Help , I’m heartbroken

[Snowybunny]

Hello . First time here . I was a first time piggy owner , and my girl autumn passed away yesterday . I’m devastated , and feel so guilty . I don’t know if I caused it , and I need to protect my other piggy .
I adopted them as a pair a year ago , they are almost 2. I thought I was doing everything right . I’d check before giving them anything new. My active and lively Autumn went from being fine , to suddenly having horrible diarrhea. Of course it happened late on a snowy Saturday evening . It was all watery and a mess. I didn’t know what to do . I would hand feed her hay and she would eat it and I was making her taking some droppers of water . I gave her a couple small leaves of spinach to get water n vitamin c in her. Within about 6 hours , she started to form more normal looking poop , lighter in color , but solid . And she seemed to be feeling better. I thought we were good . Then yesterday she got very lethargic , kept rolling her side and lifting her back legs in obvious pain . I frantically tried calling all emergency vets within my state , as far as 2 hours away , and nobody had an exotics vet on staff last night and wouldn’t see her. I knew it was bad . I scoured online and found baby gripe water and Zantac and Baby ekectolite water . I went n bought it all. I started with the gripe water . Hoping it would help . Maybe slightly less pain , but I knew it was a life n death situation so about an hour after that I tried the Zantac. She died last night at 10 o’clock . .
I’m scared to death I caused this . They are given a as much Timothy hay as they want , and it’s a lot . I buy an expensive pellet mix , but now I’m finding that may have been bad . It had some little black sunflower seeds in it . Seeing that she would dig them out purposely . I had some in a bag for my hamster and I put like about 15 extra ones in their bowl . Could this have seriously caused what happened to her ? They eat romaine daily and have baby carrots every few days , they had had some squash a few days before . And they did get a couple little pieces of apple the morning before it happened . Did I cause this awful death of my baby ? I feel sick .

 

[Bill & Ted]

I am so sorry you lost little Autumn, sending you big hugs

I don’t for a moment think it’s anything you’ve done at all, and Autumn was probably very poorly and even if you had managed to find a vet who was prepared to see her thry may not have been able to save her. Guinea pigs are prey animals, by nature are designed to hide any illness until the very end, you tried your very best under very difficult circumstances x

Sleep tight Autumn

 

[VickiA]

I am so sorry. You clearly did what you could, but without a vet seeing her it would be impossible to say what the problem was. She was clearly very poorly and there may not have been anything that a vet could have done for her. Please go gently as you grieve.

 

[Snowybunny]

I am so sorry you lost little Autumn, sending you big hugs

I don’t for a moment think it’s anything you’ve done at all, and Autumn was probably very poorly and even if you had managed to find a vet who was prepared to see her thry may not have been able to save her. Guinea pigs are prey animals, by nature are designed to hide any illness until the very end, you tried your very best under very difficult circumstances x

Sleep tight Autumn

Thank you for your reply . The guilt is eating me alive . She was such a huge personality. I saw online it said you shouldn’t feed them sunflower seeds …. But the main reason on there was choking hazard and making them fat . My piggies are chunkers . I can’t for the life of me figure out what caused a healthy pig to suddenly get so I’ll and die. I assumed it had to be the seeds . Your post makes me question my guilt I’ve put on myself .

 

[Wiebke]

Hello . First time here . I was a first time piggy owner , and my girl autumn passed away yesterday . I’m devastated , and feel so guilty . I don’t know if I caused it , and I need to protect my other piggy .
I adopted them as a pair a year ago , they are almost 2. I thought I was doing everything right . I’d check before giving them anything new. My active and lively Autumn went from being fine , to suddenly having horrible diarrhea. Of course it happened late on a snowy Saturday evening . It was all watery and a mess. I didn’t know what to do . I would hand feed her hay and she would eat it and I was making her taking some droppers of water . I gave her a couple small leaves of spinach to get water n vitamin c in her. Within about 6 hours , she started to form more normal looking poop , lighter in color , but solid . And she seemed to be feeling better. I thought we were good . Then yesterday she got very lethargic , kept rolling her side and lifting her back legs in obvious pain . I frantically tried calling all emergency vets within my state , as far as 2 hours away , and nobody had an exotics vet on staff last night and wouldn’t see her. I knew it was bad . I scoured online and found baby gripe water and Zantac and Baby ekectolite water . I went n bought it all. I started with the gripe water . Hoping it would help . Maybe slightly less pain , but I knew it was a life n death situation so about an hour after that I tried the Zantac. She died last night at 10 o’clock . .
I’m scared to death I caused this . They are given a as much Timothy hay as they want , and it’s a lot . I buy an expensive pellet mix , but now I’m finding that may have been bad . It had some little black sunflower seeds in it . Seeing that she would dig them out purposely . I had some in a bag for my hamster and I put like about 15 extra ones in their bowl . Could this have seriously caused what happened to her ? They eat romaine daily and have baby carrots every few days , they had had some squash a few days before . And they did get a couple little pieces of apple the morning before it happened . Did I cause this awful death of my baby ? I feel sick .

