• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

My two guinea pigs have just died help

cause of sudden death for several cage sharing guinea pigs?

  • URI

    Votes: 1 16.7%

  • poisoning

    Votes: 4 66.7%

  • other

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • Total voters
    6
Status
Not open for further replies.
O

ojhs32

Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
England
About an hour ago my second guinea pig Crystal (6months old) died. i rung the vet who thought she was limp and upset after seeing her sister die just hours before so i didn't take her in. All of a sudden Coco (6month old sister) went limp, began weezing and every now and again would spazm and died within an hour and then 2 hours later crystal died from the same symptoms. I didnt realise she was ill as i was distracted mourning coco and didnt react soon enough and take her to the vets too. But I dont understand at all what had happened. Early in the day they had been fine. i had played with them several times and last night they were perfectly happy. 8...8...8...8...
please explain to me what happened ... what was wrong with them and why did they both suddenly died?
Is it my fault? i am so upset i cant go to sleep or do anything til i know what happened please help:(:(:(:( i am new to the forum and just died this second in desperate need to know...
 
just to add

sorry i meant just joined not died.
not fully with it
also want to add

Coco seemed to lack energy and was almost like a rag doll and nothing could seem to interest her or perk her up. she seemed to be violently hicupping and irreguarly spasming on top of this. After she died i didnt then realise cyrstal was also as severely ill. i cant belive they both died so suddenly .

aniways help guys please .....
 
FIrstly let me welcome you to the forum and offer my condolences XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OMG..... maybe you should take your little one to the vets and ask them to do a post mortem ..... that will be about the only way to find out what happened.
It does sound like they may have had an infection, possibly URI ?
Whee have a rainbow bridge section, if you feel up to it you could post a thread on them both with pigtures...you will get a lot of support from everyone.
Guinea pigs are very good at hiding their illnesses, often the first signs whee see (them in pain, or sneezing etc..) is well into their illness.

RIP Coco and Crystal run free at the bridge little ones, now reunited forever 8...8...8...8...


Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
 
ojhs32 said:
sorry i meant just joined not died.
not fully with it
also want to add

Coco seemed to lack energy and was almost like a rag doll and nothing could seem to interest her or perk her up. she seemed to be violently hicupping and irreguarly spasming on top of this. After she died i didnt then realise cyrstal was also as severely ill. i cant belive they both died so suddenly .

aniways help guys please .....
Click to expand...

it's ok love i understood what you meant HUGS XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Glynis said:
FIrstly let me welcome you to the forum and offer my condolences XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OMG..... maybe you should take your little one to the vets and ask them to do a post mortem ..... that will be about the only way to find out what happened.
It does sound like they may have had an infection, possibly URI ?
Whee have a rainbow bridge section, if you feel up to it you could post a thread on them both with pigtures...you will get a lot of support from everyone.
Guinea pigs are very good at hiding their illnesses, often the first signs whee see (them in pain, or sneezing etc..) is well into their illness.

RIP Coco and Crystal run free at the bridge little ones, now reunited forever 8...8...8...8...


Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
Click to expand...
Thankyou very much . i poseted something for them in ther memory
i thought URI but they were 6months old, wouldnt it have had an effect sooner ? I thought it was usually a fast killer for pet shop bought piggys. Surely it wouldn't take months? i did get them some new food and hay the day before so could it have been that ? xx
 
Glynis said:
URI can hit at anytime..... or age.......

what food did you get them? and was it pre packed hay (as in oxbow?) or meadow hay?
Click to expand...
oh right i thought it tended to occur recently after purchase from a pet shop :S
i got them wagg which i heard was highly recomended yet it was the firt time giving them it and the hay was supermarket bought 'my little friend' medow hay. could it be a coincidence ? its just weird they got ill after getting a new food :( could i have done anything to treat the uri quickly enough to save them ?
thankyou for replying and helping i really appreciate it
 
really sorry i got caught up here at work......

Wagg is one of the foods i've heard people giving their piggies, and meadow hay should be ok. Did it smell musty or was it damp?
I know some of our more experienced people will offer advice when they wake up.
It does seem that piggies from petshops can come home and often be ill, that is why it's always advised to quarantine them for 2 weeks.
I'm sorry your little girlies hid their illness from you..... :0
 
no worries :)

i just dont understand how they managed to for so many months its crazy :( i didnt know they could for so long. i just hope they weren't in a lot of pain.

thankyou for your help.
dont know if i dare get anymore piggies now and I'm gunna miss them so much {:|?/
 
If you give us an idea where abouts you are, whee can advise on a reputable rescue, all piggies are health checked and held in quarantine for a period to make sure of health and pregnancy watch too!

