[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Vet problem in remote areas

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

I just wanted to let Carla and Bud know that they are not alone in their 
frustration at being unable to find an exotics vet whom they know they can trust 
to treat their guinea pig. I live in Northern France, and have been trying for 
3 years to find an exotics expert to treat my guinea pigs and rabbits. I have 
already lost 2 guinea pigs to URI's through the ignorance of my local vet, and 
right now I fear I am in the process of losing one to chronic constipation. I 
have made a 2 hour one way journey to a vet who was supposedly an exotics 
specialist, to seek help with my rabbit's chronic URI and arrange to have my male 
GP's castrated, but when he told me they must fast before their operation, 
and gave me antibiotics for the rabbit which must be dissolved in water and were 
listed as dangerous on a trusted Internet site, I cancelled the castration 
appointment, threw out the antibiotics and despondently continued my desperate 
search.

Last night's vet was only 45 minutes' drive away, although after that there 
was a 1¼ hour wait in the waiting room. She did seem interested in guinea pigs, 
and had kept them, with rabbits, as a child. She was the first vet ever to 
have taken the temperature of either a rabbit or a GP in my presence, and 
actually knew what the temperature should be without having to look it up. She 
wasn't sure if the piggie had constipation or diarrhoea though, so just gave a 
Baytril injection and gave me more to be taken orally, plus some probiotic powder 
to be added to her drinking water. I've posted separately on this, but I did 
want you to know that there are a hell of a lot of us out here that share your 
distress - you are right, all the websites urge one to take the animal to your 
exotics vet immediately, and I am sure this is the most correct thing to do - 
but it does leave those many of us with no exotics vet to rush to feeling 
helpless and inadequate. Funnily enough, there has just been a post along exactly 
the same lines on one of the rabbit forums to which I subscribe. 

I have rung the Cambridge Cavy Trust in Britain for advice before now, and 
the vet that works with a rabbit hospice in Britain, but the problem with the 
telephone is that the animal's slave has to make the diagnosis, and that is is 
terribly difficult for a lay person to do. I realise a little knowledge can be 
a dangerous thing, and I presume that is why guinea pig websites always refer 
people to their exotics vet - but I wish there was some way that those of us 
who are really stuck without a reliable/knowledgeable vet could access more 
specific information to help us (maybe even help our own vets?) to make 
diagnoses. I usually resort to the wonderful GPDD DSN (Digest Safety Net), but that has 
the problems of having to wait for a reply and also of a person having to 
make a diagnosis without seeing the patient. What I would love is a site giving 
very specific diagnosis information, explaining how to examine my baby and 
exactly what to look for, plus suggestions for treatment, with generic names for 
those of us not living in the USA or UK. 

Anyway, good luck to you with your scratching baby - and with finding the vet 
you can trust!

Condolences to all who grieve over angels who have crossed The Bridge

Debbie (and her 19 "Dolly Mixtures")