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Dead young guinea pig :-( and how to tell the kids

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beautiful_day

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello,

So this morning I realized to my shock that one of our guinea pigs had died in the night.

He was apparently about 5-6 months old, and he was still quite small, although I think he’d definitely grown since we got him (about a month ago), and ate well.

I admit that last night I was a bit late in from work and although the kids had been stroking them, we hadn’t got them out. He was fine yesterday morning.

This is probably an impossible question, but what could just make them die like that? He could have been a runt, so maybe had a problem we didn’t know about, but he always seemed fine.

They are indoors, so no cold or other animal shocks. He had no injuries or anything stuck in his throat.

My other question is what to tell my kids? We are not allowed to bury him in the garden, so my husband took him to the vet, who will incinerate him. I am ok telling them he died, but where do we say he is?

Any ideas - thanks!
 
Aw I'm so sorry for the loss of your baby :(

Like you say, it's impossible to say how he died without pay the expense and going through the emotional stress of a post mortum.

Sadly, guinea pigs can die from heart attacks, organ failure or strokes at any age
:( Or he could have had an underlying illness you new nothing about.

I'm not sure how old your children are but we like to say that our animals have passed to the rainbow bridge which is animal heaven. It's a shame that you can't bury pets in your garden but how about buying a memorial for him and letting your children choose? My guinea pigs are buried in pots but I have a little stature with a guinea pig on in my garden too.

You are welcome to post a tribute in our rainbow bridge section xx
 
I'm so sorry for your news, it's always hard when a piggy dies so unexpectedly because we start to question what we as owners did wrong, just find comfort in that whatever caused his death, he is no longer suffering 👼🏻 It is impossible to know the cause, even though they were inside did you have the heating on last night? Temperatures may have dropped lower than anticipated and often we are not subject to them when we are snuggled up on bed... this is only a suggestion and by no means a reason to blame yourself as honestly no one will know what caused the passing, as you said it may have been an underlying health issues and piggies are so good at hiding illness (making our lives a little more difficult)
Are you planning on having the ashes returned? If not I would say he's ran over the rainbow bridge to rainbow world to wheek and popcorn and eat lots of veggies, paint a beautiful picture in your kiddies head so that they know he's not suffering
RIP little one 🌈❣️
 
Sadly there is not always an explanation for the death of a guinea pig. Sometimes they die because of no obvious reason. I know it’s hard to accept. I lost a young piggies some years ago and still don’t know why.
For the kids I would tell them that he is now an angel and protects the kids from danger. And that he always can see them.
How old are they?
Most kids in younger age don’t actually care about where the body is. They are fine to know that their animal is now in heaven.
You could put a photo somewhere in the house and decorate it together with the kids.
 
beautiful_day said:
Hello,

So this morning I realized to my shock that one of our guinea pigs had died in the night.

He was apparently about 5-6 months old, and he was still quite small, although I think he’d definitely grown since we got him (about a month ago), and ate well.

I admit that last night I was a bit late in from work and although the kids had been stroking them, we hadn’t got them out. He was fine yesterday morning.

This is probably an impossible question, but what could just make them die like that? He could have been a runt, so maybe had a problem we didn’t know about, but he always seemed fine.

They are indoors, so no cold or other animal shocks. He had no injuries or anything stuck in his throat.

My other question is what to tell my kids? We are not allowed to bury him in the garden, so my husband took him to the vet, who will incinerate him. I am ok telling them he died, but where do we say he is?

Any ideas - thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi! I am very sorry for your loss! Guinea pigs can sadly die out of the blue from heart attacks or strokes at any age if they are living with a genetic time bomb in their body. Because they are so small, they can sometimes die within hours of showing the first symptom of an illness. :(

You can always bury the ashes in a flower pot and plant a rose or a herb etc. in it with the children together with a marker made from some wood or stone the children can paint if that feels right as a compromise. A piggy pot is something that can come with you whenever you move house.

We use the picture of the Rainbow Bridge for our pets as a conventional image, and you are welcome to post a tribute in our Rainbow Bridge section if you feel that it would help you and your children. You can find some poems etc. at the top of the section if you think that one of them is just right for you and your children to express your loss. Meeting death for the first time is not easy.
Rainbow Bridge Pets

Personally I like to imagine my gone piggies as little furry guardian angels looking out over my current ones. It is a visualisation of the legacy they leave through what they have taught me in order to for me to further improve lives and learn even more as I go along. Plus, my piggies are always in my heart, even my childhood ones, so they have not completely gone. ;)

Here are our tips on what you can do for your bereft piggy in the short and the longer term: Looking After A Bereaved Guinea Pig
 
Thanks for the replies! I guess I will never know why.

It has got colder at night here, but if it goes below 16*C at night then the heating comes on. I doubt it got lower than 19.

My kids are 5 and 7. We are not religious, and have never talked about heaven. I’m not sure about the rainbow bridge, we have never talked about anything like that, probably if I can’t get my head around the concept then I won’t be very good at convincing them.
A plant is a nice idea. Although it is not the best time of year and we are not very good at keeping plants alive....

I am getting paranoid now but the other guinea pig seems to be sneezing a bit.... should I try to take him to the vet? He’s running around and feeding etc.
 
beautiful_day said:
Thanks for the replies! I guess I will never know why.

It has got colder at night here, but if it goes below 16*C at night then the heating comes on. I doubt it got lower than 19.

My kids are 5 and 7. We are not religious, and have never talked about heaven. I’m not sure about the rainbow bridge, we have never talked about anything like that, probably if I can’t get my head around the concept then I won’t be very good at convincing them.
A plant is a nice idea. Although it is not the best time of year and we are not very good at keeping plants alive....

