We bought a baby guinea pig from Petco two weeks ago… He was the cutest thing. Anya named him Teddy – after her sister’s guinea pig… He was brown, white and black coloring and had a tiny little bald spot on the top of his head. He was a quiet little thing, but loved cuddling and burrowing himself into Anya and Tomi’s long hair. He liked being kissed on the forehead. He enjoyed eating the tips off timothy hay, munching on carrots and celery and playing with the little bell hanging in his cage.

The night before last we said goodnight to him and he seemed perfectly OK. He seemed happy and energetic. We woke up the next morning and he seemed lethargic and listless. Tomi did a search on the internet and found out that once a guinea pig starts showing signs of being sick it’s almost too late to heal them, because they’re predatory animals and they tend to hide the fact that they’re ill in order to fool would-be predators.

We called our vet immediately and got in to see her a few hours later. She gave him an antibiotic that was guinea pig friendly and some fluids and sent us home with the same to administer over the next week. She also gave us directions on helping him to eat by blending up veggies and forcing him to eat it.

We tried the feeding when we got home, but the little guy didn’t seem to be getting any better. We thought he’d at least respond to the fluids, but he didn’t…. He still barely had enough energy to move around in his cage. A few hours later we tried feeding him again and he passed away in my hands. It was one of the saddest thing’s I’ve ever witnessed… I buried him under a tree in the yard where I think he’ll be peaceful.

What’s even worse is that we’ve done a more research and we’ve found out this is a pretty common thing that happens with guinea pigs bought from Petco and other pet stores…. You bring home what seems to be a perfectly healthy baby animal, introduce it to the family, the family bonds with it, then two weeks later it dies. I thought it was odd when the Petco employee mentioned to me on the way out about their “15 day guarantee”. Now I know why.

I’m sorry for the hurt this has put you through, Anya and Tomi. I should have read more before making such a decision to bring a new pet into our home. It was irresponsible and impulsive of me. I hope you both see that even though we’ve lost our little friend, we were at least able to have him with us for two short weeks and give him a comfortable and loving home for his short life.