£65 to pay for guinea pig op! Have already spent £36!

[Ouluckyduck]

cant really afford to pay this but feel like my hands are tied, vet assumed I would...

Piggy has an infected eye that needs removing. I asked what would happen without the op, the vet said it would just turn into dead tissue, but there was a risk of septicimia.

Oh, poor piggie

This kind of thing you can't go against vet advice. Sad your guinea will lose an eye, but imagine the pain he'd be in otherwise.

Would your vet let you pay in instalments?
Obviously the most importantant thing is the health and well-being of the animal (and I'm sure vets have some legal and moral obligation to provide care). But it's alot of money to pay.
Your only other option would be to PTS

I paid 110 to a vet to operate on mine on a cyst that was shrinking with anti-b's... The anti-bs had cost £40 plus a £70 treatment he'd had a week before. My GP boy died post op, never came round- unsurprising when Dp had to walk home with him as vet decided to send him home would wait etc! the vet was later closed down. Unscrupulous bastard
Hope your piggie is ok

Sorry bit of a rant there. If you trust the vet (I would in this case) I would go for the OP if at all Possible

How old is he?

We had a similar situation with our cat 6 months ago, vet bill ended up being around £400 after x-rays , tail amputation and then infection (lots of antibiotics needed), we did consider having him PTS because that amount of money is a lot to us. In the end we went through with surgery, dh worked over time and we payed the vet. I'm so pleased we did as the cat is now fine without his tail. Our cat was only 18 months when it happened, i think if he was a old cat we would not have spent that amount (as sad as it may sound).

You could phone round for some price comparisons but the vet would want to see your guinea-pig which would mean a consultation fee .

You could gauge prices by asking what they charge for a standard operation (like spaying or castrating a rabbit) and see what price other vets charge to compare IYSWIM.

Trouble is your guinea-pig will be waiting for treatment.
Do you trust the vet? Are they giving you all the options?

He's three. No other options were discussed really. I had hoped the vet would say that it could just be left, as he is much better in himself now, eating normally again and just generally back to normal.

Is there any other vet in the practice who could give you a second opinion? Sometimes they have different views. I think that it may boil down to how attached you are to your pet and how much you can realistically afford withouth getting the family into financial trouble.

Ouluckyduck - yes ask for a second opinion if there is another vet. But if it doesn't settle with antibiotics, your options are limited.

I've had GPs (in years gone by) that had large ,fibrous lumps (under chin and on belly) but we didn't have them operated because - they didn't cause any problems , and TBH surgery wasn't really done on small furries.

My currant boars - one had a small lump on his belly (about the size of a Smartie) that didn't cause him any problems. It vanished completely.
He's had a check up and we keep a check on him. (GP2 has some little fatty lumps/skin tags)

But with the eyes, you don't know where the infection is going. Or how it started.
Did your vet check the GPs teeth? If he has to be anaethetised make sure they check - some eye problems can originate from dental. It would be heartbreaking to have him go through surgery to solve one problem to have it re-occur.
Most likely it's an abcess in the eye/behind the eye; or a foreign body ; or a scratch/bite.

Good Luck with the outcome.

I would ask if you can pay a bit back month ny month.

Then afterwards pop abit back every week/month for a vet fund! Anyone with any animal should have one. I have two, one ofr the pony , one for the furries. Its there in case of a situation like this. Pony gets £20 a month Furries get £10 .

Good luck, hope your piggy is ok!

Sorry to hear of your poorly piggie. I've had two pigs who've had to have eyes removed, where antibiotics didn't do the trick. The first time was in 2005 and it cost £120. The last time, it was in 2009 and it cost £250 (granted, that included the extra £50 for seeing the out of hours vet on a Sunday.) and you don't want to know how hard the wallet was hit with one pig's investigations and treatment (useless) for cystitis at the vet hospital earlier this year, but we could have had a very, very nice holiday otherwise :(

When there is a problem with an eye, it can escalate very, very quickly. If treated very early and robustly with antibiotics, it can be fixed, but not always.

The £65 doesn't sound unreasonable at all when you think of actually what's involved in the surgery. The alternative, unfortunately, would probably be being put to sleep because the animal will be in quite alot of pain and be at risk of haemorrhage if the eye erupts.

Bonkey Mollocks idea is a good one. Things don't often go wrong with piggies, but if and when they do, it could cost quite alot. Keeping some money aside just in case can help if it does. Maybe the vet will accept payment in instalments this time?

70 is right - worth trying to get to the bottom of the problem. Often, it's just the result of a poke in a sticky out eye, but it could be underlying.

I now have a brilliant pig savvy vet (whose wife looked after the boys when we were in America and I was concerned one boar's cystitis might be coming back so was afraid to send to boarding,) who hardly wants to charge anything. Later on, it might be worth shopping around for a less costly but pig savvy vet.

Best of luck with the little porker.

Poor little guinea, what a horrible predicament for u all. I would definitely get another opinion but you don't want to delay if poor chap suffering. These little but necessary ops are so costly, and some vets may string you along. He is still young though,so you have this in his favour. What a dilemma.good luck,

£65 isn't actually that bad when you think of everything that will be involved. My g pig has her eye removed as it was badly damaged. All went fine.