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Up until we got Nicodemus I was none the wiser. We’d heard the horror stories about puppy mills and the like for cats and dogs but with small animals it had honestly never occured to me that there was a problem. Call me informed now. Our first few guinea pigs where purchased as were all eight of our ferrets. I’ll admit it I was completely clueless. Where we live we have a PetCo, a PetsMart and a local pet store that is horrendous. The ferrets where purchased from PetCo and the Guinea’s from PetsMart. To say the animals in the stores are taken care of is questionable. At PetsMart I can at least count on the staff to be knowledgable and genuinly care for the animals, at PetCo I wouldn’t trust them with anything. At PetCo the rodents they sell almost always look entirely too young or sickly. When we purchased Eben and Marlow the girl grabbed Eben by the throat. Not the scruff as you are supposed to hold them, full on by the throat.

After Simon passed away we vowed to not purchase anymore and four of our eight guinea pigs are adopted and one rescued. It was brought to my attention last year when US Global Exoctics was raided in Arlington Texas and thousands of small animals were rescued from putrid conditions. To say it was sad is an understatement. By then I was semi informed of the conditions this critters go through but to see the pictures first hand made me ill.  Finding out that the vets that work for both the Ft. Worth Zoo and the Dallas World Aquarium actually defended the people who owned US Global infuritated me and we no longer patronize either place. It’s also where they got some of their animals. Of course any thought about the well being of the animals can be answered when you look at the recent PetsMart add offering $10 off any reptile with your Rango ticket stub.

Shortly after the raid our youngest guinea pig Raziel became ill, his brother had already passed on at PetsMart. We took him to the vet and after xrays found out he’d only been born with a partial lung. Total. When looking at the xrays only a fraction of what he was supposed to have was visible. Inbreeding and overbreeding are the cause. Thankfully with a good vet he made it to a year and a half, though it got very scary at times.

The ferrets are a completely different story. Because of the fact that they are altered at such a young age, within hours after birth their bodies go haywire. We’ve lost three of our babies in the last six months to insulinoma, two more diagnosed last week. It’s heart breaking and hard on them as well as us.

Let me preface this by saying he is a pet store pig, all of ours where with the exception of our two adoptees. It’s with strict research and first hand accounts that I will no longer patronize places that sell animals. Though I’m afraid to some that might be a too little too late type of ideaology.

Since getting Raziel he’s always had a loud breath. I’d once thought it was asthma or allergies and he’s been to the vet numerous times and diagnosed with several URIs. Upon reading about heart pigs and knowing he was still a really noisy breather with no nasal buildup. I scheduled him an appointment today and requested X-rays. Knowing the litter he came from and this is only the knowledge that he was housed with two brothers that all looked the same so I can only assume they were related. My coworker’s 4 year old has his brother and Squirrel is roughly 2.5 times Raziel’s size. Elephant was returned to the store by my coworker because he fell ill and though I’d tried to get her to take him to vet herself she wouldn’t. That’s been an issue in itself. Upon seeing Raziel back in the sale box at PetsMart we assumed he was Elephant and immediately bought him and took him to the vet thinking they’d just put a sick pig back out for sale. Turns out Elephant had actually crossed the bridge and we now have Raziel. He’s 1.5 years old now.

Upon consulting the vet with the information I had and thinking it was a heart ailment and could be treated with medication and turns out while it isn’t is heart at all it could be causing stress on it. The X-rays show that he only has a half of a lung functioning. He only has a half of a diaphragm and basically everything is moving up to where it shouldn’t be causing the breathing issues. He eats normally and he popcorns but he’s never made a lot of noise other than raspy breaths. Looking at the X-rays he has fluid and air in his intestines and around the lung. The vet put him on Ciprofloxacin to try to prevent pneumonia and I’m picking up a drug to help his breathing tomorrow. The other two options she’s giving us are a consult at the Texas A&M vet school for a complete ultrasound and second opinion. If that isn’t feasible which unfortunately right now it isn’t she wants to try keeping him on a diuretic for a week to see if we can get the fluid down. Big drawback to that would be that he would have to be constantly monitored to make sure he was drinking so he wouldn’t dehydrate. Problem being both my mother and I work full time. I can talk to my general manager about keeping him with me but the odds of him letting me keep a guinea pig up at Customer Service in Best Buy are probably pretty slim. So right now we are completely weighing our options and whatever is in the best interest for Raziel. He’s not in pain that anyone can tell and he’s otherwise normal.

I’m including his x-rays and will try and get video of him breathing to share.

Top shot. They couldn’t do one of him on his back as it causes him too much distress. The expansion is the air in his intestines and the dark spot on the left side is the fraction of lung he’s got.

Side shot, the highlighted area is the only visible portion of the functioning lung.

We had intended on getting him neutered but now that is completely out of the question.

Raziel got his wings December 28th, he lived another few month of people asthma medication. His vet performed a necropsy on him and found his functioning lung had become an abcess and he had abcesses allover his heart.