Our Cavy is sick.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Today we took PigPig the Guinea Pig to the vet. She says the prognosis is not good and he will probably not survive the night.

We have had PigPig for about three years. We rescued him in very poor condition from some freinds of ours who had been neglecting him and treating him terribly. The mother of a freind of mine bought the poor creature from a pet store of ill repute for the friend’s daughter, with out said friends permission. The daughter tired of playing with poor PigPig after about a week and he was neglected in a corner with bad food, dirty water, and filthy cage for a few months after that. They went away on vacation and had my wife and I take care of the poor guy while they were gone. When we took him in he was blind, screamed when you touched him, wasn’t eating, had a badly curved spine and a poorly-healed broken leg. We kept him a week under better conditions along with our guinea pigs, and when the freinds came back from vacation persuaded them to let us keep him permanently.

Proper food and clean water cleared up the malnutrition, his sight came back (mostly) and his spine straightened out as he grew.

Yesterday he was happily eating greens and hay, and standing up to beg for treats. Today when we went in to feed him, he was sitting hunched with his nose in the corner and wouldn’t come for food. He didn’t struggle at all when picked up, and wouldn’t even take raisins. We tried to feed him with an eyedropper, he refused to eat or drink.

So we called around to find an emergency vetrenarian that takes cavies that’s open at 2:30 AM. The Vet examined him, said that he’s dehydrated, has a slow and weak heartbeat, fluid building up in his chest cavity, sunken eyes, pale skin, no energy, and no interest in food or water. She’s given him subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics and put him on oxygen therapy, but says the prognosis is very poor. When cavies get sick they go downhill fast and there’s not much to be done.

Poor PigPig. He was the youngest of our cavies, we were expecting one of the shorthairs we have who are 1-2 years older to die first. But he’s never been the most healthy animal - we’ve treated him for repeated respiratory infections, one leg is still a bent club, and he’s slow on the uptake even for a guinea pig. It’s hard not to blame myself for not noticing sooner, maybe if we had gotten him to the vet 12 hours ago he would have had a better chance. I don’t know. The vet says she’ll call us if there’s any change in his condition - that is, if he dies. I don’t think I’ll get much sleep tonight.

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my heart goes out to you.

3

At 5am, EST, PigPig passed away.

All our animals have had the same exact care, and yet seem to lead such different lives. We had 3 Cavies. Snuggles and Pogo have always been healthy, and are in the upper years of Cavy lifespan. PigPig (same food, same care, same cage) had recurring illnesses, and died at 3 1/2 years old. The same has been for my other types of animals. I’ve had chinchillas that lived up to 14 years, and others that lived only 3. Two litters of babies from the same parents in the same environment…2 runts…We saved the first one with handfeeding. The second runt, we did the same thing. He never lost or gained weight, and died in a month.

Life seems to be playing poker with us, and yet I can’t see the hand I’ve got.

Thanks for listening.

4

Was it pneumonia, or a cold, or what was the diagnosis? How long do Guninea Pigs live? My brother and his wife, and a niece of mine, have these little pigs, and love them so much. I am sorry for your loss.

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I’m sorry for your loss. But at least you know that PigPig had a good life with proper care for thee three years you had him.

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We don’t know for sure, but we suspect that when the weather turned cold he got a respiratory infection that never showed enough symptoms for us to notice, then stopped eating and died. Guinea pigs which stop eating can go downhill very fast, dying within 24 hours.

Ideally about 5 years. We have two female shorthair guinea pigs which are about 5 years old and seem perfectly healthy.

Thank you. It was very unexpected, but like most small animals cavies can go from looking perfectly healthy to dead very fast and without warning. It was just very unexpected - we’ve been ready for one of the older ones to die fo a while, but figured PigPig has a few years left at least.

7

We have had several piggies in our household-- Checkers, Squeak, Mink, Porkie as well as numerous babies. Is there anything on this earth cuter than a baby guinea pig?

They can be a bit of work to take proper care of, but less so than a cat or a dog. We had one die after getting stung on the nose by a hornet when we had her out in the yard and we were very sad for weeks.

Guinea pigs are smart, can be taught tricks and are very sociable. I still miss mine.

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I’m so sorry about PigPig, AndrewL. You have nothing to reproach yourself for. You rescued him, gave him love and a good home and tried everything you could to nurse him back to health. No one could have cared more or done more.

They are suprisingly delicate little critters. I’ve raised guinea pigs off and on for over 20 years–mostly Peruvians and Abyssinians. They can have the same care, same feed but one can sicken anyway. And when they get sick it’s very tricky to get them back to health. My last squeaker–Hamlet, little Ham-animal–suddenly developed a kidney problem died within two days, even with medications, careful attention, etc. The most you can do is love 'em and try.

All comfort to you and yours, AndrewL, furred and non.

Veb

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I’m so sorry you lost your little guy. I lost mine just last month. She wasn’t a year old. Just found her dead in the cage with no warning. We have babies at the zoo right now, just a week old. I’m thinking about asking for one, but as we’re moving the zoo and will be selling off some of the extra animals, I might get one of the older ones that wouldn’t be able to go to the petstore. I htought that Guinea Pigs could make it to eight, but our oldest was six.

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Oh, I’m so sorry. I just love guinea pigs. You said yourself (and others have confirmed) that once sick, they go down fast. If you’d noticed PigPigs health problems sooner and gotten treatment sooner, I suspect it would mean you’d merely have had more hours to worry and feel awful–you may not have extended his life at all.

What a nice life he’s had with you. I’ll bet he’s having a rocking time up in Guinea Pig heaven.

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You have much to be proud of, AndrewL. PigPig had some really enjoyable days instead of an endless parade of miserable ones. Something tells me he never ate any rasins before he got to your home. It’s never fun to lose a pet, but PigPig sure had a chance to enjoy himself for a while and that stands for something.

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I’m kind of new on this board and I am spending time lurking for the moment.

I have de-lurked just to echo what some others have said, what you did for that little chap was a fine gesture.

You’re a good man.

My condolences.

MarkF

13

Thanks everyone. I’ts been a big help.

I have noticed that the fancier breeds are a lot more fragile than the shorthairs. The few Peruvians I’ve had experience tend to die young, while our two Shorthairs are about 5 years old and have never been sick.

A few years ago my wife did a web site on all our pets. Here’s a few pictures of PigPig back when he was just about a year old.

http://users.rcn.com/ljstier/pigpig2.html