Interesting Article By A Vet About Vets…..
Read more about this in today’s Daily Mail.
“Sadly the best way to deal with many problems is not to treat at all. Small animals such as guinea pigs and rabbits should be put to sleep if they present with an illness that can’t easily be rectified with a dose of antibiotics. Their lives should not be prolonged at all cost.”
What a good job there are some good guinea-compentent Vets that CAN do more for guineas than “just” giving antibiotics. This is why it is SO important that you find a good guinea pig Vet before you need one. Discover what questions you need to ask them first.
Many of my own Gorgeous Guineas would have died before their time if all Vets had this outlook:(
UPDATE: 03/12 response from the RCVS posted here.
I had to read that article to get the full pigture, unfortunately it demonstrates total ignorance of guinea pigs. I DO agree there are situations where guinea’s agony should not be pro longed for the sake of the Humans emotions, but to imply that antibiotics are the be all and end all makes a mockery of the many good, hard working vets out there. I’m assuming that all my abscess pigs would be dead now if this person had their way- it takes a little more than antibiotics but it’s not rocket science! Please read the Daily Mail article, I’d be ashamed to be a Vet if a colleague was going round saying this!
I am a newly graduated vet tech in Canada. One of my 14 guineas just had surgery today to remove a 0.5 cm bladder stone. If I listened to the vet in this article, my pig would be dead. Instead, my excellent vet did a fast and efficient surgery that saved his life. I think the author of this article should be ashamed of his statement regarding the smaller pets.
I was very sad when I read this yesterday and so will be some of the excellent guinea pig vets out there.
I hope someone has written to the Daily Mail and the vet that wrote this article to put the other side of the argument! Grrr
I believe RCVS or similar have responded and NOT in support of him!
I’m just grateful that all vets aren’t this flippant about the lives of their ‘patients’. My vet has been fantastic over the years, and has done much more than simply administering antibiotics.
I have many friends who own guinea pigs and I’d say taht 90% of them have received excellent care from their vets, so I’d like to this that the person making these comments was in the minority!