Hi everyone,
Sorry if this is a long post but we lost our guinea pig on Monday night and are struggling to come to terms with it, with a lot of unanswered questions. He was elderly (nearly 7) with a number of health complaints - enlarged heart, liver problems, arthritis, cateracts - for which he was in receipt of several medicines - frusol, karidox, vetmedin, cardalis, metacam, liver aid and gabapentin. He had been very slow and losing weight for a while and so had been syringe fed and under close vetinary care.
On Monday morning I noticed he seemed a bit unsteady with a head tilt, was hard to syringe meds and he’d barely touched his food. I phoned the vet but there were no appointments until Weds. When I got home Monday night, he was the worst I had ever seen him. Lethargic, lifeless and did not seem able to hold his head up or coordinate his limbs. We decided to take him to the out of hours clinic. He deteriorated in the car and when we arrived we were told his heart rate was extremely slow, he wasn’t responding to oxygen and essentially there was nothing more that could be done so we agreed to put him to sleep.
He was a much loved family pet and we are devastated frankly. My husband is additionally inconsolable because two or three days before this happened he is worried he may have given our pig 0.2 mls of gabapentin instead of 0.09 mls because he got mixed up with metacam.
- Would this accidental overdose two or three days prior have caused this response or was it more likely a heart attack or a stroke?
- Was there anything else we could have done to save our pig? Should we have waited to see our normal experienced vet?
It all happened so quickly and we were too distressed to ask questions. We feel so guilty for not doing more and possibly being in some way to blame. Any info or guidance from those of you with vetinary background and/or experience of pigs with the same conditions would be much appreciated
Thanks
Sorry if this is a long post but we lost our guinea pig on Monday night and are struggling to come to terms with it, with a lot of unanswered questions. He was elderly (nearly 7) with a number of health complaints - enlarged heart, liver problems, arthritis, cateracts - for which he was in receipt of several medicines - frusol, karidox, vetmedin, cardalis, metacam, liver aid and gabapentin. He had been very slow and losing weight for a while and so had been syringe fed and under close vetinary care.
On Monday morning I noticed he seemed a bit unsteady with a head tilt, was hard to syringe meds and he’d barely touched his food. I phoned the vet but there were no appointments until Weds. When I got home Monday night, he was the worst I had ever seen him. Lethargic, lifeless and did not seem able to hold his head up or coordinate his limbs. We decided to take him to the out of hours clinic. He deteriorated in the car and when we arrived we were told his heart rate was extremely slow, he wasn’t responding to oxygen and essentially there was nothing more that could be done so we agreed to put him to sleep.
He was a much loved family pet and we are devastated frankly. My husband is additionally inconsolable because two or three days before this happened he is worried he may have given our pig 0.2 mls of gabapentin instead of 0.09 mls because he got mixed up with metacam.
- Would this accidental overdose two or three days prior have caused this response or was it more likely a heart attack or a stroke?
- Was there anything else we could have done to save our pig? Should we have waited to see our normal experienced vet?
It all happened so quickly and we were too distressed to ask questions. We feel so guilty for not doing more and possibly being in some way to blame. Any info or guidance from those of you with vetinary background and/or experience of pigs with the same conditions would be much appreciated
Thanks
