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Oreo Bleeding Then Death (sorry Not A Nice Title)

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Critter

Critter

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Sweet little Oreo, my black and white Teddy girl passed away unexpectedly just over a week ago and I've not wanted to talk about, but now I shall.

A couple of weeks ago we found blood in her's and Freddie's cage, and as there was no sign of illness from either of them, or blood anywhere actually on them we took them both down to the vet. The vet gave them both a thorough examination, tested both of their urine and everything appeared to be in the clear. Freddie protested, as is in his nature, but neither of them showed signs of pain, Oreo didn't even flinch.

Both had been eating and pooping well and completely normally, active, enthusiastic, interacting well with each other and with me. No signs of illness, just the mystery blood. We thought the most likely cause was that one had passed a stone and bled, but that could well be the end of the matter, and of course I should monitor the situation closely for any changes or any more blood.

Three days later, and no more blood, I fed them both in the morning as usual and they were still their happy active enthusiastic selves. Oreo as usual was the first up to the bars for food. When I got home from work Oreo was literally dying, shutting down, cool to the touch but still alert, but struggling for breath. After picking her up she had a fit in my arms, went floppy and died soon after.

Shocking, there really had been no signs after the initial finding of blood, and no signs of stress, pain or illness throughout (except of course that one of them had bled, which now I can only assume was Oreo). So of course this left unanswered questions that will remain unanswered. Could she have passed a stone which made a bleed then get an infection which turned to sepsis? Who knows.

I am not really looking for answers as no-one will be able to tell me. I do wonder if anyone else has experienced a similar thing, but again it doesn't necessarily mean that Oreo had the same if so. I do wonder if there was more that could have been done to examine her, but really perhaps there wasn't.

It is even possible that a stone had been passed and that was indeed the end of the issue and that she died of something unrelated, like heart failure.

Any thoughts are very welcome, but as mentioned I know no-one can tell me for certain, just theorise xx
 
Really sorry you lost your Oreo. Its a sad time for you
I lost my Badger last year he was a strong healthy friendly guinea pig. I found blood in the run and took him to vets for treatment. There were no further signs of blood but he lost weight. I took him back to vets who kept him in for IV fluids. The vet took an xray and found inoperable stones between kidney and bladder. Becaue of this I agreed to euthanise Badger.
The vet said the initial blood could have by Badger passing a smaller stone.
RIP Oreo - no more pain.
 
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Thank you everyone. Thank you Val, I remember your Badger :hug:. I do wonder if Oreo's was stone-related. Perhaps in hind-sight we should have x-rayed her too. Hugs to you too Val x
 
BIG HUGS

I am very sorry; only a post mortem from the vets can bring you answers. In sows, there is always the reproductive tract to consider as well when to comes to mystery bleeding. The kidneys could be another area where the bleeding has come from.
However, it is likely that whatever caused the death would have been likely impossible/very difficult or dicey to correct seeing how soon after Oreo passed away. Please do not feel guilty - you have done all that is expected from a good and caring owner!

It is very harrowing to find a piggy in acute organ failure without warning. I have lost one of my piggies with a couple of minor mystery weight loss episodes to multi-organ failure just after I'd had her thoroughly checked by a good vet; he'd found the beginnings of kidney failure, but that cannot have been the cause because it was not advanced enough. Her body simply shut down, just like that, and there was nothing that could have stopped it. :(
 
Aw @Wiebke that's really sad. It's an alarming situation and you feel so helpless. Thank you very much for reply. As you say, perhaps nothing could have been done for Oreo, as with yours. Perhaps with yours the kidney failure was resulting from some problem with another organ. x
 
I am so very sorry for your loss :(

My Ellen was passing droplets of blood a few months ago. I requested X-rays and scans which all came back normal.

She was prescribed a course of antibiotics which cleared the pure bleeding but she has had traces of blood in her urine ever since.

Another piggy of mine was perfectly healthy one day, but by the next, she stopped eating and I realised she had lost a lot of weight and was suddenly drinking more than her friends.

Sadly, it was confirmed that she was in the later stages of kidney failure so we made the sad decision to help her over the bridge :(

My point is that there really is no way for you to be able to predict Oreos passing BUT please do not feel bad.

