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Strokes Or Fits?

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skip_rat

skip_rat

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One of my guinea pigs is having a rather worrying issue.

She will loose the use of her legs, mostly on one side and one eye sort of rolls back so there is alot more white showing. When this happens she gradually becomes less responsive (at first I thought she was going to die). She will be like this for 30-60 minutes then she slowly recovers and is fine again as if nothing has happened. She always seems to be very hungry afterwards and will sort of 'trash out' on nuggets/hay/veggies.

This has happened 4 times now, 3 times last weekend and again last night. Obviously I took her to the vet last Monday, but as she was fine by then the vet couldn't really find anything wrong. She seems to pick the weekend to be ill but I can't think of anything that is different in her diet or environment at a weekend.

So is there anything I can do? I have had her about 4 years, but as she was a rescue I've no idea how old she really is. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
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I am very sorry! What a worry for you!

It is difficult to say for sure without seeing her or getting to the bottom of it; it could be either or something else. Have you got the option of taking a little video when it happens so you could show your vet, too?
 
The video idea @Wiebke is an excellent one. I hope you and your vet can get to the bottom of it.
 
I have had a couple of pigs who had a small TIA but it literally lasted about a minute and they were ok after. A friend's pig had a stroke at the weekend and he was incredibly frail afterwards.

I agree videoing is a great idea.
 
I could do a video, I'm pretty sure my stills camera can do video too. An accurate description is that she just keels over onto her side and then lies there almost motionless. She is pretty much unresponsive to any stimulus until she comes back out of it. I picked her up the first time as I thought she had died and that was when I noticed the rolled back eye.

When she starts to recover she only has movement in her right side at first (it is her right eye that rolls back) and then she slowly goes back to normal. This is the distressing part as she tries to get about and has no co-ordination so flails around a bit. :(

She's fine again today, up and about this morning as if nothing had happened.
 
I'm no expert, but it sounds more like a fit than a stroke or TIA. I definitely agree that a video would be the best thing to do, to show the vet what is happening. (This is what the doctors ask for with humans too). I really hope you can find out what the problem is and sort it out. It must be so distressing, but the good news is that she is recovering each time.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice.

So far no more 'episodes' since Sunday which is good. The eye that had rolled back looks a bit sore today so I'm having her checked over again just to be sure. I have the camera to hand for next time, although I really hope that she doesn't have any more.
 
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