[Gpdd] [ANNOUNCEMENT] Guinness in France (Sorry if a duplicate post)

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

I sent this post a couple of days ago, and wasn't too worried when I got the 
"message rejected" email by return, as it's happened before and my post has 
still been circulated. But now admin say the problem's cleared, so I'm sending 
it again, just in case. Apologies if it's a duplicate - but I feel I owe it to 
people who wrote to me about Guinness to share the sad news. 

It is with tremendous sadness I have to report that Guinness, my friend's 
guinea pig here in France, about whom I posted about a month ago, crossed the 
Rainbow Bridge Friday morning. I received an email from my friend informing me of 
this. She had taken him, at last, to another vet, who had said he had a 
parasite called "scrapies" and had become too thin and weak to be treated.

Has anyone on this list ever heard of a parasite which can infest guinea pigs 
called "scrapies"? I have heard of scrapie, which I thought sheep could 
develop, and scabies, which is a skin parasite, but never "scrapies". I wonder if 
there was a communication problem, as my friend does not speak good French.

Once again, I feel so frustrated at the lack of proficient veterinary care 
for guinea pigs here in rural France. That poor piggie had been ill since 5th 
January. He had basically been wasting away. He must have suffered terribly if 
he had a parasite inside him all that time. I shudder each time I remember how 
thin he felt when I held him, and that was about a month ago. I so wish there 
had been something I could have done. 

I did send away for the first part of the Rodentology course after my dear 
Bâfreur crossed the Bridge after pneumonia in June last year, but one has to 
memorise the entire anatomy of a guinea pig, and I am finding it heavy going. 
There is nothing in the first part that would help diagnose and treat an illness 
in a guinea pig. I have sent away for some fact sheets from the Cambridge Cavy 
Trust, details of which I received in January, and one of those will be about 
parasites, I think; they haven't arrived yet, but when they do, I will share 
them with my local vet.

Very many thanks to everyone who responded to my first posting about Guinness 
- I did try to reply personally, but if I missed you, I apologise. I'm really 
sorry the story has such a sad outcome. I am sure he would have survived if 
he had lived in the States or Britain where there are exotics vets who know 
what to do with sick guinea pigs. 

Guinness was bought from a pet shop in November, I think. Quite possibly he 
was already ill then. He was mainly black but with some white, hence his name, 
Guinness, after the dark draught stout with a creamy white head. He was a 
friendly and talkative guinea pig, and was much loved by my friend, her husband 
and their two young boys. He had originally been bought as a companion to 
Pipsqueak, their other piggie, but they had fought, and hence had lived in two 
separate cages, side by side. I'm told Pipsqueak is fine, but I am sure they will 
keep an eye on him in case he starts showing similar symptoms. Pipsqueak is the 
brother of one of my two male pigies, Claude, and the son of Etincelle, one 
of the five piggies that was massacred by dogs in my garden last May.

I am relieved that Guinness is no longer suffering - but so angry that I was 
unable to help him.

Condolences to everyone who has lost a piggie recently - your stories always 
make me cry. Our little companions just do not live long enough, do they?

Debbie and her "Dolly Mixtures"