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Sudden Paralysis in Back Legs

CTWC said:
You never need to apologise for when you reply we all understand what an awful and tiring time you are going through.
Never feel you have to reply to everyones posts 💐
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You’re so caring, thank you 💕. I’m just exhausted. I received the diagnosis of fibromyalgia today which was suspected, but now I have to get a pain management plan put in place. There’s a lot going on when I’m trying to process this grief for my precious boys 🥺💙😢xx
 
BIG HUGS

I am glad that you have got your money back plus some of your vet cost.

Peanut and you are in my thoughts. It is always worst when it is not a clear-cut case. The fact that he is eating on his own means that he still has quite literally a hunger for life. But his care is upsetting.

If you can, try to gently massage his back legs and his tummy in order to stimulate nerves and also the digestive system so it works better. It sounds like the lower end where the poos are formed could be affected by the paralysis as well.
 
Wiebke said:
BIG HUGS

I am glad that you have got your money back plus some of your vet cost.

Peanut and you are in my thoughts. It is always worst when it is not a clear-cut case. The fact that he is eating on his own means that he still has quite literally a hunger for life. But his care is upsetting.

If you can, try to gently massage his back legs and his tummy in order to stimulate nerves and also the digestive system so it works better. It sounds like the lower end where the poos are formed could be affected by the paralysis as well.
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Thank you. I’ll try this tonight. Am I not doing enough for Peanut? I feel like I’m letting him down. I’m out all day as I’m at work and my job has no work from home option 🥺. In the evening he lies on my lap and I give him so much love 💗💗. I’m taking him to the vet again tomorrow evening and we’ll see if he suggests something to stimulate his nervous system 🙏
 
Wiebke said:
BIG HUGS

I am glad that you have got your money back plus some of your vet cost.

Peanut and you are in my thoughts. It is always worst when it is not a clear-cut case. The fact that he is eating on his own means that he still has quite literally a hunger for life. But his care is upsetting.

If you can, try to gently massage his back legs and his tummy in order to stimulate nerves and also the digestive system so it works better. It sounds like the lower end where the poos are formed could be affected by the paralysis as well.
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It’s just that when you said his care is upsetting, I thought you meant I wasn’t doing enough 😞
 
Julezfm39 said:
It’s just that when you said his care is upsetting, I thought you meant I wasn’t doing enough 😞
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You are indeed doing all you can, are half-killing yourself and there is no improvement - that must be sooo upsetting for you. 😭

I would never be as stuck-up judgmental as that to anybody and I am very sorry that you must have obviously - and sadly - been at the sharp end of that kind of sadly all too common mindset often enough to read my post like that.
After all, who am I to cast stones at other people when - as we say in German - I am sitting in a glass house myself? We try our best not to be judmental or rude to anybody on here.

Anyway, I am very sorry if what I am writing is not always quite clear to you. I am not a native English speaker and I live with an inoperable malign brain tumour, which does at times undermine my speech, concentration and short term memory in ways that I am still trying figure out and work around as best as I can. I have my better and my worse days.
 
Wiebke said:
You are indeed doing all you can, are half-killing yourself and there is no improvement - that must be sooo upsetting for you. 😭

I would never be as stuck-up judgmental as that to anybody and I am very sorry that you must have obviously - and sadly - been at the sharp end of that mindset often to read my post like that. After all, who am I to cast stones at other people when - as we say in German - I am sitting in a glass house? We try our best not to be judmental or rude to anybody on here.

Anyway, I am very sorry if what I am writing is not always quite clear to you. I am not a native English speaker and I live with an inoperable malign brain tumour, which does undermine my speech, concentration and short term memory in ways I am still trying figure out and work around as best as I can. I have my better and my worse days.
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Oh gosh I’m so sorry that you are struggling with such an awful illness whilst being available on this forum for everyone. It’s my mindset, like you say, I’ve beaten myself up about so many things over the years but it’s been worse since my mum died 2 years ago.
Your English is far better than my German which is very rusty! I lived and worked in Germany from 1989 to 1992 when I was in my early 20’s, after leaving University. I was a translator & interpreter for the “Verteidigungsministerium”... so long ago!