BIG HUGS

I am so sorry for your loss and the traumatic experience it has turned into in the middle of a very stormy, snowy weekend! Unfortunately, what you were up against was a real life and death emergency. Please take consolation that you have tried your very best and that even getting being seen in time may likely not have saved your piggy, seeing how quickly they deteriorated. All we can do is always try our best; we are not designed as superhumans who can surmount any obstacle in our way and pull off a miracle recovery in the face of adversity.
I fully sympathise with your situation having lost my Myfina over the course of Christmas Day 2017 at a time when our emergency vet services where hopelessly snowed under with life and death cases. Myfina passed away before she could be seen facing a several hours wait at the struggling out-of-hours clinic.

Strong feelings of guilt are very normal after a loss; especially such a traumatic and sudden one. As humans we are wired to seek the fault with ourselves long before any other causes. The strength of your feelings is not caused by you being a bad owner but rather by you being a very caring and responsible one - you wouldn't feel as battered if you didn't care deeply in the first place!
The guides in this link contain information about the natural dying process (which may help to put some of your obervations into a bit more of a context), help for your own human grieving process and all its rather unexpected and often overwhelming aspects and developments (especially if you have never experienced it before) and practical advice on what you can do for a bereaved companion in the wake of a loss in the short and longer term: Death, Dying, Terminal Illness; Human Grieving and Bereaved Companions: Information and Support for Owners and Their Children

Without a faecal lab test, it is unfortunately impossible for us to say what has caused it. All you can do is sit it out with the companion in this case.
Here is some practical and helpful information if you need to:
Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Guinea Lynx :: Diarrhea


What you can however contructively do is to make some changes to your piggy diet. Any root veg and fruit are very high in sugar and calories and should only feature at most as an occasional treat in a very small quantity; too much on a daily basis can contribute to dysbiosis (i.e. the overgrowth of the wrong kind of bacteria) - it may likely NOT be the actual cause but it may not have helped.

This is something you can address now, which may help your current mindset.
Keep in mind that guinea pigs have evolved on mainly grass (fresh and dry, i.e. hay), which should make around 75-80% of the daily food intake; this they would have supplemented with other mainly green plant forage for the trace elements that are not so much present in grass (which is actually very high in vitamin C when growing and the reason why guinea pigs never had the need to make their own). Keep in mind that fruit and root veg is something they wouldn't come across much and wouldn't eat lots of. They would also not come across pellets. Both our preferably green veg and fresh herbs with only a tablespoon of pellets are as close to their natural diet as we can get in an urban environment but it can make difference for their gut health and longevity.
Sadly, there is still A LOT of bad diet advice and mistaken ideas as to what should be fed around, so please do not beat yourself up; you cannot change the past, but you can always learn and improve the future. Any new diet will also take some weeks to gradually feed through. But it may hopefully help you being able to make one chance and feel like you are doing something positive instead of just waiting and praying.

Here is the link to our diet guide, which looks at diet as a whole and at each food group in detail, which you may find hopefully very interesting and helpful. Please do not change the diet at all once and do not introduce more than one new food in a meal in order to allow the gut microbiome to adjust gradually and avoid bloating or diarrhea.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

I hope that this will help you?

