Curing Your Sick Neopet

Neopia is a happy place, where on summer days like these pets and owners frolic in lush meadows or bask in the sunlight on Mystery Island. One cloud on such a glorious day would be when your pet falls ill.

Sometimes, another daily trip to the Qasalan Expellibox gives your neopet Reptillioritus and you cannot afford the cure. Or if you have accidentally fed your neopet Poisonous Jelly, mistaking it for Whole Purplum Jelly (do not try at home, kids!), your pet will feel very bad and you are faced with a medical bill that you cannot pay! As few pet owners can afford Medicinal Soap, a Spyder Juice Elixir or Sporkle Syrup, here are some pointers for those less fortunate owners and their sick pets.

Diagnose

When you notice your pet is ill (usually by the green notice on their quick reference page), you can visit the nice and knowledgeable Doctor Gelert at the Neopian Hospital, found in the Neopian Plaza district. He will tell you what illness your pet has contracted exactly, and refer you to the Neopian Pharmacy in the Main Shops district.

Buying a cure

The Pharmacy sells various cures, most of which under 1500 NP. This is fairly affordable in its own right, but the Pharmacy sells out fast on cures for, say, Ugga-Ugga. The Sporkle Syrup that Doctor Gelert suggests you should buy is often only available at the Trading Post, and for a handsome price of 300k (yes, that is 300.000 NP!!).

So, not every cure from Doctor Gelert’s list is available at the Pharmacy. Should you be unable to find what you need at the Pharmacy or even the Shop Wizard, there are two other original shops that stock cures. One is the Emergency Supplies shop in Sakhmet City, Lost Desert. The other one is the Remarkable Restoratives shop in Shenkuu. The cures in these two exotic shops are not as reliable as those from the Pharmacy, but they can be more affordable.

Examples of affordable store-bought cures:

Neezles Jab: 200 - 400 NP Cures Neezles

Neopox Pizza: 1100 - 1400 NP Cures Neopox

Itchy Scratchy Cream: 800 – 1000 NP Cures Itchy Scratchies

Warm Green Blanket: 1200 – 1400 NP May cure Neomonia

Shrimp Powder: 1000 – 1200 NP May cure Ugga-Ugga

Common alternative

The most well-known alternative for curing any random illness is a half-hourly visit to the Healing Springs in Faerieland. The nice Water Faerie will do her finest to help your pets. However, she does not always cure diseases, but may as well give you a snowball with the advice to use it wisely. Luckily, you can keep trying to cure your pet at the Springs every half hour, so chances are that your pet will be cured soon.

Special healing

Did you know that Pteris, the cute little early birds, may heal themselves when they eat anything with the word ‘worm’ in it? If you own a sick Pteri, here’s your chance to feed them a Worm Burger!

Also, the Wheel of Knowledge is rumoured to be able to cure your pet when you land on the ‘Water Faerie’ space.

Radical alternatives

There are cases when the Healing Springs has not cured the disease for several days (as it is a random beneficial blessing you receive), and the shops mentioned earlier simply do not have the cure you need. In that case, there is an alternative solution: have your pet contract a different disease. Pets can only have one disease at a time (thank Fyora they do!) and if they contract a new disease it will replace the old one. Now, this is going to sound radical indeed but it may, in some cases, be better to try to give your pet a new disease you can cure within minutes, rather than having them stay ill for weeks on end. There are two ways you can have your pet contract a different disease: wheels and food items.

Wheels

The Wheel of Misfortune, located at the Deserted Fairground in the Haunted Woods has one aptly named panel ‘Pox’. If you are (un)lucky enough, this will result in a disease which has a more affordable cure. The Wheel of Excitement also has one such space, the one with the skull on it. The disease from this wheel is random, however, and it may thus cost more to cure. That is a risk you have to consider first.

Food

Apart from the wheels, you can use the rather unnatural solution of feeding your pet a food item to which they are allergic. For example: if your Kyrii is ill, you can buy an apple for them, feed them the apple and their previous illness will be replaced with the Itchy Scratchies, because they are allergic to apples. Itchy Scratchy Cream is easy to come by and within a 1000 NP price range, too.

This same way, Tonu are allergic to Neggs, Skeiths are allergic to cheese foods, and Quiggles are allergic to cream.

If your pet has no allergies and it is still urgent, there is another ‘bad food’ item you can try. Jhudora’s favourite piece of candy is the Poisonous Lollypop, which gives neopets Floppy Tongue disease. The cure, Tongue Shrinker, costs around 4000 NP and is found via the Shop Wizard. Granted, it is more expensive than visiting the Healing Springs or buying a Neezles Jab, but it is guaranteed to cure your pet of Floppy Tongue.

If the more pleasant options failed, feeding your pet ‘bad food’ is an affordable alternative which will help cure your pet quicker, making it a healthier and happier pet in the end.

Conclusion

Remember, good owners of Neopia, to give your pet a nice big hug afterwards, because nobody likes being ill. D:

As a reminder to owners of sick pets, here’s a checklist! You can:

• Visit Doctor Gelert.
• Try to obtain the cure from the Pharmacy or Emergency Supplies store.
• Visit the Healing Springs every half hour.
• Consider spinning a wheel or two.
• Consider feeding your pet a food item which will cure (Pteris) or replace the disease.

Hopefully, this guide is of use to all you caring and worried owners who have the heart to take good care of their pets, but just not the means. A toast to every Neopian citizen’s health!