1 We provide community support
2 Our forum ethos and community support explained
- Ongoing personalised support
- Our forum quirks explained
3 What we can help you with
- Getting the worst news
- End of life decisions
- Terminal illness and end of life care support
- Grieving and guilt
- The need to make sense
- How to tell your children and support them best
- Bereaved piggy companions
1 We provide community support
Please accept that none of is a trained vet or nurse nor do we have mental health training. We cannot replace professional services.
What we can do is to help you with practical advice and care tips, ongoing moral support and understanding during a very difficult, stressful and anxious time in order to make it easier on you.
Love for a small pet and pain over their loss isn't any less deep just because they are maller or shorter lived; which is sadly a still wide-spread attitude that many of us encounter. It can make for a very lonely experience.
2 Our forum ethos and community explained
The Guinea Pig Forum is not part of social media, we go back further than that. We are non-profit and all do this for free in our own free time. The forum is entirely run on voluntary member donations.
Our forum ethos, which is carried by all our members, is to be a friendly and supportive space where we help each other. Everybody, whether a new or a long time member, is welcome to join in with our community. Sharing our joys and woes with our piggies and listening to each other and being there for each other gives us all something precious and uplifting back.
Ongoing personalised support
Our independence means that we have full control over our place and that we do not rely on generating lots of new threads. We can therefore offer ongoing personalised support for as long as needed.
For greatest efficiency for both sides, it helps us lot if you please run just one thread for each ongoing case so you do not have to repeat the full background everytime but we can refresh our memories or catch up with what has happened at any time and do not just repeat our standard advice when it has been ruled out.
We kindly ask you to bookmark your support thread so you can always pick it up quickly again.
It would also help us to know which country you are in so we can factor in vet access, different medication brands, differing climate etc. which can differ quite a lot from country to country. You can add your country, state/province, UK county or large city by clicking on your avatar picture dot on the top bar (left of the envelope icon, go to personal details and then location.
Our forum quirks explained
In order to help our guinea pigs best, we are putting the owner and their needs at the centre.
They are the ones that are looking after the guinea pigs so their wellbeing is key for optimal care. If they are less stressed, overwhelmed or exhausted and can make the best of their personal circumstances, then this will benefit their guinea pigs directly and will improve their care quite a lot.
We therefore don't row over the poster's head, show off our own knowledge or contradict directly unless something is proven to be detrimental or plain wrong. Different views or personal experiences are offered as such. Often one of us will take the lead during a crisis so there is just one clear voice in order to make it easier and less stressful for the owner to take in and to follow when they are in a panic or very upset.
However, getting lots of support and understanding is equally important - and that is what makes our forum community so special. Not being alone in this and knowing that others have or facing similar is such a huge boost and bolster. Practical tips from own experiences can really help.
3 What we can help you with
Getting the worst news
We provide emotional and practical support when you are reeling from getting the kind of diagnosis that none of us ever wants to hear and provide ongoing grieving support.
End of life decisions
- We can help talk you through difficult decisions when there are no easy choices and you are in turmoil over having been given bad news. Only you as the owner can make those decisions but we can support you with working things out so they feel right for you.
- When is the right time to call it shots? The most stressful times are often when you are close to the day of euthanasia but not quite there yet but you do not want wait too long, either.
Terminal illness and end of life care support
- We can help you with the inevitable ups and downs of terminal care, crisis support in acute illness and the emotional and physical aspects of a natural death.
Grieving and guilt
- Grieving is not at all like being just sad and unconsolable. It is much more complex and can take you to some very strange places. You wouldn't be a caring owner if you didn't experience feelings of guilt, failure or intense soul-searching. They are an expression of how deeply you love, not that you have done anything wrong.
The need to make sense
A sudden death can leave you reeling. We may not be able to answer the unanswerable but we can help with making it bearable for you.
How to tell your children and support them best
We have resources and mothers with personal experience on here. And support for yourself.
Bereaved piggy companions
Don't just rush out and stick another piggy into a cage. We can help you work out and provide practical tips for what your piggy or piggies need individually immediately after a passing, how soon and where to look for possible companionship and finding the fest way forward for you, end of the line solutions etc.
4 Where to find professional help
Emergency vets
Please don't wait for days with a critically ill guinea pig to see a specialist.
In an emergency, please google for 24 hour vets or out-of-hours vet services in your area.
In the UK, every vet clinic is allied with an out-of-hours care provider and has the contacts on their taped message when you call them while they are closed.
Here is our list of life and death emergencies that need to be seen as soon as possible at any time of day or night:
Here is our one stop emergency and crisis care advice collection
Pet bereavement support
For the UK, please contact the free Blue Cross services: Pet bereavement and pet loss
This place also offers age appropriate help for children: Support – Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement
USA, Humane Society: Advice page and further support links: How to cope with the death of your pet
General pet bereavement advice for wherever you are in the world: Ten Tips on Coping with Pet Loss
2 Our forum ethos and community support explained
- Ongoing personalised support
- Our forum quirks explained
3 What we can help you with
- Getting the worst news
- End of life decisions
- Terminal illness and end of life care support
- Grieving and guilt
- The need to make sense
- How to tell your children and support them best
- Bereaved piggy companions
1 We provide community support
Please accept that none of is a trained vet or nurse nor do we have mental health training. We cannot replace professional services.