I am just trying so hard to help my precious Peanut and nothing is helping. I’ve just given his little bum and back legs a wash ♥️. Thank you SO MUCH for your help and advice x
 
CTWC said:
Has getting him some vetbed to lie on been suggested? 🤔
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Is that like a thick fleece? At the moment he’s lying on the carefresh bedding as it’s softer but the fleece could be a better option. I just find fleece quite tough going as it’s holds the odour more
 
Vetbed is really good. It's nice and soft, and allows moisture aka wee through whilst staying dry on the top. Ideal for when you're at work as @CTWC has said. You could put a bit on top of the carefresh where he likes to lie down.
 
Wheekallweek said:
Vetbed is really good. It's nice and soft, and allows moisture aka wee through whilst staying dry on the top. Ideal for when you're at work as @CTWC has said. You could put a bit on top of the carefresh where he likes to lie down.
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Ahh okay.. good plan.. I’ll look online now and find the best place to buy some, thank you 🙏
 
Julezfm39 said:
Oh gosh I’m so sorry that you are struggling with such an awful illness whilst being available on this forum for everyone. It’s my mindset, like you say, I’ve beaten myself up about so many things over the years but it’s been worse since my mum died 2 years ago.
Your English is far better than my German which is very rusty! I lived and worked in Germany from 1989 to 1992 when I was in my early 20’s, after leaving University. I was a translator & interpreter for the “Verteidigungsministerium”... so long ago!

I am just trying so hard to help my precious Peanut and nothing is helping. I’ve just given his little bum and back legs a wash ♥️. Thank you SO MUCH for your help and advice x
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After nearly a quarter of a century of living in the UK my English should be better than your German... :)

Peanut feels your love, don't worry about that and try not to doubt yourself. You are in crisis but you are a very strong woman at your core and you will win through, even if it is a bit more battered and scarred yet - but that is life for you.
It is still too soon after your mum's loss to be fully back to yourself - what you are experiencing is actually pretty normal for your grieving process when you lose an important/close person. It will right itself in due time.

Unfortunately, now you have that whole unholy mess to deal with on top of a demanding job, bringing up a family and still somewhat traumatised from losing your mum. :(

If we can help you with our moral support to get through it all somehow, then we are not just helping you, we are also helping to make ourselves feel better. Kindness works both ways - for the recipient as well as for the giver. It makes us all stronger because we share in a good way and healing way.

PS: Why should I not continue to be around to help others on here? I've helped to build this forum into the special place it is today. Being able to make other people more comfortable and easy in themselves is after all one of my personal gifts. It doesn't just stop because my life train has derailed - I am still very much myself.
Having a normal daily structure to my life helps me as much as the community on here is supporting me as well and is giving back to me. And since my cancer was found when it caused me to break my hip in a fall, it's not like I can rush around the world scattering shiny big buckets left right and centre - not that I'd want to.
As long as I can make the world a bit of a kinder place in some way, I make every day of my remaining life count and don't waste it. And it doesn't matter about whether I live months or years - with a little luck it is going to be years. Life is not sheer numbers; it is all about what you fill every day with. There are some things that piggies can teach you. :)

PS: Don't worry about yourself - even if it doesn't feel like it to you right now, you have a big heart and an inner strength that shines out to me. Just concentrate on what needs doing and also concentrate on giving yourself as much time to find some rest and a place to unload. Part of you feeling so frazzled is that you haven't really had any since it has all kicked off.
There will be a time when it comes all back together for you and you'll find your centre and inner balance again; but this time is not now.

