The Wiggle Toss

Do you ever have those momentarily passing thoughts of "I should do this."
But then you don't.
And then something happens where you realize...you really should have done that thought and it would have prevented the thing from happening?

Yah...

So there I was at work, helping a family with kids decide on if they wanted a Guinea Pig as a pet.
There were two girls and a younger brother -that I didn't really see- and since the parents were there, I let the two girls hold the Guinea Pig.
They seemed old enough to handle them between 8-12 years old.
And so I disregarded the thought that 'they should sit down' to hold the Guinea Pig.
The first girl held him just fine. Stroking him, loving him.
The second girl was doing just as well, just holding him as I got distracted talking to the parents.

I'm not positive what happened next....
But I'm guessing that the Guinea Pig started to wiggle a bit. Wanting to be put down, or to get more comfortable.
And the girl freaked out.
Not in a 'scream your head off' sort of freak out but a.
"GET IT OFF ME!" sort of freak out without words.
That without words freak out involved her literally throwing the guinea pig away from her.
...and she was standing up.
So the Guinea pig went up...and went down...and landed hard on the ground.
Almost I expected to hear a splat.
Already I expected this not to be good.
Small pets like Hamsters and Guinea Pigs are delicate by nature.
You can't just go throwing them around, especially not a fall of like...4-5 feet down.... and expect them to come out a hundred percent okay.
Doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
But there is a higher likely hood that something happened....

I scooped up the guinea pig, and began checking him out, while the Mom explained that the daughter should have called for help and not just thrown the Guinea Pig, while I was also saying you have to be careful, and trying to reassure them as well.
At first, it all seemed alright.
But I wasn't sure. The front left paw....seemed to be a little weird. I couldn't tell though while standing there in front of the family. I felt a bump...but couldn't tell if it was a normal bump or not.
So I excused myself, saying that I was going to take the animal to a quiet spot to check him out and I would be back.

I ended up sending a different coworker to go help them out -and the mother wisely had them all sit on the ground to play with another guinea pig. (they'd wanted to check out two but I only let one out at a time.) And from what I heard...the poor girl was a bit traumatized. Red faced, crying, took a lot of convincing to just pet the next guinea pig. :S While my coworker mearly stated that we were taking him to the vet to be checked out. -as we had one in house-

Which we did do, after I established that I was pretty sure the leg was broken. :(
Right at the 'wrist' area really, the paw didn't sit right, didn't move at all, I confirmed it with my manager, and they ended up taking the guinea pig over to the vet for an x ray to be super positive.

Yep. It's broken.
Problem was...the vet we have only sees cats and dogs....so there was nothing they could do to help the Guinea Pig...
And as it had been the weekend.... everywhere else was closed.....
I don't yet know what has happened to the Guinea Pig....
But I am worried that this is a sort of break that you can't fix. It's right at the wrist....
and it doesn't seem like an area you can stabilize....
especially because I know from experience, as a year or so ago I found a Guinea Pig that had somehow broken it's back leg....right at the ankle, and the solution then was to amputate it.
I'm expecting this to be similar, though I'm hoping its not.

I guess I'll see when I get back to work what the verdict is....

In any case, it's pretty safe to say I'll be making the little kids sit down to hold the guinea pig, or at least, keep a hand on the animal to make sure I can grab it to safety if it gets too wiggly for them to handle.......

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Update 11/17/14: Guinea Pig doesn't need his food amputated! Yay! Vet is going to splint it to let it heal itself. ^^ So much relief! Yay!