• 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

Why does this keep happening to me :(

thefluffyparent

New Born Pup
Joined
Apr 14, 2020
Messages
57
Reaction score
42
Points
215
Location
Australia
So those of you who have read some of my other posts will know that I had a couple of piggies pass a while back... And then I got given Delilah my little Bubba pig. Well my beautiful Delilah passed today. And I don't even know why. She was her normal self last night, seemed to just be chillinf out in her house this morning (she usually does this anyway) but I went to feed them their Dinner lifted up the house and Delilah was laid flat on her belly. Thought it looked strange, went over pat her which normally she would react to and realised she is dead. I am so so so devastated. There were no warning signs, she was her normal crazy self before today, eating and drinking, playful like always. I don't know why she just dropped like that! Does anybody have any ideas why she would suddenly drop?
RIP Delilah, will miss you my beautiful Bubba piggy.
 
Aw, I’m so sorry you have lost Delilah, what an awful shock for you. I lost my Bill earlier in the year and I was not expecting to find he’d died either. Unfortunately it happens to all pet owners in the end, it’s just such a shock when you were least expecting it.

Guinea pigs hide their illnesses very well becuase they are prey and herd animals and don’t want either another piggie to take it‘s position in rank and also not to show weakness to any animal that thinks it will be an easy kill. This makes it very difficult for us to see that there’s a problem, piggies can also decline in a matter of hours. Sending hugs to you x

Sleep tight little Delilah 🌈
 
So those of you who have read some of my other posts will know that I had a couple of piggies pass a while back... And then I got given Delilah my little Bubba pig. Well my beautiful Delilah passed today. And I don't even know why. She was her normal self last night, seemed to just be chillinf out in her house this morning (she usually does this anyway) but I went to feed them their Dinner lifted up the house and Delilah was laid flat on her belly. Thought it looked strange, went over pat her which normally she would react to and realised she is dead. I am so so so devastated. There were no warning signs, she was her normal crazy self before today, eating and drinking, playful like always. I don't know why she just dropped like that! Does anybody have any ideas why she would suddenly drop?
RIP Delilah, will miss you my beautiful Bubba piggy.

I am very sorry; it could have been a sudden heart attack or her just dying. I have lost several piggies this way; latest my Briallen, who never woke up from an afternoon nap and not even two weeks later I found my Betsan dead on her belly in the morning with a mouthful of hay sticking out of her mouth; she must have suffered a heart attack right out of the blue. They are the two of mine who have passed away this year - neither of them expected. :(

Sadly deaths come like London buses - either none for a long time or then several at once. There will be better times, I assure you!

Take your time to grieve but please don't feel like it is your fault. You can never choose how and when a piggy of yours dies.

BIG HUGS
 
Aw, I’m so sorry you have lost Delilah, what an awful shock for you. I lost my Bill earlier in the year and I was not expecting to find he’d died either. Unfortunately it happens to all pet owners in the end, it’s just such a shock when you were least expecting it.

Guinea pigs hide their illnesses very well becuase they are prey and herd animals and don’t want either another piggie to take it‘s position in rank and also not to show weakness to any animal that thinks it will be an easy kill. This makes it very difficult for us to see that there’s a problem, piggies can also decline in a matter of hours. Sending hugs to you x

Sleep tight little Delilah 🌈

I'm so in tune with animals so it was a huge shock! And the fact she was like a few months old. And she was my most hilarious piggy, brought me so much happiness. And then this cruel world decided to take her eh.
 
I am very sorry; it could have been a sudden heart attack or her just dying. I have lost several piggies this way; latest my Briallen, who never woke up from an afternoon nap and not even two weeks later I found my Betsan dead on her belly in the morning with a mouthful of hay sticking out of her mouth; she must have suffered a heart attack right out of the blue. They are the two of mine who have passed away this year - neither of them expected. :(

Sadly deaths come like London buses - either none for a long time or then several at once. There will be better times, I assure you!

Take your time to grieve but please don't feel like it is your fault. You can never choose how and when a piggy of yours dies.

BIG HUGS


Trying not to. Ever option there could be has run through to head over and over. I don't think she fell. The top level really isn't that high and she's never attempted to jump off it before (there is a barrier , she just used to put her little front paws up and squeak for food haha). And I felt her body and didn't feel anything unusual (like any broken bones ect). She didn't come out her house this morning but sometimes they don't anyway so I usually stick a hand in and give them a pat. I feel awful that I didn't lift up the house this morning and just check on her and see if she was alright. Surely I would have known something was up that way. She died in the late hrs of the day, she was stiff but she was still warm. I want my lil bubba back :(
 
Trying not to. Ever option there could be has run through to head over and over. I don't think she fell. The top level really isn't that high and she's never attempted to jump off it before (there is a barrier , she just used to put her little front paws up and squeak for food haha). And I felt her body and didn't feel anything unusual (like any broken bones ect). She didn't come out her house this morning but sometimes they don't anyway so I usually stick a hand in and give them a pat. I feel awful that I didn't lift up the house this morning and just check on her and see if she was alright. Surely I would have known something was up that way. She died in the late hrs of the day, she was stiff but she was still warm. I want my lil bubba back :(

Be kind to yourself and give yourself time to go through the grieving process. Strong feelings of failure, guilt and a hefty amount of soul-searching are part and parcel of the onset of the grieving process. It is usually worse after a sudden death.

