Cricket's Story

Cricket was rescued only a couple of days before Christmas in 2006. Cricket sadly passed away two days after being rescued. This poor little dear was picked up in a pet shop just before Christmas after one of our volunteers spotted three very unwell baby guinea pigs being offered as for sale by the store. I'd spoken with the owners of the shop and the pigs were removed from sale. Cricket was brought to the shelter very cold, deadly thin, in pain and unable to walk. He was unable to hold much down and was keeping warm on a hot water bottle and towel and was administered as much nutrition and re-hydration fluids as we could get into his little body. We feared that this little guy wouldn't make it without a miracle and feared he had a rather nasty bacterial infection that was sadly caught and treated too late. We would like to thank those that kept Cricket in their prayers at the time of his rescue. Cricket passed on but in the time he was here he was given a name, a warm bed and a lot of love and care and all these things alone I'm sure meant more than anything in the world to his precious little soul. The other two young guinea pigs in the pet shop were reported to the RSPCA as needing urgent medical attention. From what we know the RSPCA inspector did take the guinea pigs from the pet shop. We hope that even though Cricket didn't make it that the other two guinea pigs in this case survived due to quick action taken by us and the RSPCA.

Crickets story is not uncommon. Many pet shop staff do not know a sick guinea pig when they receive one and many guinea pigs die behind the scenes in pet shops that the public do not hear about. This is mostly due to the fact that many pet shop staff are not trained and do not have good knowledge in the area of animal care or in particular small animal care.

(c) Copyright 2006, Australian Cavy Sanctuary. All rights reserved.