Fern originally came to use in January of 2021. She was surrendered by a family who wanted to provide her with a companion, unfortunately they purchased a guinea pig from a pet store who happened to be a boy. Unknowingly, they bonded Fern with this piggie and she ended up pregnant. When the owner realized what had happened, they reached out for help.

Fern came to us with Wilbur, who (as of 2026) is a long time resident with us. Shortly after she was brought into rescue fern gave birth. Sadly, none of the babies survived but Fern was okay. After clearing quarantine Fern was adopted out as a single piggy to be bonded.

Frequently, we watch local social media pages to help our local communities. Upon doing so, we found Fern who had been surrendered to another rescue several hours away. In this post the rescue was explaining how sick Fern was and that she had not had any success trying to treat her symptoms. Because of our adoption contract, which required the adopting family to return her if she were to be rehomed, we reached out to bring her home. Originally, we were met with apprehension to return her. After discussion with the other rescue, we set out to bring her home in August of 2023.

Once we got her back into our care we immediately began with vet care. We originally fought an URI as soon as she was home, which would come and go frequently. We dug deeper and determined that she had CBS. While unfortunate we knew that this could be monitored and she could live a very healthy life still. As time would go on, we noticed that Fern began to lose a bit of weight. She was then diagnosed with heart failure. Fortunately this was something we were very familiar with and when medicated, she would live a very normal life. As time would go on, we began to notice some bleeding , she ended up with a diagnosis of cysts that would require monthly injections for the remainder of her life. Beyond all odds, Fern would forever stay with us.

Fern would go on to live to a healthy age of almost 7 with CBS, Heart Failure, and Cysts. Fern’s life was a testament that proper veterinary and home care can extend the quality of life for even the most medically challenged guinea pigs.

In rescue we have seen thousands of guinea pigs, but Fern has and will always be one that sticks out. She was the ambassador of our rescue. Beyond being a “rescue”, she was “our rescue”. While we could never prevent ailment from being apart of her life, we are forever thankful that fate would choose us as her support system to navigate this world with her tenacious desire to continue happily living.

We love you Fernie-kins