Possible bloat in guinea pig with limited mobility.

[Mirandalynn22]

As my posts before have stated, I have a disabled 8 year old girl. No mobility but has been happy and healthy with the help of her medications. She's been eating great and doing well. I had a long day planned today so I gave her medication early this afternoon in a hurry, didnt notice anything too off aside from a little extra effort needed to take her medicine today, and made sure she was set up with everything she needed. I scheduled a friend to pop in and check on her a few times while I was gone. My friend did not realize the signs that she was starting to seem unwell. Upon getting home late this evening she is extremely fatigued, cant hold her head up or really keep her eyes open, hasnt ate, not one poop all day!
I immediately gave her some critical care with no interest from her and got 2 poops but nothing else after. Her belly seems to be a bit distended and firm, so I did some very gentle tummy massages and set her up on a pillow with a massage gun underneath for some mild vibration because I'm assuming this may be bloat. No teeth grinding, no squeaks as if to be in pain. Just laying, head down, eyes squinted or closed. We have no vets open until morning. I'm seeing baby simethicone used at times for these situations but no stores are open until morning either. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I can do for her? Ive been spending so much money at the vet for any and every little thing to keep her as happy and comfortable as possible (happily), spending all my time caring for her to give her the best quality of life while I still have her here. I'm just feeling so defeated and so guilty that this has happened, I wasnt prepared, and she is unwell
Any advice or reassurance that with what I'm doing should get her by until morning would be so appreciated.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m so sorry to hear this.

You sound like you are doing a great job for her.
All you can do now is try to get critical care into her and keep her warm and comfortable until you can get to the vet as soon as possible.

Simethicone isn’t recommended for piggies and usually makes pain from gas worse. Simethicone gathers gas into one big bubble which is fine for humans but the piggy gut is long and thin and one big bubble isn’t comfortable for them.

I hope she is ok. Sending hugs

Wiebke's Guide to Tummy Trouble

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

I am very sorry about your worries.

I second what @Piggies&buns has said. Keep on vibrating and massaging.

Lack of mobility can impact on the digestive process directly by also affecting the muscle movement of the lower intestine or it can do so indirectly as a secondary complication. Walking stimulates gut movement; that is the reason why many long term bed bound people have digestive problems - exactly the same goes for piggies.

It can however also be that something else is impacting on the gut and that the problem is not necessarily digestive but down to something pushing on the gut (internal mass or build up of fluid in the body cavity etc) or that a source of strong pain could be radiating into the gut.

You are already doing all you can do at this stage.

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed.

 

[Mirandalynn22]

I stayed up with her doing everything I could think of to keep her comfortable until I physically couldnt keep my eyes open. Massages, vibration, critical care which seemed to immediately make her more uncomfortable. I laid down with an alarm set for 3 hours later to call vet the minute they opened. Unfortunately, when I woke up she had already passed on. I'm going through all the emotions of sadness, guilt, feeling like I should have been better prepared but she was doing so well until she just wasnt anymore and it always happens so quickly. I know it takes time to process and get through but I want to thank you all so much for all your help and advice through this process of caring for her. I was able to keep my baby with me a month and a half longer than expected for extra cuddles, snacks, and love. My heart hurts so bad but I wouldnt trade our 8 years together.

 

[Wiebke]

I stayed up with her doing everything I could think of to keep her comfortable until I physically couldnt keep my eyes open. Massages, vibration, critical care which seemed to immediately make her more uncomfortable. I laid down with an alarm set for 3 hours later to call vet the minute they opened. Unfortunately, when I woke up she had already passed on. I'm going through all the emotions of sadness, guilt, feeling like I should have been better prepared but she was doing so well until she just wasnt anymore and it always happens so quickly. I know it takes time to process and get through but I want to thank you all so much for all your help and advice through this process of caring for her. I was able to keep my baby with me a month and a half longer than expected for extra cuddles, snacks, and love. My heart hurts so bad but I wouldnt trade our 8 years together.

BIG HUGS

I am so very sorry. Once the body has started to close down, then there is nothing you can do. In the frail and elderly, bloat can blow up out of nowhere and kill within hours or the bloating can happen as a side effect of an organ giving way. Either way, even had you stayed alive, it would not have changed the outcome.

Please try to take comfort in that as natural deaths happen, hers was comparatively quick and she didn't suffer for long. When the chips are down, would we rather not cope with the greater upset of a sudden death than prolonging the already journey to the Rainbow Bridge?

Be sad, but please be kind with yourself. You have done all the right things and everything you could do under the circumstances - and in even in optimal conditions you would have sadly not been able to save your precious girl.

Give yourself time to get over the massive shock, the traumatising circumstances and the loss. That is a lot on your plate. You can only process so much at once. It is perfectly OK to not be OK but please seek support if it gets out of hand and you get trapped in one of those pernicious guilt mind loops, if you cannot sleep or functions for more than just a few days or if your experience is triggering old traumas. But make sure that you get that rest that you have missed out on overnight.

