Two guinea pigs died in my care -- what happened?

[regrettios]

For the last two weeks I've been caring for some friends' guinea pigs while they're out of town. Until Sunday everything seemed normal: they appeared to be eating (I rarely saw them eat myself but noticed the quantity of hay in the hay rack going down, so I know they were), peeing and pooping, and were active/vocal. The temperature in their room was kept in the upper 60s/low 70s with the thermostat cycling on throughout the day, no open windows or anything like that. They had a water bottle available to them at all times. Sunday night I went in to check on them and noticed the female of the pair was lethargic and had crusty eyes. She didn't scurry away when I reached in to pick her up like they usually do, so I rushed her to the emergency vet.

The vet told me she was dehydrated and tachycardic and with the owners' permission began lifesaving measures including sub-q fluids and oxygen. She unfortunately died a few hours later. I was sent home with instructions to monitor her cagemate and come back if he started showing signs of ill health, too. I slept in the room with him so I could check on him throughout the night, but he seemed totally fine. I watched him drink some water and he munched the lettuce I offered. Monday afternoon he still appeared normal, but when I picked him up I noticed I could hear him breathing. It didn't sound labored or wheezing to me, but it was audible. Not wanting to take any chances, I hurried him to the vet but he died in my arms on the way there. This all happened in the space of about an hour. His decline was so rapid and confusing to me. This time the vet said without a necropsy it was impossible to know what happened but mentioned that he appeared skinny.

I feel absolutely awful about this, and it's made worse by not knowing what exactly caused it. I feel like I should have noticed earlier that something was wrong, but nothing about either guinea pig seemed abnormal until shortly before they died. Has anybody experienced anything like this before? Any ideas about what might have happened? The emergency vet I spoke to Sunday told me it was probably nothing I did wrong but I can't shake off this sense of guilt.

 

[Freela]

I'm so sorry, both for you and your friend. This is kind of a pet-sitter's worst nightmare. It sounds as though there was a communicable respiratory illness... guinea pigs can develop respiratory infections that can rapidly prove fatal. As prey animals, guinea pigs hide symptoms, as sick animals in the wild are most likely to be picked off by predators. Thus, by the time symptoms show, a lot of the time the illness is already far advanced. In a lot of small animals, they can go from seemingly fine to passing away really quickly, sometimes despite really prompt care. I really don't think it was anything you did wrong. ((HUGS)) to you.

 

[Swissgreys]

I am so sorry this has happened to you - it sounds like you were doing a great job looking after the piggies for your friend, but as @Freela mentioned above, piggies hide their illnesses well and can go downhill rapidly.

It really does sound like some form of respiratory infection, which can come on quickly and be difficult to detect until it is too late.
Please try not to feel that you did something wrong.
Many highly experienced piggy owners have been through similar scenarios, and after seeing one of my own healty pigs decline in a matter of hours to a life threatening emergency, I can only assure you that sometimes these things happen.

 

[Wiebke]

For the last two weeks I've been caring for some friends' guinea pigs while they're out of town. Until Sunday everything seemed normal: they appeared to be eating (I rarely saw them eat myself but noticed the quantity of hay in the hay rack going down, so I know they were), peeing and pooping, and were active/vocal. The temperature in their room was kept in the upper 60s/low 70s with the thermostat cycling on throughout the day, no open windows or anything like that. They had a water bottle available to them at all times. Sunday night I went in to check on them and noticed the female of the pair was lethargic and had crusty eyes. She didn't scurry away when I reached in to pick her up like they usually do, so I rushed her to the emergency vet.

The vet told me she was dehydrated and tachycardic and with the owners' permission began lifesaving measures including sub-q fluids and oxygen. She unfortunately died a few hours later. I was sent home with instructions to monitor her cagemate and come back if he started showing signs of ill health, too. I slept in the room with him so I could check on him throughout the night, but he seemed totally fine. I watched him drink some water and he munched the lettuce I offered. Monday afternoon he still appeared normal, but when I picked him up I noticed I could hear him breathing. It didn't sound labored or wheezing to me, but it was audible. Not wanting to take any chances, I hurried him to the vet but he died in my arms on the way there. This all happened in the space of about an hour. His decline was so rapid and confusing to me. This time the vet said without a necropsy it was impossible to know what happened but mentioned that he appeared skinny.

I feel absolutely awful about this, and it's made worse by not knowing what exactly caused it. I feel like I should have noticed earlier that something was wrong, but nothing about either guinea pig seemed abnormal until shortly before they died. Has anybody experienced anything like this before? Any ideas about what might have happened? The emergency vet I spoke to Sunday told me it was probably nothing I did wrong but I can't shake off this sense of guilt.

Hi!

HUGS

I am very sorry about your loss; what a sad shock for you! Feelings of guilt and failure that any good owner experiences at this stage are even worse when it is not your own piggies in the first place. You have done your best and have done what is expected from any good owner by seeing a vet as soon as you have noticed; by that time your second guinea pig would have unfortunately already been infected.

It sounds like your piggies may have died from one of the nastier respiratory tract bugs. Crusty eyes and laboured breathing is typical a respiratory tract infection. Because the need to breathe comes before the need to drink and the need to eat, loss of appetite is very common in an advanced URI.
Guinea pigs are prey animals; they are very good at hiding symptoms until it is too late (especially when you are not familiar with guinea pigs). Some of the respiratory tract bugs can also develop very quickly and they are highly infectious. Some bugs like pneumococcus (walking/atypical pneumonia) for instance can kill within hours of the first symptoms appearing. Unfortunately only a costly post mortem and expensive lab test will ever give you the full answer. We can only make some educated guesses from the symptoms you have mentioned.

Can you please answer these questions:
- do you have dogs or have you been visited by a coughing dog (kennel cough/bordetellosis is fatal for guinea pigs) Dogs, Kennel Cough And Guinea Pigs - An Important Consideration.
- did you or a visitor have strep throat?
- it is very rare that human viral colds or flu jump over to guinea pigs, but if that happens, it is generally devastating
- here is more information on bacterial respiratory infections, which are the most common form: Guinea Lynx :: URI

But please do not feel guilty for coming up against something you weren't expected to know about. It was just massive bad luck that you have ended with a highly infectious fast progressing illness.

 

[Wheekallweek]

how awful for you, it does sound like a respiratory infection, and as @Freela said piggies often hide their illnesses as prey animals please don’t feel guilty, you did everything you could when you noticed they were ill x

 

[regrettios]

Thank you all so much for the information and moral support. I greatly appreciate it.

I spoke to a vet tech from the exotic animal clinic who mentioned that this has been a bad year for guinea pigs and URIs. She also mentioned having recently seen a pair of guinea pigs who came from the same rescue as the ones I was caring for die of URIs in a similar manner, going within a day of each other like these ones did. Between that and the unanimous speculation about respiratory illness here, I'm thinking that's probably the likeliest culprit. Obviously we'll never know for sure, but even just having a probable cause of death has helped put my mind at ease somewhat.

Wiebke, in response to your questions there were dogs in the house, too, but they were kept away from the pigs at all times, and to my knowledge neither has been sick recently. I did not have strep, nor did any visitors to the house as far as I know. No colds, either. Thank you for the helpful links.

 

[DMS260820]

Sorry to hear this happened in your care. I agree with the above posts. Does sound like uri's . You needed to know what to look out for, not your fault. X