I'm back!
There has been some serious developments with Poppy and Pepper since I first got them in January.
A month in to having them, Poppy began to develop some breathing issues. We took her to the local vets, and they gave her some meds, anti-inflammatories, in the hope that maybe she just had something stuck in her throat.
She took those for a few weeks, and it seemed to stop.
Then time went by, and her breathing went awful again, it got even worse. In addition to that, we were finding blood in the cage and observed Pepper having extreme difficulty peeing.
We took them both to the vets, no longer local but one that specialises in exotic animals (guinea pigs are apparently exotic
).
There, we were informed Poppy has heart disease. We have two routes, to get her through an x-ray and ultrasound for £700 (she needs to be fully sedated), and then they'll be able to decide upon her lifetime medicine to keep this from affecting her. Or, we can trial and error different medicines till we land on a working one.
For Pepper, they decided the blood was likely urine infection, so she was given antibiotics and food supplement (Poppy was also put on the antibiotics just to rule out anything else).
They said if that didn't stop the irritation, it was likely bladder stones, which she will need surgery for. The surgery costs £100-£400. Before they operate, they have to do an ultrasound and x-ray to make sure it is bladder stones. Again, £700.
The timing is ridiculous, as my family have just gotten off benefits and are currently financially unstable.
I have been unable to contact the woman who ran the rescue I adopted them from.
I have now set up a Gofundme in an attempt to raise some money - here is the link, I do not want to pressure but if you can give, please do).
I've looked into various support. For example, PDSA, but they do not work where I live.
Enquired at the vets about payplans or reduced costs, but nothing.
After serious consideration, we've got in touch with the RSPCA and the girls are up for adoption. They're still living with us, and we hope we can afford the bills, but if someone comes along and can afford it, we're going to have to give them up.
So, any advice is welcome!
On a slightly dissimilar note, I have a concern about Poppy that the vets have said isn't a problem. Both the girls were a little overweight when I adopted them, and Pepper has gotten to an ideal weight now. Poppy was underweight for a short while (we have to feed them separately now because Pepper resource guards). She is now at an okay weight (1050g, so 50g below max weight). However, she's still skinny around her head and front, you can feel her ribs a lot. She's just really overweight on her back end. I've added a couple of pictures. If you have any advice or input, please do say because I'm lost on this one.
Thank you if you've read this far, I know I've ranted.
There has been some serious developments with Poppy and Pepper since I first got them in January.
A month in to having them, Poppy began to develop some breathing issues. We took her to the local vets, and they gave her some meds, anti-inflammatories, in the hope that maybe she just had something stuck in her throat.
She took those for a few weeks, and it seemed to stop.
Then time went by, and her breathing went awful again, it got even worse. In addition to that, we were finding blood in the cage and observed Pepper having extreme difficulty peeing.
We took them both to the vets, no longer local but one that specialises in exotic animals (guinea pigs are apparently exotic
).There, we were informed Poppy has heart disease. We have two routes, to get her through an x-ray and ultrasound for £700 (she needs to be fully sedated), and then they'll be able to decide upon her lifetime medicine to keep this from affecting her. Or, we can trial and error different medicines till we land on a working one.
For Pepper, they decided the blood was likely urine infection, so she was given antibiotics and food supplement (Poppy was also put on the antibiotics just to rule out anything else).
They said if that didn't stop the irritation, it was likely bladder stones, which she will need surgery for. The surgery costs £100-£400. Before they operate, they have to do an ultrasound and x-ray to make sure it is bladder stones. Again, £700.
The timing is ridiculous, as my family have just gotten off benefits and are currently financially unstable.
I have been unable to contact the woman who ran the rescue I adopted them from.
I have now set up a Gofundme in an attempt to raise some money - here is the link, I do not want to pressure but if you can give, please do).
I've looked into various support. For example, PDSA, but they do not work where I live.
Enquired at the vets about payplans or reduced costs, but nothing.
After serious consideration, we've got in touch with the RSPCA and the girls are up for adoption. They're still living with us, and we hope we can afford the bills, but if someone comes along and can afford it, we're going to have to give them up.
So, any advice is welcome!
On a slightly dissimilar note, I have a concern about Poppy that the vets have said isn't a problem. Both the girls were a little overweight when I adopted them, and Pepper has gotten to an ideal weight now. Poppy was underweight for a short while (we have to feed them separately now because Pepper resource guards). She is now at an okay weight (1050g, so 50g below max weight). However, she's still skinny around her head and front, you can feel her ribs a lot. She's just really overweight on her back end. I've added a couple of pictures. If you have any advice or input, please do say because I'm lost on this one.
Thank you if you've read this far, I know I've ranted.
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I hope your girls find a lovely new home with someone who has the finances to sort out there illnesses 