We have an End of Life and Bereavement section where we offer understanding community support for as long as needed if you think it would help you.

Human Bereavement: Grieving, Processing and Support Links for Guinea Pig Owners and Their Children

Looking After a Bereaved Guinea Pig

 

[Wheekallweek]

I'm so sorry, she had a wonderful life with you, and passed peacefully at home with you by her side. She was a very good age!
RIP piggy

 

[weepweeps]

I’m so sorry. You gave her a wonderful life filled with love. Popcorn high over the bridge

 

[Mirandalynn22]

Thank you all so much for your kindness. I'm doing okay. I'm trying to be kind to myself and acknowledge that everything I've chosen for her was out of pure love. It was just horrible to see her in so much pain and feeling so helpless. This is the 4th piggy I have lost within the last 10 years, 2 having lived long lives and 2 cut short at 4 years with complications despite best efforts and lots of veterinary care and it never does get easier. I had decided quite some time ago before Zoey had lost her mobility that I think this will be my last. I knew she was getting older and it would hit me so hard to lose her. I hope one day my heart will heal and I may change my mind and find the joy far greater than the pain it brings but for now, I'm going to cherish the memories of my girls.
This forum made it possible for me to give her the very best care possible and taught me so much. Thanks to all of you who dedicate your time and experience to help little ones like mine. I'm forever grateful.

I figured as a thank you, I would share a photo of the sassy girl here when she was about 3 with her adopted sister Luna who passed in 2021 and the photo the vet took of her when we visited recently as they had absolutely fallen in love with her

 

[weepweeps]

What a little beauty

Cherish your memories. You are an amazing piggy slave. Maybe one day more piggies will enter your life

 

[CTWC]

I am so sorry for your loss, your post is beautiful just like your precious girl
Now reunited with her sister over The Rainbow Bridge popcorning happily in fields of all of her favourite treats

 

[Wiebke]

BIG HUGS

8 years is a true testament to your good care. I am very sorry that the end did come with hours of pain and no possibility to see a vet asap. Being helpless in the face of suffering is one of the most horrible situations we can find ourselves. And having been there myself more than once, I fully understand what it means and what it does to you. While losing 4 piggies in 10 years of pet keeping may seem tough to you, it is actually a very respectable score for the owner of a species that is - when the chips are down and you look past their much bigger personalities - just a small animal with a much faster metabolism. Try to hold onto that. You have not failed; you just can win against nature and its randomness.

Try to balance this against your beautiful lady having outlived the vast majority of pet piggies - you can be proud in having those piggies that have not had major medical problems living for so long.
Even if such a great age also means very close bond and lots of conscious and unconscious ties, which you will find the hard way in the coming weeks as you cannot usually brace against them. We have the freedom to love our much shorter lived pets unreservedly, so their loss always takes us hard. However, your pain won't be any less with longer lived pets because those ties come with even more connections and even more shared lifetime of yours - but without them, our lives would be so much poorer.

I know that right now, you are too traumatised by the way you lost your last piggy but you have this wonderful strong gift to love and to care deeply. You may right now feel more like a well that has drained up and that dreads the coming rain season but you are in fact a river of love.
Like running water, you can never go back but you carry the water from your source and all the little and larger tributaries with you all your live and you will never lose those precious memories. But while this gift of loving and of caring may hit shallows or the odd rapids, it needs to keep on flowing.
You do not have to come back to keeping piggies if that is too painful for you, and certainly not while it is still so very painful; but I would encourage you to find another direction for you to keep your love flowing and to keep on giving it others - animals or humans - in some form. For your own inner wellbeing but also because this world needs people like you who care deeply more than ever. Love will come back to you and nourish your own soul.

Please give yourself time to grieve. With the end of an era, all the other losses will come up again; that is normal because you have lost your last direct connection. But try to also balance your pain with the little and large joys they have all brought you during that time. When the time is right, a door will open. Have the courage to go through it.

Loving comes with pain and loss - but light can only shine strongly against a dark background; the two are the different sides of the same coin. And to live without love means to live in a dark, airless room...
Learning to bear the pain and to cope with a loss is where we humans grow our deep roots and from where the shoots that make us more emotionally mature, empathetic and ultimately stronger people come up from.

And lastly, those you love will always have a place in your heart where you can visit them. Your physical connection may be broken but your happy memories are always there for you to revisit for comfort in times of need - all your life long.
Living with a serious health condition myself, I find that having those precious piggy memories available, which go all the way back to my childhood, is one of the biggest blessings in my life. Yes, losing them was very painful each time (especially when they have happened in quick succession) since each of them was and is unique, but our shared bonds remain alive in my heart and their own love and the joy they have given me is still there for me to take comfort and strength from even decades after they have passed away.

That is the true magic of the river of love that flows strongly through you as well (as your piggies are testament of) - its water is never lost. I sincerely hope that you will find your own river again in due time and that it can bring you comfort, strength and hope in due time.

 

[Wheekallweek]

Utterly beautiful piggies