Are we just unlucky? (a lot of loss of piggies)

Hope4gem

Hope4gem

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 25, 2020
Messages
1,515
Reaction score
3,542
Points
1,155
Location
USA
My family and I have experienced 4 guinea pigs dying in the past year and a half. Strawberry was surrendered at a pet shop. We took her in, but knew it was risky because we didn't know her age, history, or anything. We just wanted to give her chance. Unfortunately, she died suddenly a few hours later due to unknown causes. We got Booberry as a baby. She developed very loose stools suddenly after we had her for about a week. We didn't know much about caring for guinea pigs then. We didn't understand that it was an emergency. I did my best to syringe feed her through the night and took her to the vet in the morning, but she died an hour after being admitted to the vet hospital. Lilly died a few weeks ago after being sick for several weeks. She saw an exotic vet multiple times during the course of her illnesses and was prescribed medication, etc. We did everything the vets said to do, but unfortunately she died the day before her scheduled surgery. Chippy died suddenly two days ago due to unknown causes. As much as we loved Strawberry and Booberry, we didn't have much of a chance to get close to them so those losses were a bit easier. Losing Chippy and Lilly, especially so close together in time, was devastating. Chippy and Lilly's surviving cagemate, Suzy, seems to be coping with the losses well enough, but we are keeping a close eye on her. She may have some underlying health issues as she had two episodes of fainting in the past week and a half. (I posted a separate thread about that and we are working with an exotic vet to see if we can figure out the cause). I'm trying to prepare myself for the possibility of losing Suzy prematurely as well because whatever is causing the fainting could be something serious. I'm guessing that we have just been terribly unlucky with so many losses in such a short period of time. We want to get Suzy a buddy as soon as we can, but are also fearful of another premature loss. We don't really blame ourselves because we know that we take good care of our piggies and have always done so to the best of our ability, but it's hard not to worry that you've done something wrong with so many losses in such a short period of time. It's hard to imagine taking the leap to get another piggy when it hurts so much to lose them. Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone experienced anything similar before? I've read all of the guides on here about grieving and they have been very helpful. If you've taken the time to read this thank you so much for listening. It helps just to post this.
 
I’m so sorry for your losses. It is really hard when they leave for the bridge. I’m sure you haven’t done anything wrong. Piggies are rather delicate. I lost a young piggy last year. I took him to the vets three times but we couldn’t save him. I didn’t want to get another but I knew Percy needed a buddy. Take care as you grieve. I hope Suzy is ok.
 
I'm really sorry. It is always hard to loose a piggy, but four in such a short span of time, is so much harder.
I hope that Suzy's tests will either show what's wrong or give her a clean bill of health.

Did Strawberry and Booberry have direct contact with your other piggies? This is something you have to be careful about, especially taking in rescues from pet shops. Because you never know if these poor creatures carry any dangerous illnesses.
How do you feel about your vet? Does he know his way with guinea pigs?
Good vets are crucial to the successful treatment of piggies. If you are given bad advice, you can follow it step by step, but it won't help.

Apart from these thoughts, please be kind to yourself. Guinea pigs bring a lot of love and laughter to our lifes, but also a lot of heartache and pain. I'm sure you did everything you can and I really hope that Suzy will spend many more months (or years, don't remember how old she is from your other post) with you and a new partner.
 
I’m so sorry for your losses :( You really did do nothing wrong. Sadly, guinea pigs can die young and sometimes the cause is unknown. I lost two three year olds 10 days of each other and it’s heartbreaking.

Remember that you gave them a loving home and cared for them right up until they crossed the bridge. That’s the best we can do xx
 
It's hard when they leave us. You did nothing wrong. You gave your piggies a lovely home and lots of care even if it was for a short time. Piggies live for today and as the days they had with you were the best they could be and that is what counts. Last year I lost my 2 gorgeous boys within 3 days of each other. (Dennis had been fighting an very nasty URI for 3 months and his body just couldn't fight it any more and Christian had a heart attack and I found he had crossed to the Rainbow Bridge when I went in to see the piggies in the morning.) I found that very hard to cope with and was a mess for ages.
 
Viennese Furbabies said:
I'm really sorry. It is always hard to loose a piggy, but four in such a short span of time, is so much harder.
I hope that Suzy's tests will either show what's wrong or give her a clean bill of health.

Did Strawberry and Booberry have direct contact with your other piggies? This is something you have to be careful about, especially taking in rescues from pet shops. Because you never know if these poor creatures carry any dangerous illnesses.
How do you feel about your vet? Does he know his way with guinea pigs?
Good vets are crucial to the successful treatment of piggies. If you are given bad advice, you can follow it step by step, but it won't help.

Apart from these thoughts, please be kind to yourself. Guinea pigs bring a lot of love and laughter to our lifes, but also a lot of heartache and pain. I'm sure you did everything you can and I really hope that Suzy will spend many more months (or years, don't remember how old she is from your other post) with you and a new partner.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the advice and your kind words.
To answer your first question, Strawberry and Booberry had direct contact with our other piggies, but they died about 9 months ago. Our other two losses were in the past few weeks so I don't think it's related.
To answer your second question, we have limited options when it comes to exotic vets, but I try to find the best providers that I can. Most recently, when Lilly was sick, we traveled about two hours away into another state several times because she needed to receive emergency care. We stayed with that vet for follow-up care since he had started treating those issues for Lilly and he seemed to have more experience than our local vet. I think he did his best, but unfortunately, Lilly still passed away.
Thank you again for the advice. I really appreciate the support.
 
