Pets at home and guinea pig

Jamiesmum

I'm so annoyed. I went against my better judgement (I know, I know) and adopted a guinea pig from pets at home to go with my other boys.

I go in there to buy the guinea nuggets as it's so local to me and for months I saw the same guinea all on his own in the adoption cages he's around a year old.

I finally enquired about him as I hated seeing him alone, and despite all the pets at home horror stories I bought him home with me. It appeared he was dumped in a quite bad condition at a very young age on the tills, then spent 8 weeks behind the scenes being treated for fur loss + mites, all cleared up they said and had been waiting for adoption since early November (around the time I first spotted him).

Anyway - turns out he still has mites, apparently. Fuming. Now I need to take 4 guineas to the vets or at very least home treatment for 4 and hope for the best.

It's such a disgusting way to treat animals I don't understand it. Never again.

I remember the lady saying if I had any issues to bring him back and they would treat him but no way am I taking my boys back to that store. :mad::mad:

As I've never had to treat this before, does anyone have a rough cost of how much the vets would be per piggy?

krlyr

Been a little while since I've had small furries, but vets will likely give Ivermectin, which can be bought over the counter (Beaphar anti-parasite spot-on) - don't use any Bob Martins products or flea shampoos, which usually use old-fashioned permethrins which are ineffecient these days.

I personally would write to Pets At Home head office and present them with your receipt/vet bill though - I expect they would likely reimburse you, their customer service is generally good through head office.

Jamiesmum

Thanks for the response! I've been looking online and it does seem treating at home is a very easy option for this. So I will go buy 4x Ivermectin tomorrow and keep the receipts.

I will also phone Pets at home tomorrow and see what they say.

A search tells me it's only going to be about £30/40 so I'm ok with that was expecting it to be a lot more to be honest. Though if they need vet treatment I will pay regardless I'm just peeved at the situation in general.

Fosterdog

For the future it's worth considering a short quarantine of your own with any new small pets you bring into your home. When I used to have rats any new additions whether from a breeder or a rescue were kept away from the rest of mine for a minimum of two weeks. Same whenever I get new fish, I have a quarantine tank set up to check for diseases before adding them to my main tank.

annandale

My mum adopted five rabbits and one Guinea pig from pets at home with no problems.

The only issue I have with pets at home is that they offer pets for sale as well as adoption but I'd rather buy from there than from the Internet

You've given the Guinea pig a good home. That's the main thing

Jamiesmum

Thank you Foster, that is a good idea and I will keep that in my mind and do that next time. I really should have done it this time you're right. I guess the way the lady spoke to me in the shop about his health and previous issues made it sound like she knew he would be just fine.

Anna, Thank you. You're right as well. He's a great guinea too, such a scatty personality he's really quite amusing and he bonded with us adults really quickly my others took months to truly settle. I'm pleased I got him.

GBNI

You'll find a lot of the 'adoption' pets are actually ones that they have been unable to sell while still in their young 'cute' stage (I think they're cute no matter what the age!)


Like you, I adopted from them as I felt sorry for a rabbit they hadn't been able to sell as she was unable to be handled. Turns out her eyesight isn't great so panicked more than others!


I hope your little guineas are ok, they've lovely little squeakers!

Cornucopia

I adopted my Degu from Pets at Home 3 years ago, and he's happily sitting on my knee as I type this. He's never had any issues in all that time, although I have a feeling he may have been badly treated previously.

I was quite impressed with the adoption process - PaH even lent me a pet carrier to take the Degu home with (on the basis he would chew through a cardboard carrier, which I'm not sure is the case).

System

For anyone who, like me, was wondering what a degu is:



They look rather sweet

Cornucopia

avogadro wrote: »

For anyone who, like me, was wondering what a degu is:

They look rather sweet

That's a baby one (a pup).

My Degu is a strapping adult male (a fair bit bigger than the one in your pic would be).

He looks very similar to this one, and indeed likes eating daisies. They are unusual in holding food in their "hands" to eat (and they have semi-opposable thumbs).

JIL

I adopted a guinea pig from pets at home about eight years ago. Apparently he had just been left at the shop door in a box. They had taken him in and put him up for adoption.

I took him home, he was a real character, but I think he may have come from a local breeder, one sniff of one of the female gps and he went mad. In all the years I kept guinea pigs I had never seen or heard anything like it. He would wheep very loudly, scratch and climb the bars.

The mites problem, pets at home do a shampoo and a spray on lotion I have used in the past and found them very effective.