I am getting paranoid now but the other guinea pig seems to be sneezing a bit.... should I try to take him to the vet? He’s running around and feeding etc.
Click to expand...

Even a little pebble topping for a pot until spring will do if you do not want to plant anything.

If you are unsure, just concentrate on that those we love and that have touched our lives live on in our hearts, our memories and in what they have taught us and the way that has changed us for the better. ;)

You could also make a little collage of pictures and messages from you as a family to remember him by?

Otherwise, contact the free Blue Cross support line or one of the others. they are specially trained to also deal with children confronted with the pet loss and may have more ideas and recommendations for you to work out how you want to handle it in a way that feels right for you as a family.
Looking After A Bereaved Guinea Pig
 
It is normal to be jittery about the survivor. If you feel worried, by all means see a vet!
 
I had to deal with this a week ago - she didn’t go suddenly, she had a stroke and I had to nurse for a couple of weeks, she seemed to be improving then went downhill again quickly.

I am not religious either and my son is a very literal minded little boy so imagining something for him that he can’t really see evidence of stresses him out. Never has this been harder to deal with. I kept it factual but went easy on the details. Our guinea was cremated at the vets as well, I didn’t know how they’d deal with that aspect of it, so I just said the vets had taken care of her and she would be laid to rest in a special woodland with other pets who had passed (this is true they scatter the ashes there) so she is in a lovely peaceful place among lots of other loved animals and she isn’t in any pain. Our girl was only a few months old too, so that was difficult but I said it was something that was always going to happen and we still would have chosen her even if we’d known how it would end, so we needed to be grateful she’d come to a nice family and had a her short life in a nice place where she was cared for.

My son did cry a lot at bedtime the first night, I just reinforced that it is sad but it will feel easier as time goes on. It has now been a week and though he is sad when he thinks of her we made a big deal of making a fuss of our remaining pig and looking towards finding her a friend so she is not lonely.

Hope some of this helps you, it is exceptionally hard especially when it is a lot sooner than expected and takes you off guard.

Agree with keeping a close eye on your other pig but it is likely to have just been one of those things.
 
Thanks. Yes, my son is quite literal too, and although I am fine with telling them the truth, I think he’ll want to know exactly where the piggy has gone. And “the vet burnt him” is kind of brutal. I’ll try to go light on detail too.
 
so sorry for your loss, it's always hard to explain to young children. I can only agree with what others have suggested. My daughter was 11 when our first piggy died, she is now 23 and still has the framed photo of him in her bedroom.
Sending hugs to you all.
Sleep tight little piggy.xx
 
Yes my kids are aware that people are buried so I chose to imply that they bury them somewhere rather than scatter ashes as I think they would have found that brutal out of the blue with no context. I think truthful is best but age appropriate; they don’t need details if they’re going to find them upsetting.
 
on Wednesday i told my 2.5yr old that Barney was really poorly an d the vet might not be able to make him better so he would go to be a star in the sky and we would look for him that night. I really didn't think he would be coming home. So later that day i told her that he had got better and was coming home and she told my mum all about how Barney had been to the moon and was bringing her some stars. Thankfully she forgot about it by the time he came home as, funnily enough, he didn't bring any stars with him!
 
I’m so sorry for your sudden loss. You know your own children best, so only you will know how to break it to them. My own experience is that funnily enough children cope better with the idea of death and dying than we give them credit for. It’s less a taboo subject for them than it is for us adults. Hugs to you all.
 
Well in the end the kids took it ok. My son (7) was upset and wondered if it was his fault, poor thing. I said the vet would take care of him and he’d be with other animals that had died, and they didn’t ask any more.

We drew pictures of him and wrote bye bye Snowy. Only when I said to draw a picture, I meant a nice one of him,alive...but they both drew somewhat macabre pictures of him lying there dead. Oh well, I guess they express themselves how they feel....
 
Well done - kids can be quite macabre but yes, it’s because they just express themselves very honestly. Sounds like you handled it well and gave them an outlet for what they were thinking about. Less scary on paper than in their heads! RIP Snowy - hope you can all put it behind you. We’re a few days further on and they’re talking about the one that died in quite a matter of fact way so they still want to remember her but it does get easier for them.
 
beautiful_day said:
Well in the end the kids took it ok. My son (7) was upset and wondered if it was his fault, poor thing. I said the vet would take care of him and he’d be with other animals that had died, and they didn’t ask any more.

We drew pictures of him and wrote bye bye Snowy. Only when I said to draw a picture, I meant a nice one of him,alive...but they both drew somewhat macabre pictures of him lying there dead. Oh well, I guess they express themselves how they feel....
Click to expand...

It sounds like you handled it well and your kids are digesting their first real confrontation with death. It is in the long term better if they face it straight on rather than hiding behind a pretty conventional picture.

Death and dying are so pushed out of our normal daily life that most of us are feeling really helpless when confronted with it for the first time as most of the social rituals that used to give leave taking a structure and a frame have fallen by the wayside.
 
I'm sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, it's hard to say exactly what happened. Many guinea pigs from pet stores (if that's where your little guy came from) have a rough start to life and may have low-level infections when they come home that can flare up. Heart failure and other organ failure can occur at any age due to an underlying problem. It's worth getting the other pig checked out for any infectious illnesses.

Talking to kids about death and dying is hard... we're also not a religious family and I was pretty matter-of-fact talking to my kids... that all living things someday die, which is when the body and brain stop working and the life force is gone. I said that the body goes back to being part of the earth and as for the life force, no one knows for sure, but that people have different beliefs and I encouraged them to think about what they believed. Mine are teenagers (and one tween) now and seem to have survived this explanation just fine! ((HUGS)) and sorry for your loss and the kids' loss. I think as a parent it's harder watching our kids be sad than being sad ourselves.
 
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