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Searching for answers over sudden death

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Becky3

Becky3

Junior Guinea Pig
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Sep 29, 2011
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Hello,

I'm new to this forum, but have been a quiet reader for some time.

We lost one of our girls today and i just really wanted to get some advice as we simply cannot explain as to what has happened.

I took our three pigs into the garden for an hour this morning. They were really happy, grazing, but after about half an hour i noticed that Rebecca had gone into her house and had stopped eating. This is very much unlike her as she loved her food and usually stayed in the garden for hours devouring her gras.

I took her back inside and noticed she had a snuffle, which was unusual as she never got any colds. The weather is really warm in the UK at the moment, a sudden burst of summer after a relatively fresh week.

Just before going to work at lunchtime, i got her out of her indoor cage again to double-check she was alright. Her movements seemed really slow, she was lying down rather than sitting up and closing her eyes. Listening to her tummy, there was a lot of gurgling, but she was making choking movements as if she had swallowed something the wrong way round.

I took her to the vet's straight away who diagosed her with gut stasis. She was very bloated and at the time of the vet visit her gurgles had stopped.

She was given metoclopramide orally as well as metacam. At home we kept an eye on her all afternoon, occasionally seringue-feeding her water and vegetable baby food, although she refused a lot and we couldnt get much down her at all.

She was resting for most of the time, lying down. After about three hours she starting pooping and weeing again, which we thought was a really good sign. She was still not interested in any food, but we managed to make her chew a few mouthfuls of critical care.

Then all of a sudden, right after she must have swallowed the citical case, she started having spasms, going through her entire body. Again she seemed as if she was choking and her tummy felt rock solid.

We rushed to the vet's but sadly she passed away while i was holding her on our way.

We are just really baffled and in shock. We caught the gut stasis really early on, she was perky this morning - and then dead within 6 hours? I'm really tempted to have a postmortem done as i cant explain what happened.

Has anyone of you experienced something similar and knows what could have caused these spasms?

I should also add that she was treated for ovarian cysts recently (hormonal injections) and they successfully reduced in size. I don't think this is related but thought i should mention it nevertheless.

Any opinions would be very very welcome.

Becky
 
oh honey i am so sorry what a shock for you.

I do not know your answer, but i just wanted to say my thoughts are with you x
 
I'm so sorry for your loss.

Do you have any other pets that use the grass? Or have you treated the grass at all lately? It could have been something she picked up in the garden maybe. Sometimes though there isn't an answer for these things.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss, cant believe she was ok one minute then went downhill like that, something must have happened in the garden maybe something shes eaten,
 
What a horrible thing to have happened. I am so sorry for your loss.
 
so sorry to hear this, i wonder if she was stung by a wasp? i know that doesnt explain the stomach problem, but everything else sounds like a reaction to a sting my dog had after a sting? i could be well off the track, but thought it worth mentioning, as wasps are low on the ground this time of year
 
I am really sorry, I understand as I lost my elderly piggy to stasis in June & it's horrible. She was fine the night before, 12 hours later she was dead :(

All I can think of is that they can get a colic like horses, which can be fatal, the gut stops moving or even twists "torsion" is what mine had. They can try to aspirate the gas by injection, they tried this with mine, sadly it didn't work & in some ways I wish she'd just passed away immediately.

If she had been given pain relief she wouldn't have suffered, unfortunately it seems to be just one of those things, you were unlucky too. I am so sorry you have my sympathy.
 
Thank you so much for your kind words and responses. It really means a lot!
It has been such a terrible day and we've gone through everything over and over again as it just doesn't make any sense and was so unexpected.

Are these kind of cramps and spasms something that normally go with gut stasis? In our case they occurred shortly after she had been given food, and as crazy as it sounds, the critical care actually seemed to initiate her death. I dont know if she swallowed much though because she spat out a lot whilst making those choking movements.

The thought of her eating something poisenous in the garden has crossed my mind many times today. We are always very careful and remove all the leaves they shouldn't eat, but it's all too easy to miss something i suppose... We've never used any treatment or fertilisers on our lawn though.

Best wishes

Becky
 
Hi Becky i'm really sorry to hear about your dear piggie Rebecca 8...8...
I haven't any answers for you either i'm afraid, it's so hard sometimes to know why our babies leave us :(
Sorry you've had to come on for your first posts to be such a sad story.
If you feel up to it you might like to put a little tribute in our rainbow bridge section.
I hope that your other two piggies will be ok without their mate.
HUGS for you

Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
 
Poor thing... I'm so sorry for your loss. Did you mention how old she was? My experience from having a variety of small animals is that they can hide signs of illness for a long time and then go downhill shockingly quickly, especially if they are getting on in age. I don't have any insight as to what may have happened, but I've been similarly shocked by pets who went from seemingly fine to gone in less than 24 hours, so I feel your pain. RIP little piggie!
 
Aww I'm so sorry :(
I cant help with you finding answers but just wanted to say you did everything you could for her and took her to the vets when you saw a problem - I dont think there's anything else you could have done for her.
hugs
x
 
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