 

[Snowybunny]

Thank you so much . Your kindness is so appropriated , I’m thankful for it and the links . My little Winter is very dependent on Autumn for security and leadership . We are worried about her . She is people skittish , no matter how much love we give . I feel scared to get another , piggy , I can’t help but feel I must have done something to cause this .. she was so young . I don’t know what the other causes aside from diet could be . I keep my animals meticulously clean . My girls are as potty trained as possible for pigs , I think . I’m use to dogs and cats and even rabbits .. but this was so sudden and she was so young

 

[Merab]

So very sorry for your loss.
It sounds as if you did everything you possibly could for Autumn and gave her a lovely life.
Your feelings of guilt are perfectly normal in this situation.
Be kind and gentle with yourself as you grieve.
Holding you in my heart

 

[weepweeps]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I’m so sorry you have lost lovely Autumn. Please don’t blame yourself. They hide their illnesses so well that by the time she was showing signs of illness she would have been very ill. I’m sure it was nothing you did wrong. I hope Winter is ok. She would definitely benefit from a new friend as she is still so young. I lost a very young piggy once and blamed myself even though I took him to the vets three times in two weeks. I didn’t want to get another but I knew Percy needed a buddy. I’m so pleased I did. Take care.

 

[Snowybunny]

I know eventually I’ll put my worries and feelings aside and do what is best for Winter … which is getting her a friend . Cause that’s what moms do , we put our kids , human and otherwise above ourselves . I will wait at least a few weeks though to make sure it’s not something that she will suffer as well. I sure wish I knew what happened though , cause now I feel like I’m handling delicate glass. I thought it was bloat , but when I think about it , her stomach didn’t feel
Hard at all, it actually felt less dense than normal
. Almost deflated Thank u for sharing your warm thoughts and experience .

 

[Snowybunny]

So very sorry for your loss.
It sounds as if you did everything you possibly could for Autumn and gave her a lovely life.
Your feelings of guilt are perfectly normal in this situation.
Be kind and gentle with yourself as you grieve.
Holding you in my heart

Thank you that is so kind . You are lovely people here .

 

[Wiebke]

I know eventually I’ll put my worries and feelings aside and do what is best for Winter … which is getting her a friend . Cause that’s what moms do , we put our kids , human and otherwise above ourselves . I will wait at least a few weeks though to make sure it’s not something that she will suffer as well. I sure wish I knew what happened though , cause now I feel like I’m handling delicate glass. I thought it was bloat , but when I think about it , her stomach didn’t feel
Hard at all, it actually felt less dense than normal
. Almost deflated Thank u for sharing your warm thoughts and experience .

As long as Winter is still eating and drinking, she will hold for a few weeks.

Please take the time to read the information in this link here. You will find it very helpful both for Winter and for yourself: Death, Dying, Terminal Illness; Human Grieving and Bereaved Companions: Information and Support for Owners and Their Children

Give yourself time to settle down and start digesting what has happened.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Aw please don’t feel it’s anything you’ve done, I’m sure it wasn’t, sending big hugs, take care I think it’s a normal part of grieving wondering if I could have done this or notice that, I’ve certainly been there too x

 

[weepweeps]

I know eventually I’ll put my worries and feelings aside and do what is best for Winter … which is getting her a friend . Cause that’s what moms do , we put our kids , human and otherwise above ourselves . I will wait at least a few weeks though to make sure it’s not something that she will suffer as well. I sure wish I knew what happened though , cause now I feel like I’m handling delicate glass. I thought it was bloat , but when I think about it , her stomach didn’t feel
Hard at all, it actually felt less dense than normal
. Almost deflated Thank u for sharing your warm thoughts and experience .

I only had my piggies about 3 months when Pippin passed. I really thought it was something I had done wrong. But it wasn’t.

 

[Snowybunny]

As long as Winter is still eating and drinking, she will hold for a few weeks.

Please take the time to read the information in this link here. You will find it very helpful both for Winter and for yourself: Death, Dying, Terminal Illness; Human Grieving and Bereaved Companions: Information and Support for Owners and Their Children

Give yourself time to settle down and start digesting what has happened.

Thank you I will

 

[Swissgreys]

Two years ago I had an almost identical situation to you.
Our 2 year old male became quite ill very suddenly one morning - he went from being fine the day before (the previous day had been their weekly weigh in and health check, and he was perfect) to laying on his side with terrible diarrhoea and barley able to stand within hours.
He had always been a perfectly health pig who was fed the optimal diet (as outlined in the Forum guides) with plenty of space in a clean, indoor cage.
I work from home and popped upstairs to make a coffee, and when I went to check on the piggies it was clear he was very ill.
I called the vet immediately, and she offered to see him as soon as she finished her morning surgery and within 90 minutes.
I prepared the carrier and got him out of the cage to see if I could do anything. Literally less than an hour later I put him into the carrier and as I was putting my shoes on in the hallway I checked on him again and it was obvious although he was still alive he was very, very ill and it was too late already.
I got him out of the carrier and wrapped him firmly in a blanket and help him while he twitched a few more times before taking his last breath.

