Emergency Vet
A horrible thing happened Saturday night. At one point, I was on my knees in the bathroom crying, because I felt like such a stupid, stupid person--one who caused someone she loves great pain.
That someone is Chester, one of our guinea pigs. And the stupid, stupid thing I did was leaving him unattended with Louis, one of our two other guinea pigs.
Sure, they got along fine for months, but we decided to separate them when Louis' aggression towards Chester started to exceed normal dominance issues. Slowly, though, we tried to reintroduce them. We put a partition between them in the cage, but they could still see each other. We bathed them together and let them run around outside the cage together--supervised, of course.
And Saturday night, they weren't pooping up a storm and humping each other, which suggested that the dominance issues and any fighting were resolved. So we put them back in the cage together.
Louis bit Chester. To put it more graphically, Louis ripped off part of Chester's face, so that the skin was hanging. It was horrifying, and Leon and I screamed and panicked and ran to a 24-hour pharmacy to find the tools to fix Chester.
When we returned, Leon began cleaning the wound, and I called the vet. Rather than wait until morning to call, I decided to leave a message so they could get us in first thing in the morning. Fortunately, in my search for our vet's number, I found a website devoted to emergency animal care, and off the three of us went--Leon, Chester, and I--to this emergency vet facility.
When we got inside, there was a woman wearing a sweatshirt that was covered in blood. Behind the counter was a Dachsund mix, dripping blood. The vet sent the woman away because she didn't have the money to pay for their services. From us, they eventually extracted $366.
For $366, Chester got stitches. He had to be put out, because the laceration was so close to his eye. But in less than ninety minutes, he was good to go. And Leon and I were so thankful.
The whole time we waited for the vet, Leon was petting Chester, and Chester was squeaking happily. I know he had to be in pain, because when Leon and the vet touched the cut, he squealed and tried to get away. But otherwise, he was such a trooper. It made me feel even worse.
Although a lot of vets will say that male guinea pigs shouldn't be together unless one is neutered, we had an expert introduce Louis to Chester (and Milo), and they got along swimmingly. She had never before seen pigs get along and then start fighting, but I guess there's a first time for everything. We'll obviously be contacting her about these developments.
And the pigs are once again separated. It's sad that Louis can't have companionship, but it's even sadder that we compromised Chester's safety so that Louis could try to have companionship.
I feel terrible. I will forever see that scar on Chester's face and think about what a terrible thing I did when my gut told me not to.
That someone is Chester, one of our guinea pigs. And the stupid, stupid thing I did was leaving him unattended with Louis, one of our two other guinea pigs.
Sure, they got along fine for months, but we decided to separate them when Louis' aggression towards Chester started to exceed normal dominance issues. Slowly, though, we tried to reintroduce them. We put a partition between them in the cage, but they could still see each other. We bathed them together and let them run around outside the cage together--supervised, of course.
And Saturday night, they weren't pooping up a storm and humping each other, which suggested that the dominance issues and any fighting were resolved. So we put them back in the cage together.
Louis bit Chester. To put it more graphically, Louis ripped off part of Chester's face, so that the skin was hanging. It was horrifying, and Leon and I screamed and panicked and ran to a 24-hour pharmacy to find the tools to fix Chester.
When we returned, Leon began cleaning the wound, and I called the vet. Rather than wait until morning to call, I decided to leave a message so they could get us in first thing in the morning. Fortunately, in my search for our vet's number, I found a website devoted to emergency animal care, and off the three of us went--Leon, Chester, and I--to this emergency vet facility.
When we got inside, there was a woman wearing a sweatshirt that was covered in blood. Behind the counter was a Dachsund mix, dripping blood. The vet sent the woman away because she didn't have the money to pay for their services. From us, they eventually extracted $366.
For $366, Chester got stitches. He had to be put out, because the laceration was so close to his eye. But in less than ninety minutes, he was good to go. And Leon and I were so thankful.
The whole time we waited for the vet, Leon was petting Chester, and Chester was squeaking happily. I know he had to be in pain, because when Leon and the vet touched the cut, he squealed and tried to get away. But otherwise, he was such a trooper. It made me feel even worse.
Although a lot of vets will say that male guinea pigs shouldn't be together unless one is neutered, we had an expert introduce Louis to Chester (and Milo), and they got along swimmingly. She had never before seen pigs get along and then start fighting, but I guess there's a first time for everything. We'll obviously be contacting her about these developments.
And the pigs are once again separated. It's sad that Louis can't have companionship, but it's even sadder that we compromised Chester's safety so that Louis could try to have companionship.
I feel terrible. I will forever see that scar on Chester's face and think about what a terrible thing I did when my gut told me not to.