It was just none of them things which sadly occurs with the majority of small animals when they pass :;
 
Critter said:
Aw @Wiebke that's really sad. It's an alarming situation and you feel so helpless. Thank you very much for reply. As you say, perhaps nothing could have been done for Oreo, as with yours. x
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I think it is your helplessness in these kind of situations that is the worst to cope with. Guinea pigs are small, but complex and dreadfully underresearched animals. While vet care is making great advances, it is still not possible to catch everything unless you want to subject your piggies to a stressful barrage of expensive tests and scans every time; and have the money to do that. Piggies are also very small animals; they can go downhill very quickly, much quicker than any medications or operations can keep pace with.

It is also important to remember that it is always so much easier in retrospective to find things that should have been done or decisions that were the wrong ones. In fact, we are at all times treading a maze in the fog; there are no road signs or maps. You can see the road you have travelled, but you can never see the road ahead. Beating yourself up over what you cannot change, and will never be able to, is not helpful. :(

It is our dearest wish to protect our beloved ones from any suffering, but unfortunately there are limits to what we can do. Concentrate on giving your piggies as happy a life as you can, so - while you will always be left with what ifs to some degree and the wish that they lived longer - you are at least not left with with any regrets that you and they have not made the best of the time they have been given with you.
You can never control when and how a piggy of yours dies (the same as with a beloved human relative or friend), but you can control what you do while they are in your life. You are a very loving owner and are doing that. Try to take consolation from having given Oreo a very happy and enriched piggy life! ;)

Take your time to grieve. What you are experiencing now is very normal for the onset of the grieving process. It is always stronger if a death is unexpected, as you have the shock and the inevitable questions to cope with on top of the pain of the loss. It is wired into our souls to seek any fault first with ourselves when we try to make sense of what has happened. But don't let these feelings spoil your love for Oreo in the long term. You did care for her, sought medical help and you were with her in the end and made her passing as easy on her as possible. She couldn't have had a better home.
 
*Hugs* I have no advice. We lost Sasspy the other week in a distressing manner. Wiebke's words really helped me as I am sure they will you.Be kind to yourself Oreo was so loved x
 
sport_billy said:
*Hugs* I have no advice. We lost Sasspy the other week in a distressing manner. Wiebke's words really helped me as I am sure they will you.Be kind to yourself Oreo was so loved x
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Thanks Sport, I am sorry to hear this. I hope you and your family are ok x
 
I was so sorry to read about Oreo - must have been a real shock. As others have said and you already knew, no one can say what happened but sudden deaths do leave us with all these questions. Certainly like Val, I have had some horrible experiences with stone related illness including kidney failure which did involve passing blood. But we can't say. I did have a post mortem done on one of mine after an unexpected death and even then, we didn't get a definitive answer which was frustrating, expensive and heartbreaking so sometimes we do have to step back and try to accept that it is unknown - hard though that is!

What you should try to take comfort in was that apart from that blood, she was acting normally right up to the end! And I am sure she knew how well she was loved.
 
I've just spotted this @Critter and I'm so sorry that you lost your lovely Oreo. Please don't torment yourself with what ifs and if onlys. You have nothing at all to reproach yourself for. You are a devoted and hugely attentive owner and did everything right. Sometimes we don't get the answers we feel we need to cope with the outcome, but that doesn't mean that we failed our piggies in any way. Huge hugs xx
 
I'm so sorry. Unfortunately, there's probably no way to know exactly what happened without a postmortem exam. It's possible that she had some sort of uterine mass or infection (I had a hedgehog die of uterine cancer who passed significant amounts of blood before she passed and I know bleeding can occur for guinea pigs with pyometria, ovarian masses, etc. as well.) One of my guinea pigs had nose bleeds in the months leading up to her death... the cause was never specifically diagnosed, but given her general symptoms I now wonder if she may have had lymphoma. She took a turn and died very quickly, fine one day, a little subdued but still eating and drinking in the morning, and gone by nighttime. It's always hard not to know exactly what the cause was, but unfortunately sometimes there just isn't closure. At least it sounded as though she was comfortable and living a normal, happy life right up until her last day, and that's a blessing. ((HUGS.))
 
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