We recently lost one of our three guinea pigs to heart disease (apparently DCM, but I don't think the vet definitively confirmed it). She was only four and a half, and while I'd noticed her slowing down over recent months, I attributed that to 'middle age' and mistakenly believed she was an otherwise healthy and happy guinea pig, eating well and behaving normally as the matriarch of our little herd.
It was only two weeks between the onset of obvious symptoms - a squeak or hoot while breathing, which the vet initially misdiagnosed as a respiratory infection - and her being PTS after a heartbreakingly fruitless week of syringe feeding, frusol, pimobendan and loxicom. My question is, how long would her heart disease have been developing BEFORE we noticed the symptoms? What would have been the latency / incubation period and should we have noticed any initial signs that might have prompted us to intervene earlier, and perhaps more successfully?
Hi and welcome
BIG HUGS
I am ever so sorry for your loss.
Heart disease often has a genetic link but it can be
really difficult even for a very experienced vet to diagnose; especially in the early stages. None of my own piggies who displayed three potential heart symptoms did react to their heart meds trial, for instance, but I lost a couple of piggies to their heart stopping towards the end of an operation whose pre-op examination by a very experienced clinic hadn't shown a problem and one who was found to have a very irregular heart beat just pre-op, whose make or break emergency runaway tumour operation went from risky to very high risk at the last minute. It was sadly a 'break' just at the very end of the op. She was only 2 years old. It always comes as a nasty shock.
It is not an infectious disease but it can be inherited. It can affect piggies of all ages, including babies; I lost a seemingly healthy 1 year old to sudden acute heart failure.
Not very long ago, quite a few vets still thought that guinea pigs couldn't get heart problems in the first place. It is one of the areas where guinea pigs are far behind other pet species even though we now have more medications available and it is not quite as much hit and miss as it used to be but there is no speedway to catch up with bigger pets.
There are also different forms of heart disease and heart problems but they tend to often hide well and symptoms can be very subtle and indistinct. It depends on what heart problem a piggy has and how well they respond to the medication. If they have already started to go into acute failure, then it can be sadly too late.
Strong feelings of failure and guilt are normal for the onset of the grieving process. They are not an expression of you have done anything wrong but of how deeply you care. Soul-searching is the big mental trap we humans tend to get caught in since we are wired as a species to reflect everything back onto ourselves even though a lot is in fact not in our control.
But as long as we give our piggies the happy todays in good care that they measure their lives by we don't fail them, however long or short a life is. It's not the quantity but the quality of care that counts.
You may find this guide here helpful in understanding better what you are currently experiencing and what you may experience in the coming days and week. Grieving is a lot more complex and unexpected than our sanitised, socially ccepted concept of being very sad:
Human Bereavement: Grieving, Processing and Support Links for Guinea Pig Owners and Their Children