What we can do is to help you with practical advice and care tips, ongoing moral support and understanding during a very difficult, stressful and anxious time in order to make it easier on you.
Love for a small pet and pain over their loss isn't any less deep just because they are maller or shorter lived; which is sadly a still wide-spread attitude that many of us encounter. It can make for a very lonely experience.
2 Our forum ethos and community explained
The Guinea Pig Forum is not part of social media, we go back further than that. We are non-profit and all do this for free in our own free time. The forum is entirely run on voluntary member donations.
Our forum ethos, which is carried by all our members, is to be a friendly and supportive space where we help each other. Everybody, whether a new or a long time member, is welcome to join in with our community. Sharing our joys and woes with our piggies and listening to each other and being there for each other gives us all something precious and uplifting back.
Ongoing personalised support
Our independence means that we have full control over our place and that we do not rely on generating lots of new threads. We can therefore offer ongoing personalised support for as long as needed.
For greatest efficiency for both sides, it helps us lot if you please run just one thread for each ongoing case so you do not have to repeat the full background everytime but we can refresh our memories or catch up with what has happened at any time and do not just repeat our standard advice when it has been ruled out.
We kindly ask you to bookmark your support thread so you can always pick it up quickly again.
It would also help us to know which country you are in so we can factor in vet access, different medication brands, differing climate etc. which can differ quite a lot from country to country. You can add your country, state/province, UK county or large city by clicking on your avatar picture dot on the top bar (left of the envelope icon, go to personal details and then location.
Our forum quirks explained
In order to help our guinea pigs best, we are putting the owner and their needs at the centre.
They are the ones that are looking after the guinea pigs so their wellbeing is key for optimal care. If they are less stressed, overwhelmed or exhausted and can make the best of their personal circumstances, then this will benefit their guinea pigs directly and will improve their care quite a lot.
We therefore don't row over the poster's head, show off our own knowledge or contradict directly unless something is proven to be detrimental or plain wrong. Different views or personal experiences are offered as such. Often one of us will take the lead during a crisis so there is just one clear voice in order to make it easier and less stressful for the owner to take in and to follow when they are in a panic or very upset.
However, getting lots of support and understanding is equally important - and that is what makes our forum community so special. Not being alone in this and knowing that others have or facing similar is such a huge boost and bolster. Practical tips from own experiences can really help.
3 What we can help you with
Getting the worst news
We provide emotional and practical support when you are reeling from getting the kind of diagnosis that none of us ever wants to hear and provide ongoing grieving support.
End of life decisions
- We can help talk you through difficult decisions when there are no easy choices and you are in turmoil over having been given bad news. Only you as the owner can make those decisions but we can support you with working things out so they feel right for you.
- When is the right time to call it shots? The most stressful times are often when you are close to the day of euthanasia but not quite there yet but you do not want wait too long, either.
Terminal illness and end of life care support
- We can help you with the inevitable ups and downs of terminal care, crisis support in acute illness and the emotional and physical aspects of a natural death.
Grieving and guilt
- Grieving is not at all like being just sad and unconsolable. It is much more complex and can take you to some very strange places. You wouldn't be a caring owner if you didn't experience feelings of guilt, failure or intense soul-searching. They are an expression of how deeply you love, not that you have done anything wrong.
The need to make sense
A sudden death can leave you reeling. We may not be able to answer the unanswerable but we can help with making it bearable for you.
How to tell your children and support them best
We have resources and mothers with personal experience on here. And support for yourself.
Bereaved piggy companions
Don't just rush out and stick another piggy into a cage. We can help you work out and provide practical tips for what your piggy or piggies need individually immediately after a passing, how soon and where to look for possible companionship and finding the fest way forward for you, end of the line solutions etc.
4 Where to find professional help
Emergency vets
Please don't wait for days with a critically ill guinea pig to see a specialist.
In an emergency, please google for 24 hour vets or out-of-hours vet services in your area.
In the UK, every vet clinic is allied with an out-of-hours care provider and has the contacts on their taped message when you call them while they are closed.
Here is our list of life and death emergencies that need to be seen as soon as possible at any time of day or night:
Here is our one stop emergency and crisis care advice collection
Pet bereavement support
For the UK, please contact the free Blue Cross services: Pet bereavement and pet loss
This place also offers age appropriate help for children: Support – Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement
USA, Humane Society: Advice page and further support links: How to cope with the death of your pet
General pet bereavement advice for wherever you are in the world: Ten Tips on Coping with Pet Loss