• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Unexpected Death In Baby Guinea Pig?

MidnightThePig

MidnightThePig

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 26, 2018
Messages
13
Reaction score
13
Points
85
hello, my new baby guinea pig that was around 4 months old when i got him (from a small business pet store in town that only sells small animals and responsibly breeds them themselves), his name was charlie and he was the most adorable thing ever! we were traveling somewhere and we had no choice but to bring the piggies:( (surprisingly went well) the night before i discovered that they both had a patch of poop on their underside that i could not comb out (at the time they had mild poop problems from my mom giving them too many watery veggies) so i had no choice but to bathe them, sadly. after only filling the water in the tub about 3/4 of an inch, i stopped the water and set them in. well, charlie does not like baths at all so i have to slowly bathe him which took about and hour due to his anxiety. as i started bathing his brother, Midnight, Charlie actually tipped over in the water and would not stop kicking as if he was trying to run. i took him out immediatley and he still WOULD NOT stop doing it as if i did not take him out, then he started having a seizure. he coughed up some foul smelling substance and he passed away about two minutes later. To be honest, this really didn't surprise me as he was always small and quite bony (they had a big abundance of veggies and hay along with a cup of pellets a day) and the vet even said so. currently, his brother is grieving really badly and won't drink any more than about an ounce of water a day. he also won't eat his bowl of pellets or any of the hay and celery i put in his cage this morning. Since i still live with my parents, and don't drive yet, i have asked if we could go look for another one but they keep saying i have to wait until after CHRISTMAS! Even though i have the money for a new companion and they say hes fine even though i'm the one that spent MONTHS researching them. he is not fine and i keep telling them hes not. i am really worried. i even showed them how much hes been eating and drinking, but they just don't care. They even yell at me when i ask when we can go get one. its been a whole week.


so basically my two questions are:


1. what could have happened to Charlie?
2. How can I "prove" to my parents that he is not fine?
 
Coughing up stuff sounds like pneumonia, i have experienced this with a gerbil that a caught with pneumonia too late. I'm only taking a guess, how old are you?
 
Are you old enough to get a job this may help the decision with your parents
 
Skypipdot said:
Coughing up stuff sounds like pneumonia, i have experienced this with a gerbil that a caught with pneumonia too late. I'm only taking a guess
Click to expand...
thanks for the reply so soon, but i doubt it was pnemounia as he did not have trouble breathing and he ate like normal. i also noticed he would squeak really loud as if he was in pain when you touched his rear end.
 
MidnightThePig said:
thanks for the reply so soon, but i doubt it was pnemounia as he did not have trouble breathing and he ate like normal. i also noticed he would squeak really loud as if he was in pain when you touched his rear end.
Click to expand...
Ok i dont really know then, sorry for your loss
 
Skypipdot said:
Are you old enough to get a job this may help the decision with your parents
Click to expand...
technically yes, but there are NONE places that are hiring nearby. i would have to drive about an hour to the nearest place which is an hour.
 
Hi, I'm so sorry for your loss. I have no idea what could of happened to your piggy, but we are all here to support you. It sounds like you're going through a hard time and I have my fingers crossed that Midnight will get his friend soon.
 
Gemma1286 said:
Hi, I'm so sorry for your loss. I have no idea what could of happened to your piggy, but we are all here to support you. It sounds like you're going through a hard time and I have my fingers crossed that Midnight will get his friend soon.
Click to expand...
thank you sososososo much and me and my parents made a deal.... i used a dry erase marker and marked his water bottle and put a line where the water is now, about three inches below i put another line and if he does not drink past that line and eat atleast half of his daily pellets and some hay by tomorrow evening, they agree to get him a companion right away.
 
I’m sorry for your loss. As everybody has said, we are all here to support you.

Not eating can be a sign of loneliness but it can also be a sign of medical issues. Switch to weighing him daily rather than weekly to ensure he isn’t losing weight. If he isn’t eating, then stepping in with syringe feeding is advised.
Before you add another piggy, It would perhaps be a good idea to get your piggy checked by a vet so as to be sure he hasn’t caught anything from your other piggy. Any new piggy would ideally need to go through a quarantine period of two weeks before he can be put with your piggy to ensure the new piggy also isn’t sick.

To add, Guinea pigs who eat watery veggies won’t drink much water. Hay needs to be the biggest part of the diet, so only by weighing him reguladlh will you know whether he is eating enough. Also, a cup of pellets a day is too much, they should ideally only have one tablespoon of pellets and one cup of veg.
 
Really sorry for your loss. Charlie may have had a seizure in the water, sometimes this happens for no apparent reason and completely out of the blue. If you have to bathe in future consider using a face cloth or cotton pads with warm water for a bum bath instead of a full bath. When mine have had to have a full bath I pop them in a laundry basket with a towel in the bottom and do one at a time so I can focus on keeping them calm and take them out the water as soon as possible.

That's good your parents have reached a compromise. I would give some cucumber or something tonight to discourage drinking and encourage your parents to act quicker :)) however if you notice that his brother is not eating at all please soak some pellets in water and try to syringe him some mushed up pellets, it's important that they eat regularly to keep the guts working
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top