I don't know whether that is helping you, but if she wasn't coming out of the hut in the morning and was dead by late afternoon, her body had most likely already started to close down and there would have been nothing you or your vet could have done to stop this.
Unfortunately, I have been too often in this position not to have learned this the hard way. Guinea pigs have a much faster metabolism, and that is never as noticeable than when they are dying - that is also very much on fast forward and can happen suddenly at any age if some organ gives way in their body. All you need it a genetic time bomb ticking quietly away. :(

Try to take consolation that she could pass away peacefully in her familiar surroundings and that she didn't have to be rushed to the vets for a a messy and futile attempt to keep her alive against the odds or for an emergency pts/euthanasia, which would have left you equally shaken.

One of the life lessons I have learned over the years is to always make sure that all my piggies are coming to me to pick up a piece of veg in the mornings and evenings as a quick check. I still won't catch any sudden problems that happen within minutes and I still won't necessarily catch any more subtle issues if a piggy keeps begging and running away with their morsel until the moment they are ready to die; but it is a pretty useful tool and one you may want to apply as well in the future as a constructive lesson you take away. It is one of these things that you can only learn the hard way by bumping into it, so please don't start a new round of beating yourself up. We all learn as we go along; shaped by our own experiences, the good as well as the painful ones. I have found that it helps me to ultimately get past the guilt loop better if I can take a new 'life lesson' away from a rather unfortunate death and apply it in the future as a legacy to a particular piggy of mine and to hopefully save more piggies' lives that can still be saved.

I like to envisage my past piggies as my little furry guardian angels who inspire me to learn more and get better at looking after my current and future piggies as they are still present in my heart and in my memories and thoughts anyway and shape very much what I am doing now. They can't keep me from making new mistakes or misjudgments but they can help me to evolve as an owner. 'Experience' is very much the result of bumping into things the hard way, learning to bear the pain of the scars and doing your best to not bump into exactly the same bruise again. Experience is also a never ending life-long learning process. You don't come by it by sailing nice and smoothly along and by never putting a foot wrong... But I like to think that I have been able to help many more people better over the years than I would have been able to without those painful lessons. ;)

HUGS
 
Be kind to yourself and give yourself time to go through the grieving process. Strong feelings of failure, guilt and a hefty amount of soul-searching are part and parcel of the onset of the grieving process. It is usually worse after a sudden death.

I don't know whether that is helping you, but if she wasn't coming out of the hut in the morning and was dead by late afternoon, her body had most likely already started to close down and there would have been nothing you or your vet could have done to stop this.
Unfortunately, I have been too often in this position not to have learned this the hard way. Guinea pigs have a much faster metabolism, and that is never as noticeable than when they are dying - that is also very much on fast forward and can happen suddenly at any age if some organ gives way in their body. All you need it a genetic time bomb ticking quietly away. :(

Try to take consolation that she could pass away peacefully in her familiar surroundings and that she didn't have to be rushed to the vets for a a messy and futile attempt to keep her alive against the odds or for an emergency pts/euthanasia, which would have left you equally shaken.

One of the life lessons I have learned over the years is to always make sure that all my piggies are coming to me to pick up a piece of veg in the mornings and evenings as a quick check. I still won't catch any sudden problems that happen within minutes and I still won't necessarily catch any more subtle issues if a piggy keeps begging and running away with their morsel until the moment they are ready to die; but it is a pretty useful tool and one you may want to apply as well in the future as a constructive lesson you take away. It is one of these things that you can only learn the hard way by bumping into it, so please don't start a new round of beating yourself up. We all learn as we go along; shaped by our own experiences, the good as well as the painful ones. I have found that it helps me to ultimately get past the guilt loop better if I can take a new 'life lesson' away from a rather unfortunate death and apply it in the future as a legacy to a particular piggy of mine and to hopefully save more piggies' lives that can still be saved.

I like to envisage my past piggies as my little furry guardian angels who inspire me to learn more and get better at looking after my current and future piggies as they are still present in my heart and in my memories and thoughts anyway and shape very much what I am doing now. They can't keep me from making new mistakes or misjudgments but they can help me to evolve as an owner. 'Experience' is very much the result of bumping into things the hard way, learning to bear the pain of the scars and your best to not bump into exactly the same bruise again. Experience is also a never ending life-long process. You don't come by it by sailing nice and smoothly along and by never putting a foot wrong... But I like to think that I have been able to help many more people better over the years than I would have been able to without those painful lessons. ;)

HUGS


Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that. Appreciate it a lot
 
Back
Top