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Guinea pig heat stroke brain damage recovery

L

Luna&beyonce

New Born Pup
Joined
Jul 27, 2021
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Location
Derbyshire uk
Hello all

we sadly lost one of our Guineas yesterday to heat stroke, one has survived and doing very well and one is struggling on.

My advice is regarding luna our guinea that is struggling on. So yesterday lunchtime she was in a lethargic state when we found her. We cooled her down and she perked up shuffling round her cage.

we took her to the vets yesterday afternoon. The vet said she may have brain damage… does anyone know if this is a thing caused by Heatstroke? Has anyone ever experienced brain damage in their Guineas? The vet thought we should put her to sleep but my experience of Guineas pigs is that they are either alive or dead… our previous Guineas that have been poorly have passed away very quickly so the fact our little Luna is hanging on makes me want to keep trying and not give up on her.

Over night I’ve been giving her a sugar/honey/water mix and she definitely seems better but she is very vacant and weak.

Do you think I’m prolonging the inevitable?

Has anyone had a guinea pig recover from this state? your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you
 
I’m sorry for your loss and sorry to hear Luna is struggling.
Is she eating hay? If not, you need to syringe feed her a fibre rich recovery feed such as critical care or mushed up pellets, not sugar/honey etc which isn’t good for them and offers no nutritional benefit and won’t keep the gut functioning

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike
 
Try Amazon or online. I don’t know if you can get it from the vets.
 
:agr:

Sorry to hear about the passing of your other piggy.
I do have to disagree with the notion of them being “alive or dead”, as quality of life should always be considered. How is she in herself?

You can buy the critical care online yes
 
Luna&beyonce said:
Thank you for your swift reply. Can I get the critical care food from the vets? I’m UK based? Xx
Click to expand...

You can possibly get it from your vet but it is sold in pet shops/Amazon.
As you don’t have critical care in your stocks right now, mush up some of her normal pellets with warm water until it forms a paste, then syringe feed that to her with a 1ml syringe, or in the absence of a syringe, use a teaspoon and let her lap at it. You can get syringes from Amazon or from a chemist (just don’t tell them it is for animal use)
Weigh her daily so you can ensure she is getting enough food. Any weight loss in a 24 hour period and she will need feeding more. You are aiming for at least 60ml of food in a 24 hour period where there is total loss of appetite, closer to 90ml

The guides I have linked above explain how to syringe feed And the one below about weight fluctuations. This is essential if she isn’t eating hay for herself, without it she will go into stasis.

Weight - Monitoring and Management
 
You can syringe feed mushed pellets until you can get critical care. Just soak the pellets in water until they are soft enough to get into the syringe.
 
Sorry to report we lost Luna this afternoon. We now have a rather sad Beyoncé who has lost both her flat mates in the space of 24hrs. 😞
 
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