They may have only been sick for a day or two......URI's if that's what it was can come on so quickly :(

HUGS XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
So sorry to hear about your girls. Unfortunatly guinea pigs are so good at hiding illness that sometimes we cant even tell they are unwell. Please do not blame yourself for either of there deaths. There could have been any number of things wrong with them, including congenital issues if they were inbred petshop bought piggies, maybe a fast acting URI, or even a bacterial infection that just simply hit them hard. Unfortunatly you will never know for sure. If you want anymore advice, please feel free to ask. Theres some super nice people on here always happy to help with your worries.

x.
 
I'm really sorry! That sounds awfully traumatic to go through- poor little piggies! Unfortunately I really don't know what could have caused it... were they exposed to anything odd leading up to their deaths? Were they outside? I've really got no clue, I'm just grasping at straws because my cousin had two guinea pigs pass away very quickly and one after the other. In her case, as near as she could figure, they were accidentally exposed to a pesticide when put outdoors. She wasn't using the pesticide herself, but a neighbour was using weed killer attached to her hose and a few days after they died my cousin saw her spraying her lawn and she could see that some of the spray was drifting though the fence and getting on her lawn as well. Sadly it must have been enough that the pigs were exposed to a toxin and died.

If you want an answer, maybe you could consult the vet before you bury them- even if you don't want to do a full autopsy the vet might be willing to swab their noses/upper airways and see if they can still culture any bacteria. That way if it was something bacterial they may be able to give you an answer.

((HUGS))- I'm very sorry for your loss!
 
I am so very sorry for your losses but please don't blame yourself.

Just a thought but were your piggies outdoor or indoor pigs? Did they have any free range time outside where it could be possible they ate something they shouldn't have done?
 
So sorry for your loss. As everyone else has already said it could have been a lot of things and piggies are very good at hiding their illnesses. You must be heartbroken. (((((hugs)))))
 
I am sorry for your loss :(

It could be any number of things, the symptoms you described sound more neurological though. Had you cleaned their hutch/cage just before? If so what did you use? If they had been out on the grass it could have been something on the grass, like other animals, lawn treatments etc. Piggies are very sensitive to certain things. I hope you find out what it was, sadly sometimes these things just happen without explanation, there were quite a few sudden deaths nationwide earlier in the year with no cause ever found. I am sorry.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss, it must be very distressing for you.

A strong contender for wiping out pigs quickly in a pen environment is a mouse problem, their urine and droppings can contaminate feed/hay - the bacterial load can cause the symptoms you describe.

Suzy x
 
I'm so sorry for your loss sweetheart, as others have said please don't blame yourself. I hope you have someone to support you at home, but remember everyone on this forum is here for you xxxxxxx
 
it was so sudden just wish i had known :(
thankyou
I'm in the *.k in the keighley area if anyone knows a good rescue ?
 
Freela said:
I'm really sorry! That sounds awfully traumatic to go through- poor little piggies! Unfortunately I really don't know what could have caused it... were they exposed to anything odd leading up to their deaths? Were they outside? I've really got no clue, I'm just grasping at straws because my cousin had two guinea pigs pass away very quickly and one after the other. In her case, as near as she could figure, they were accidentally exposed to a pesticide when put outdoors. She wasn't using the pesticide herself, but a neighbour was using weed killer attached to her hose and a few days after they died my cousin saw her spraying her lawn and she could see that some of the spray was drifting though the fence and getting on her lawn as well. Sadly it must have been enough that the pigs were exposed to a toxin and died.

If you want an answer, maybe you could consult the vet before you bury them- even if you don't want to do a full autopsy the vet might be willing to swab their noses/upper airways and see if they can still culture any bacteria. That way if it was something bacterial they may be able to give you an answer.

((HUGS))- I'm very sorry for your loss!
Click to expand...
Thankyou :) they wern't really exposed to anything new and were indoor piggies so couldnt have been effected by pestisides. although they were taken outside 2 weeks ago for the first time... how long would it take ?
thanks for all the condolances it is really appreciated xx
 
i hadnt cleaned them out for a few days but i never used any harmful chemicals when i did. They have only been outside twice and i never saw them eat anything either. i doubt iwill find out what happened :( thankyou for your help x
 
I am very sorry! It comes as such a shock and it is often so difficult to figure out the reason.

I can also recommend Milhaven very warmly.
 
So sorry for your loss.

I had two non-cage sharing piggies die within 24 hours of each other (On Christmas Eve and Xmas day of all times) First went off his food and downhill within 24 hours, followed the next day by the second one (who had seemed healthy)

No real evidence of wheezing or the other symptoms you would expect with a URI, but nothing that could have caused poisoning either. We could only put it down to a particularly virulent infection or virus. Somethimes things like that happen to animals (and Humans) and there is not a lot you can do about it.
 
That is really sad sorry for your loss too. i couldn't imagine two worse days !

It happened so fast i wouldnt have got them to the vets quick enough.

thankyou
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top