HUGS
 
I have been looking at all my photos of my piggies going back to 2019 when I got my first 2 boys 💙. I’m just thinking that I wasn’t a good owner. I’ve had 13 and I only have Peanut left. Of course, losing Biscuit and Shaun was the boarder’s fault but I have now lost 4 boys at the age of 3; 3 boys at the age of 4; 1 aged 5; 1 aged 6; 2 aged 2 and even one beloved boy, Snowy, aged 1 who died of heat exhaustion INDOORS during a very hot summer. He had been running around a lot and obviously not drinking enough. Our flat was very stuffy and I found him collapsed in his cage. We tried to save him and he survived the night at the vets but he had such severe brain damage that he couldn’t eat. I had to let him go. To this day I blame myself and it breaks my heart. I know that piggies are good at hiding illnesses and my babies have have passed away due to cancer, heart issues, stroke.. one if my boys Freddy had an abscess in his jaw but during the operation it was too big to remove. He wouldn’t have survived the recovery so he was put to sleep.
I’m sorry I’m pouring out my grief but I cannot have any more piggies. I have Peanut and of course my little girl Nevaeh who’s 1, but I feel like I am cursed to lose them too soon 😞💔😢. They deserved a better mum 💔
 
Wiebke said:
After nearly a quarter of a century of living in the UK my English should be better than your German... :)

Peanut feels your love, don't worry about that and try not to doubt yourself. You are in crisis but you are a very strong woman at your core and you will win through, even if it is a bit more battered and scarred yet - but that is life for you.
It is still too soon after your mum's loss to be fully back to yourself - what you are experiencing is actually pretty normal for your grieving process when you lose an important/close person. It will right itself in due time.

Unfortunately, now you have that whole unholy mess to deal with on top of a demanding job, bringing up a family and still somewhat traumatised from losing your mum. :(

If we can help you with our moral support to get through it all somehow, then we are not just helping you, we are also helping to make ourselves feel better. Kindness works both ways - for the recipient as well as for the giver. It makes us all stronger because we share in a good way and healing way.

PS: Why should I not continue to be around to help others on here? I've helped to build this forum into the special place it is today. Being able to make other people more comfortable and easy in themselves is after all one of my personal gifts. It doesn't just stop because my life train has derailed - I am still very much myself.
Having a normal daily structure to my life helps me as much as the community on here is supporting me as well and is giving back to me. And since my cancer was found when it caused me to break my hip in a fall, it's not like I can rush around the world scattering shiny big buckets left right and centre - not that I'd want to.
As long as I can make the world a bit of a kinder place in some way, I make every day of my remaining life count and don't waste it. And it doesn't matter about whether I live months or years - with a little luck it is going to be years. Life is not sheer numbers; it is all about what you fill every day with. There are some things that piggies can teach you. :)

PS: Don't worry about yourself - even if it doesn't feel like it to you right now, you have a big heart and an inner strength that shines out to me. Just concentrate on what needs doing and also concentrate on giving yourself as much time to find some rest and a place to unload. Part of you feeling so frazzled is that you haven't really had any since it has all kicked off.
There will be a time when it comes all back together for you and you'll find your centre and inner balance again; but this time is not now.

HUGS
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Thank you.. such beautiful and comforting words. This community is definitely a special place. I’ve been crying for hours. I just pray that even though some of my piggies lives were cut short, they’ve felt my love and devotion to them 💗💗💗
 
Julezfm39 said:
I have been looking at all my photos of my piggies going back to 2019 when I got my first 2 boys 💙. I’m just thinking that I wasn’t a good owner. I’ve had 13 and I only have Peanut left. Of course, losing Biscuit and Shaun was the boarder’s fault but I have now lost 4 boys at the age of 3; 3 boys at the age of 4; 1 aged 5; 1 aged 6; 2 aged 2 and even one beloved boy, Snowy, aged 1 who died of heat exhaustion INDOORS during a very hot summer. He had been running around a lot and obviously not drinking enough. Our flat was very stuffy and I found him collapsed in his cage. We tried to save him and he survived the night at the vets but he had such severe brain damage that he couldn’t eat. I had to let him go. To this day I blame myself and it breaks my heart. I know that piggies are good at hiding illnesses and my babies have have passed away due to cancer, heart issues, stroke.. one if my boys Freddy had an abscess in his jaw but during the operation it was too big to remove. He wouldn’t have survived the recovery so he was put to sleep.
I’m sorry I’m pouring out my grief but I cannot have any more piggies. I have Peanut and of course my little girl Nevaeh who’s 1, but I feel like I am cursed to lose them too soon 😞💔😢. They deserved a better mum 💔
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We all have our box of eternal regrets. Most of my own knowledge has come the hard way from my own mistakes and my own life lessons. My childhood piggies going back half a century, how little did we know about piggies then. Does that make us bad owners?

