My gorgeous girl Rosie passed away suddenly last night at the emergency vets. They told me she was in gut stasis. She had been a little off the day before but was still eating, although not as much as usual. Again yesterday seemed fine and was eating hay, but I booked her in to see the vet for a check up as she wasn't eating as much as usual. We started syringe feeding too. Then yesterday evening she just suddenly deteriorated.
I feel so guilty that I didn't take her to the vet on Sunday but I didn't think she needed to go urgently. The vet said there was nothing I could've done, and logically I know that, but I feel I let her down. She was only 2 and a half.
BIG HUGS
I am very sorry.
It could be heat related or impacted by the hot weather. It doesn't sound like primary full killing bloat or GI stasis where the onset of the full symptoms is pretty instant but rather like a secondary problem with yet something else going on behind it, like an internal cancer which can happen in piggies of that age.
Rosie must have been already very, very frail by then but there is nothing you could have done to prevent her quick decline even before it was picking up speed; once it gets underway can stop that as little as stepping into the way of a runaway rollercoaster train. I have been there often enough to have learned that the hard way.
Wiebke's Guide to Tummy Trouble
I had to have my 3 years old Tegeirian to sleep with a suspected large internal cancer masked by persistent bloating symptoms. An operation would have extremely little chances of success aas the cancer must have affected more than one organ by then.
It is very normal to experience intense soul searching and feelings of failure and guilt for any loving and responsible owner but these are much stronger after a sudden death and with losing a younger piggy. You just can't win them all, no matter how good your care is. As humans we are wired to reflect everything back onto ourselves and to blame ourselves for anything bad that happens to those we feel responsible for. You just have caught a really big dose of it.
Be kind with yourself in the coming days as you have to digest both the shock and the loss at the same time. It is always a lot tougher when losing a younger one in somewhat traumatic circumstances.
It is OK not to be OK but keep telling yourself that you haven't done wrong and that your vet was right: you could not have prevented it from happening anyway had you seen them sooner. It would have only taken Rosie a little bit longer to die - perhaps a day more.
We can sadly never choose when and what from our piggies die; that is not in our control. And we can never win them all. But it is not our fault. Our job as owners is to make each day that our pets have with us as good oned as much as we can, nothing more and nothing less. If we do that, then we give our pets what they want from their life and we do not fail them however long or short we have them.
Human Bereavement: Grieving, Processing and Support Links for Guinea Pig Owners and Their Children
Looking After a Bereaved Guinea Pig
