint. If you know better, you do better. It might help a future piggie down the road and that's very worthwhile.

All the best for your piggie's operation and I hope she is soon back to her old self!
 
PS: We have our recommended vets list on the expanded top bar (with links to some other countries) and are always happy about member recommendations for their area.
Recommended Guinea Pig Vets

There are several thousand veterinary clinics and hospitals just in the UK with tens of thousands of vets with often a high mobility, so it is impossible to check them all and keep track of vets that are not known for their knowledge about piggies via our member feedback.
If you have recommendations, please use this sticky thread at the top of the Health/Illness section here:
Members' Recommended Vets

Please accept that what we cannot do on here is naming and shaming places and specific people - that could get us into very hot legal water indeed.
We also do not like generalisations. All vets have chosen their demanding profession because they really care about animals first and foremost and the vast majority is doing their very best under often not easy circumstances. It is one of the professions with the highest suicide rate and burnout is not rare.

I am just mentioning this in here as a general reminder; not because I feel that this thread contains anything objectionable in any way but with stricter online control looming in the imminent future it would be good to just be aware of this. We will have to pull any thread with immediate effect that crosses this line.
 
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