Life is not about never making any mistakes but how we deal with them - the most important is not to repeat them and then second most important is what we learn from them and how constructively - or not - we deal with them. Some lessons are tougher than others but they can act as spurs to keep going and to keep on improving. It is the piggies in my own box of eternal regrets that are the motor of me keeping on improving and helping others.

I've had about a hundred piggies passing through my life and I have made countless mistakes or not picked up on subtle cues. Does that make me a bad owner? I don't think so because I have continued to learn and to keep piggies and keep on loving them - and become a better owner in due time.
When I look back, for every piggy of mine that has paid the price with their life or some serious suffering, so many more others have profited via this forum. It doesn't take away from my wish to have been able to spare the original piggies pain and death (hence my box of eternal regrets where they rest) but what I haven't been able to pay backwards I have managed to pay forward.

By far not all my piggies have lived to a grand old age. I have however done my best to love them all and to give them a happy piggy life; as happy as I knew at the time.

The UK is not used to hot weather; houses are traditionally laid out to keep our rain but not to deal with the extremes of weather. Coming from a more Continental climate where you have such useful things as shutters to keep out the sun from hitting window glass, not open any windows in the direct path of a sun-heated breeze of over 50 C, proper insulation etc.

I was quite frankly dismayed at how even the most simple of commonsense measures are not known over here - because there was never a need until now. What you cannot foresee, you cannot prevent; and nobody can ever know it all. None of us is God. As a forum, we have learned a few tough lessons over the last few summers. You are in very good company.
We have got a hot weather guide with loads of little practical tips for keeping the house cooler without paying a fortune (it is the combination of several things that is most effective) so there is something for any budget. It's not just our piggies that profit but also we ourselves, too.
Personally, I hate summer and heatwaves because I always have some of my frailer ones passing away during or after a heat spike or wave - and we see that happening all over the place. Guinea pigs are crepuscular animals; they are most active during dawn and dusk when temperatures are there most moderate and stable.

Be sad but please don't feel guilty for what you didn't know and had to learn the hard way. Ultimately, it doesn't make you a bad and worthless person, it makes you a better one and a better owner. It is called a learning curve and experience.

Those piggies of yours that didn't live to very old lives were still loved and looked after as well as you knew at the time. That is what counts more than a long life spent sitting in a tiny hutch and being neglected... Life is not about length but about quality. As long as the quality of what you can provide is improving, you are on the right way.

Your last losses were not your fault in any way; it's just that you are not able to take in the enormity of what has happened and to disconnect it from how you feel about yourself. These crushing waves of guilt are part of your traumatic experience - feelings of guilt or failure are normal but what you have experienced is not normal so it is all so much more overwhelming for you. But it ultimately doesn't make you a worthless person or an inadequate owner.
In fact, the strength and depth of your wobble shouts just how caring and loving a person you are because it is usually so much worse for those who love deeply - it is the other side of the same coin.
 
Wiebke said:
We all have our box of eternal regrets. Most of my own knowledge has come the hard way from my own mistakes and my own life lessons. My childhood piggies going back half a century, how little did we know about piggies then. Does that make us bad owners?

Life is not about never making any mistakes but how we deal with them - the most important is not to repeat them and then second most important is what we learn from them and how constructively - or not - we deal with them. Some lessons are tougher than others but they can act as spurs to keep going and to keep on improving. It is the piggies in my own box of eternal regrets that are the motor of me keeping on improving and helping others.