Hope4gem said:
Thank you for the advice and your kind words.
To answer your first question, Strawberry and Booberry had direct contact with our other piggies, but they died about 9 months ago. Our other two losses were in the past few weeks so I don't think it's related.
To answer your second question, we have limited options when it comes to exotic vets, but I try to find the best providers that I can. Most recently, when Lilly was sick, we traveled about two hours away into another state several times because she needed to receive emergency care. We stayed with that vet for follow-up care since he had started treating those issues for Lilly and he seemed to have more experience than our local vet. I think he did his best, but unfortunately, Lilly still passed away.
Thank you again for the advice. I really appreciate the support.
Click to expand...
Oh, I see - no, with so much time passed there isn't a relation between the incidents. That's just pure bad luck. :(
A lot of times even the best vet can't help. I have often wished for a miracle or a magician or one of these cool things the doctors in Star Trek have got to heal nearly everything. But unfortunately none of these things work in real life.
 
Hope4gem said:
My family and I have experienced 4 guinea pigs dying in the past year and a half. Strawberry was surrendered at a pet shop. We took her in, but knew it was risky because we didn't know her age, history, or anything. We just wanted to give her chance. Unfortunately, she died suddenly a few hours later due to unknown causes. We got Booberry as a baby. She developed very loose stools suddenly after we had her for about a week. We didn't know much about caring for guinea pigs then. We didn't understand that it was an emergency. I did my best to syringe feed her through the night and took her to the vet in the morning, but she died an hour after being admitted to the vet hospital. Lilly died a few weeks ago after being sick for several weeks. She saw an exotic vet multiple times during the course of her illnesses and was prescribed medication, etc. We did everything the vets said to do, but unfortunately she died the day before her scheduled surgery. Chippy died suddenly two days ago due to unknown causes. As much as we loved Strawberry and Booberry, we didn't have much of a chance to get close to them so those losses were a bit easier. Losing Chippy and Lilly, especially so close together in time, was devastating. Chippy and Lilly's surviving cagemate, Suzy, seems to be coping with the losses well enough, but we are keeping a close eye on her. She may have some underlying health issues as she had two episodes of fainting in the past week and a half. (I posted a separate thread about that and we are working with an exotic vet to see if we can figure out the cause). I'm trying to prepare myself for the possibility of losing Suzy prematurely as well because whatever is causing the fainting could be something serious. I'm guessing that we have just been terribly unlucky with so many losses in such a short period of time. We want to get Suzy a buddy as soon as we can, but are also fearful of another premature loss. We don't really blame ourselves because we know that we take good care of our piggies and have always done so to the best of our ability, but it's hard not to worry that you've done something wrong with so many losses in such a short period of time. It's hard to imagine taking the leap to get another piggy when it hurts so much to lose them. Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone experienced anything similar before? I've read all of the guides on here about grieving and they have been very helpful. If you've taken the time to read this thank you so much for listening. It helps just to post this.
Click to expand...

I am very sorry. Not your fault; deaths don't happen nicely spaced out. They are like London buses - you wait for ages and then three come along. It can be hard to take because you get what I call 'grieving indigestion' (when you have more deaths happening than you can process at any time) and you do not walk away from it easily. It is normal to feel jittery at this stage and - since that is how humans are wired - to look for whether you have done anything wrong when it is just basically cosmic bad luck.

If it is any consolation, I have lost 4 this summer in just 3 weeks (3 of them in one week alone) and all to different causes. After an amazing gap of 18 months with no losses in 27 piggies I have now lost 7 piggies in just over 3 months. I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed that my next frail elderly will hang on in there until the next year and that the rest are not throwing any spanners in the works as I could do with a bit of a breather.

Try to see your pet keeping as renting them from a higher authority with a contract that can be cancelled at any time. You can never choose when, how quickly and what from your piggies die; you can only ever look after them well while you have them. Since piggies don't have a concept for a set life expectancy, they measure their lives by happy todays. As long as you give them those, you are doing absolutely what they want to get our of life, irrespective of how long or short their life is. Just enjoy them every day you have your piggies; that means that you do not feel cheated when they pass away suddenly or young because it is quality that counts so much more than the quantity of life. ;)

Give yourself time to grieve and to regain your confidence when nothing happens for a while. There is no quick fix. In the long run things will even out overall.

HUGS
 
Wiebke said:
I am very sorry. Not your fault; deaths don't happen nicely spaced. They are like London buses - you wait for ages and then three come along. It can be hard to take because you get what I call 'grieving indigestion' (when you have more deaths happening than you can process at any time) and you do not walk away from it easily. It is normal to feel jittery at this stage and - since that is how humans are wired - to look for whether you have done anything wrong when it is just basically cosmic bad luck.

If it is any consolation, I have lost 4 this summer in just 3 weeks (3 of them in one week alone) and all to different causes. After an amazing gap of 18 months with no losses in 27 piggies I have now lost 7 piggies in just over 3 months. I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed that my next frail elderly will hang on in there until the next year and that the rest are not throwing any spanners in the works as I could do with a bit of a breather.

Try to see your pet keeping as renting them from a higher authority with a contract that can be cancelled at any time. You can never choose when, how quickly and what from your piggies die; you can only ever look after them well while you have them. Since piggies don't have a concept for a set life expectancy, they measure their lifes by happy todays. As long as you give them those, you are doing absolutely what they want to get our of life, irrespective of how long or short their life is. ;)

Give yourself time to grieve and to regain your confidence when nothing happens for a while. There is no quick fix. In the long run things will even out overall.

HUGS
Click to expand...
Thank you so much @Wiebke
I really appreciate your kind words and support.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top