Entire Litter Dead In 5 Days

[bruceandwillis]

I work at a farm that just happens to include guinea pigs. Recently, we've been having a lot of pregnancies happening due to employees who fail to pair males and females up correctly (something that bothers me, yes, and I am working on finding a solution to). Five days ago I discovered three babies (just a few hours old), one, who I named Curly, was too weak to even get up (on his side, twitching a lot), the second (named Larry) was up and walking, but still falling over from exhaustion, and the third (Moe) was relatively normal. After some coaxing from the mother to get them to nurse, I realized she had rejected them due to their apparent issues (though why she rejected the seemingly normal one, I did not know). I waited eight hours to see if there was any improvement, but the babies were being completely ignored.

That's when I stepped in and decided to help them out at home. I purchased critical care from my vet, and administered feedings every two or so hours to get some sustanence in them. Curly passed first, from what it seemed like sheer exhaustion. Larry passed second from what I thought were seizures, showing signs of a tilted head and small reoccurring body spasms. Moe survived up until 5 days old until a few hours ago when he all of the sudden lost motor skills, went limp, and died within the timespan of four hours. It's Moe's death that confuses the most out of me. He was seemingly so healthy, and as happy go lucky as a pig could be. He loved cuddles and eating veggies. He especially loved my boar Bruce, who taught him how to eat hay and drink from a bottle.

What could have gone wrong? I'm still distraught over the situation and can't help but feel I am somehow at fault. I'm also worrying that it could have been a transmitable illness that took them one by one, and that my own guinea pigs are at risk now. I realize now that I shouldn't have let them interact with my own, but I wasn't thinking about the possibility. I have a very expensive veterinarian, so I might have to raise the money to get all four checked out if something like this is a possibility.

I appreciate the feedback in advance. I hope to learn from this situation so I'll be better equipped to help babies in the future.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

Hi, sadly it is impossible to say what caused the death of these babies, please dont blame yourself. Is the mother well? It is possible that she transmitted something to them before they were born, they may have been born prematurely, they may have had congenital defects or may have picked up something in the environment they were born into. As the mother rejected them and they didnt suckle they will have missed out on the all important first milk, colostrum, which is high in anti bodies and boosts the immune system of newborns, so they would have been at a much increased risk of infection. The mother may have rejected them because there was something wrong with them, or with her, or because she was stressed or a first time mum not knowing what to do.

With regard to helping future babies you will find several useful sticky threads under the pregnancy section of the forum. I also hope you are successful in working with your employer to prevent more pregnancies from happening

 

[VickiA]

I’m so sorry that the babies didn’t make it. It sounds as though Mum rejected them possibly because she knew they had problems that perhaps weren’t apparent. Often that is the case, particularly if there has been some inbreeding. There are many helpful guides in the pregnancy section of the forum.
What is critical is that you correctly sex and separate all boars from sows and ensure that breeding is brought under control. If your co-workers aren’t doing this correctly perhaps you could double check the sex of all the piggies. We have a helpful sexing guide.