I was just looking for some advice and tips from all you experienced owners out there for end of life care.
Firstly I would like to say I have an excellent Guinea pig vet and if there is ever a health issue, I take them straight away!
I have a pack of 6 Guinea pigs and a few of them are quite elderly. 7-8 years old. And as they are all rescue/rehomed you don't always get a full background history.
When you have a guinea pig that's towards the end of its life due to age. Do you do anything different for them or the pack? I just want to be prepared more and get some advice from the experts out there. I love my Guinea pigs dearly and they mean the world to me so I want to make sure I give them everything they need it their last hours
Hi
It is always tough when you come to the sharp end of a long life.
You may find these two guide links here very helpful.
Caring for Older Piggies and Facing the End - A practical and supportive information collection
Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility
A Practical and Sensitive Guide to Dying, Terminal Illness and Euthanasia in Guinea Pigs
They are written in a sensitive but yet practical way and contain lots of helpful information and how-to advice, from care and further information links to some more common problems with oldies. The old age guide also contains the last two chapters of an article series I have written for Guinea Pig Magazine charting a guinea pig life from birth until death; the chapters that are most relevant for you are chapter 6: Old Age and chapter 7: Facing the End. They should give you a good overview of the subject and the most common challenges for you and for your piggies.
I am also adding our Dying guide link, which contains all the necessary information on multiple organ failure (i.e. a natural death), caring for a terminally ill guinea pig and a closer look at euthanasia/pts with all its attendant soul searching and more detailed information on the practical process.
It is never easy to say goodbye. You can get healthy piggies only so far. What they ultimately die from is out of your hands and will always come as a shock, no matter how much you are braced for it; the quietness in the piggy room after a loss can be hard to bear. Because of the frailness of real oldies, death often comes very quickly - whether that is a natural death or whether you have to race them to the vets for emergency pts; in my own experience with losing over 50 piggies over the years, it is about a 50:50 chance. Make sure that you have the wherewithal for more than one out-of-hours trip if needed.
With piggies you have had for a long time, you have also created lots more ties and memories, so it can be harder to learn how to change your daily routine (especially one that has been long established) so as to no longer include them.
If you have several oldies, you also have to brace for what I call 'Stampedes to the Rainbow Bridge' - several piggies passing in very quick succession; at the worst just days apart, like my 8 years old Morwenna and my Miaren who sadly had to be pts for acute kidney failure last week within 5 days of each other last week. Summer is always a difficult time as the higher temperatures despite your best efforts can be just enough to tip a very delicate balancy on the wrong side.
PS: I have removed the capital letters from your thread title. Please be aware that they actually make a thread title a lot harder to read when we skim quickly through our various alerts upon coming onto the forum to assess them for their urgency, so it rather gets pushed down the list instead of up.
We do our best to answer all threads on this forum promptly, seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time. There is no need to shout for attention on this forum. I hope that you can accept that.
