Freela
Senior Guinea Pig
Besides the pigs we also have hamsters- Aja (age 2), Yuffie (age 21 months) and Apollonia (age 14 months.)
Aja is the oldest, a very nice Syrian ham who I think very likely has pyometra. She has some discharge from her genitals that smells infected and some swelling. She has a vet appointment at 9 a.m. tomorrow, it's the earliest I could get for her. We got her in Feb of 2022, so she is just turning 2 around now. I know the only real treatment here is a spay... I also know that the cost is going to be really high, the surgery may not be successful, and as a 2-year-old hamster she is in the back end of her lifespan anyhow. I have no idea what decision I'm going to make. She has had a recurrent facial abscess and each time the cost to have it lanced and drained under anesthesia was about 200 dollars- and that's a surface wound, not a major surgery. I can only imagine what our vet charges for a sick animal spay on a hamster. It's got to be over 500 dollars. I HAVE that money sitting around, but I will definitely miss it. It's not easily disposable cash. And I don't know if it's worth it to her to have surgery that might only extend her life another couple of months. But thus far I've never said no to treatment just because of the cost. But then again, I've never been hit with a really costly surgery on an elderly pet before.
Right now I am thinking that if the vet thinks she is a good risk for surgery and the surgery itself will be 500 dollars or less, I will try. I work from home, I had booked time off between Christmas and New Year's but I would probably cancel that and just work through to recuperate some of the cost. But if it's more than that, I just can't afford it and will have to make decisions accordingly. And obviously if the vet thinks it's unlikely to be successful at her age, there's that to consider too. I can't put that kind of money into something where she is unlikely to survive anyhow.
It just sucks, she is a lovely ham, we have gone through so much together with her face abscess, and right now she is still running around behaving perfectly normally and it's hard to believe that we may be looking at putting her down. I'm just so torn between trying to be practical and trying to pull out all the stops knowing it's money I really don't have to spend.
Aja is the oldest, a very nice Syrian ham who I think very likely has pyometra. She has some discharge from her genitals that smells infected and some swelling. She has a vet appointment at 9 a.m. tomorrow, it's the earliest I could get for her. We got her in Feb of 2022, so she is just turning 2 around now. I know the only real treatment here is a spay... I also know that the cost is going to be really high, the surgery may not be successful, and as a 2-year-old hamster she is in the back end of her lifespan anyhow. I have no idea what decision I'm going to make. She has had a recurrent facial abscess and each time the cost to have it lanced and drained under anesthesia was about 200 dollars- and that's a surface wound, not a major surgery. I can only imagine what our vet charges for a sick animal spay on a hamster. It's got to be over 500 dollars. I HAVE that money sitting around, but I will definitely miss it. It's not easily disposable cash. And I don't know if it's worth it to her to have surgery that might only extend her life another couple of months. But thus far I've never said no to treatment just because of the cost. But then again, I've never been hit with a really costly surgery on an elderly pet before.
Right now I am thinking that if the vet thinks she is a good risk for surgery and the surgery itself will be 500 dollars or less, I will try. I work from home, I had booked time off between Christmas and New Year's but I would probably cancel that and just work through to recuperate some of the cost. But if it's more than that, I just can't afford it and will have to make decisions accordingly. And obviously if the vet thinks it's unlikely to be successful at her age, there's that to consider too. I can't put that kind of money into something where she is unlikely to survive anyhow.
It just sucks, she is a lovely ham, we have gone through so much together with her face abscess, and right now she is still running around behaving perfectly normally and it's hard to believe that we may be looking at putting her down. I'm just so torn between trying to be practical and trying to pull out all the stops knowing it's money I really don't have to spend.
you know your hamster best and I'm sure whatever decision you make will be the right one.