I was beyond devastated - he lived the perfect life and 24 hours earlier he had been fine.
I called the vet and took him in anyway, and she said from a brief examination that he clearly had gone into some form of major organ failure and everything had started shutting down. She agreed she couldn't have done anything to save him.
Sometimes despite doing our best these things still happen.
I ma so sorry for your loss.

 

[Snowybunny]

Two years ago I had an almost identical situation to you.
Our 2 year old male became quite ill very suddenly one morning - he went from being fine the day before (the previous day had been their weekly weigh in and health check, and he was perfect) to laying on his side with terrible diarrhoea and barley able to stand within hours.
He had always been a perfectly health pig who was fed the optimal diet (as outlined in the Forum guides) with plenty of space in a clean, indoor cage.
I work from home and popped upstairs to make a coffee, and when I went to check on the piggies it was clear he was very ill.
I called the vet immediately, and she offered to see him as soon as she finished her morning surgery and within 90 minutes.
I prepared the carrier and got him out of the cage to see if I could do anything. Literally less than an hour later I put him into the carrier and as I was putting my shoes on in the hallway I checked on him again and it was obvious although he was still alive he was very, very ill and it was too late already.
I got him out of the carrier and wrapped him firmly in a blanket and help him while he twitched a few more times before taking his last breath.

I was beyond devastated - he lived the perfect life and 24 hours earlier he had been fine.
I called the vet and took him in anyway, and she said from a brief examination that he clearly had gone into some form of major organ failure and everything had started shutting down. She agreed she couldn't have done anything to save him.
Sometimes despite doing our best these things still happen.
I ma so sorry for your loss.

I’m so greatful for your response . It does sound very similar and it brings me comfort . Though I’m sad for you. But if can happen to somebody who is the perfect pig owner , it could happen to anybody . I think the suddenness of it and the young age is what was so jarring . Usually with my other pets , you have some warning or are getting yourself prepared for the inevitable as they get older . But we went from having them playing in their “ piggy play land pig pen “ the day before to her being in agony . The pain is what gets to me most , I just wanted to take it away for her , even if that meant euthanasia…. And I was helpless to get her help

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you I will

Any of us long term owners have come up against sudden illness and a very quick death; I certainly have repeatedly. Just in last October I had to make the decision to euthanasize my 6 year old Gethin. He was not quite right in the morning and was still nibbling on his breakfast but deteriorated quickly throughout the day. It didn't fell like a normal bad bloat (and I have certainly had enough of them over the years).
A local vet did kindly stay on after hours to see him; by then he had stopped accepting syringe feed and had started fighting the syringe, so his body had likely started to close down already. His belly was full of poos but as it was a Friday evening after hours, no x-ray could be done and we both agreed that Gethin was a) in great discomfort and b) very unlikely to survive the night, never mind the weekend and that the kindest thing was to spare him some more very uncomfortable hours and send him to the Rainbow Bridge. Gethin had be perfectly normal the evening before... I was lucky to see a vet but it still didn't buy him a longer life.

You just can never choose when and what from your piggies die; that is very much out of your control. What is worth keeping in mind is that guinea pigs don't have a concept for an average life expectancy; they measure their lives in good days and a happy 'now'. If you give them that and know that you have given them that, then you haven't failed as a good owner, however suddenly and under whatever circumstances your pet dies. It also means that it doesn't matter to a guinea pig how long they live but whether they have had a good life or not.

You sound like you have very much given Autumn a very happy life and have not failed her in the way she has measured her life. Unfortunately, emergencies have sadly very much a bad habit of happening at the worst time possible.

 

[Snowybunny]

In all my years of being a pet owner to Lord knows how many angels , I have never thought of it in that way . “ they don’t have a concept of a lifespan , they measure life in good days “ I think that’s beautiful and very true . Love that .

 

[Freela]

I'm really sorry for your loss. I truly don't think there was anything you did to cause it. Guinea pigs can go from seemingly fine to passing away pretty quickly (most of my pigs have gone from fine to passing in less than 24 hours, even with managing to get most of them to a vet during those hours.) Please try not to beat yourself up. She was obviously much loved and you gave her a happy life, which is what really matters the most for them. They don't know quantity, only quality. Gentle ((HUGS)) to you.

 

[Snowybunny]

Thank you so much for your reassurance and kindness.