I've had about a hundred piggies passing through my life and I have made countless mistakes or not picked up on subtle cues. Does that make me a bad owner? I don't think so because I have continued to learn and to keep piggies and keep on loving them - and become a better owner in due time.
When I look back, for every piggy of mine that has paid the price with their life or some serious suffering, so many more others have profited via this forum. It doesn't take away from my wish to have been able to spare the original piggies pain and death (hence my box of eternal regrets where they rest) but what I haven't been able to pay backwards I have managed to pay forward.

By far not all my piggies have lived to a grand old age. I have however done my best to love them all and to give them a happy piggy life; as happy as I knew at the time.

The UK is not used to hot weather; houses are traditionally laid out to keep our rain but not to deal with the extremes of weather. Coming from a more Continental climate where you have such useful things as shutters to keep out the sun from hitting window glass, not open any windows in the direct path of a sun-heated breeze of over 50 C, proper insulation etc.

I was quite frankly dismayed at how even the most simple of commonsense measures are not known over here - because there was never a need until now. What you cannot foresee, you cannot prevent; and nobody can ever know it all. None of us is God. As a forum, we have learned a few tough lessons over the last few summers. You are in very good company.
We have got a hot weather guide with loads of little practical tips for keeping the house cooler without paying a fortune (it is the combination of several things that is most effective) so there is something for any budget. It's not just our piggies that profit but also we ourselves, too.
Personally, I hate summer and heatwaves because I always have some of my frailer ones passing away during or after a heat spike or wave - and we see that happening all over the place. Guinea pigs are crepuscular animals; they are most active during dawn and dusk when temperatures are there most moderate and stable.

Be sad but please don't feel guilty for what you didn't know and had to learn the hard way. Ultimately, it doesn't make you a bad and worthless person, it makes you a better one and a better owner. It is called a learning curve and experience.

Those piggies of yours that didn't live to very old lives were still loved and looked after as well as you knew at the time. That is what counts more than a long life spent sitting in a tiny hutch and being neglected... Life is not about length but about quality. As long as the quality of what you can provide is improving, you are on the right way.

Your last losses were not your fault in any way; it's just that you are not able to take in the enormity of what has happened and to disconnect it from how you feel about yourself. These crushing waves of guilt are part of your traumatic experience - feelings of guilt or failure are normal but what you have experienced is not normal so it is all so much more overwhelming for you. But it ultimately doesn't make you a worthless person or an inadequate owner.
In fact, the strength and depth of your wobble shouts just how caring and loving a person you are because it is usually so much worse for those who love deeply - it is the other side of the same coin.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to reply so thoughtfully and with so much wisdom. I’m just not able to cope with the trauma at the moment but your words give me hope and strength to carry on. The grief has felt overwhelming. I really hope that I’ll be able to pay it forward here too; right now I’m just in pieces and emotionally exhausted. I miss my boys so much. My darling Shaun who died last Saturday was only 3 and so full of life. He was such a vocal fella and the house feels empty without him. He used to nibble my nose when I cuddled him ♥️.

The hot weather guide will be very useful thank you. I’m hyper vigilant about it now. We moved in July and the new house is cooler in temperature than our previous place (no carpets either) but even so I need to do everything possible to keep my piggies cool.

What you have said is hugely comforting and I’m so grateful; I’m going to go to bed now and hopefully get some sleep (only for about 5½ hours though) 💕💕
 
Morning the words and sentiments in your posts are proof of what a wonderful guinea parent you have been and are.
You have loved each one of them unconditionally and would have done anything for them and are doing now for Peanut and Nevaeh as Wiebke says it's in our nature to blame ourselves but at the time even if looking back we didn't do the best thing we never intended to hurt our guineas and we learn as we make this journey with them 🙏
Remember what you have been through these past weeks has been and still is traumatic not many of us can fully imagine how it must be affecting you but one thing we do all know because it's clear is that you are a fantastic guinea parent in all ways ❤️
 
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