Money Gone

 *exhales*

So...we had a guinea pig in the store that we noticed wasn't properly using one of it's back legs.

Upon taking him to the vet, we discovered that somehow at some point the leg had been dislocated.

And like...the guinea pig hadn't been in our store for longer than a week.

But it's hard to know if the dislocation happened before or after it arrived at our store.

But the vet was like "It's been dislocated for long enough that if we pop the leg back into place...it's likely it will just pop right back out again." 

Which...it's not fun to spend money to fix a problem that might not stay fixed.

Which left us the other options of a) amputating the leg, b) putting the guinea pig down. 

As we couldn't exactly leave the leg as is. Who knows how painful that would be to the guinea pig to continue having the leg dislocated and like...who knows what sort of infections and problems could result from that.

And we try and go the routes that would ensure the guinea pigs survival. Like unless it's deemed that the quality of life wouldn't be good if the animal was left alive...we pick the options that keeps the animal's life.

Which meant amputating the leg.

The slight drawback to that is that we have a...well budget on how much money we can spend. And if it's over a certain amount we need to get approval first before going ahead with any expensive procedures.

And this amputation was definitely expensive. 

But our DM -who happened to visit our store the same day we got the pricing for how much the amputation would cost- gave the go ahead to have the procedure happen. 

Said surgery happened today.

And the surgery went well. No complications whatsoever in that regards.

No....the problems started after they tried to wake the guinea pig back up.

Apparently green liquid started coming out of his nose after he woke back up. Indicating that he was dealing with some sort of infection.

And like after being 'woken' they ended up having to put the guinea pig on Oxygen to help him breathe because he was having trouble breathing on his own. 

And was having troubles moving on his own. 

The vet ended up calling us right before we were supposed to go pick him up to give us this news.

And like....he was concerned about his quality of life going forward. Because if they couldn't safely take him off the oxygen....that's not a good thing as our store doesn't have the capabilities to keep a guinea pig on oxygen ourselves.

So it was agreed to wait it out just a bit longer.

And, while my other manager wanted to go be the one to pick up the guinea pig...as they love to go run that errand and get out of the store for a bit.

I made the choice to be the one to go so I could go see what was happening with the guinea pig in person.

As I'm the one in the store with the most experience with the animals. And I didn't want to play a game of telephone with my other manager over the phone with deciding on the final course of action for the guinea pig.

So I went.

And ah. 

It was sad. Like if I hadn't been able to see the guinea pig breathing...he looked just like a stuffed animal. 

He was totally unresponsive. Wouldn't react to anything. Head flopping around, body flopping around.

The poor thing wasn't even blinking. He was just staring there wide eyed the entire time.

Like...it was like the base functions of the brain had turned back on after the guinea pig woke back up...but the higher motor skills and such hadn't restarted.

And it had been a good 3-4 hours after the surgery that I came to get him.

So to have no change after that long....it wasn't a good thing. 

Especially since again, we didn't have the capabilities to care for the guinea pig overnight like this. 

And with a guinea pig that unresponsive and floppy....that's never a good sign when I unfortunately encounter it at work. Usually the guinea pig doesn't last longer than a day if that's the case. 

So the decision was made to put the poor guinea pig down. 

Because there was no good way to ensure he'd have a good quality of life if he wasn't moving on his own at all beyond heart beating and lungs breathing. 

And like....people all around me were concerned about how I was reacting to this news. Like they expected me to be super upset about it.

But like....emotionally I wasn't that....idk connected? I've seen a lot of our animals pass away over the years. And while yes, some deaths hit me harder than others, it's not something that's going to leave me as a crying wreck most of the time. 

Like yes it's sad we had to put the guinea pig down. But I could recognize that in this case it would be better to let the animal go than to try and eek out his existence for longer. 

No...I was more frustrated that we had just spent $$$$ to get the leg amputated and try and save the guinea pig...to have to turn around and euthanize him because he didn't recover as expected after surgery.

Like....I do wish that the vet would be like "Oh sorry we couldn't save him, we'll waive the surgery fee for you."

Nope. Still had to pay for the surgery. Which I get. You gotta pay the people for their work and for the supplies used and such.

But it's a bitter pill to swallow. That we just basically threw money down the drain in an attempt to help the guinea pig....

*exhales*

So yah. Not the funnest way to end my day. 

But it's how life works sometimes. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi