My pig was 5.5 years. He started having issues hunching and not eating. I took him to the closest vet, not a specialist. He said it was respiratory issues and gave him an antibiotic. Bear seemed stable but still didn’t eat. The vets were closed Sunday and Monday due to a holiday. I read how to feed him with critical care and followed the guidance on this forum. I saw small poos where he was sleeping and assumed they were his because I was feeding him. But I didn’t separate him to make sure which I should have. I took him to an exotic vet and they did a basic examination but no further testing. I told them money was tight and I feel like they just pulled back at the point. They gave me 130 euros of medication and said his lungs were clear and it was likely dental issues. They did not explain to me the seriousness of the situation. They also gave me more critical care and instructed me to keep feeding him. The next morning he was making odd noises. I rushed him back to the vet but he ended up dying. This time with much pressing they finally did an X-ray shortly before he passed and they found a mass on his liver. They are saying it was a tumor, but all I can think is that he had gut stasis and I kept pumping him full of food until it pushed on his chest and killed him. And all I can think is how hurt and confused he must have been and how much pain he must have been in while I kept stuffing him more and more. I have asked the vet if this was possible but I won’t get an answer for several hours. Is it possible that I killed my Guinea pig this way?
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I think I killed my Guinea pig in a horrific way
- Thread starter Aaaaa7
- Start date
Zorro1
Adult Guinea Pig
The vets instructed you to keep feeding him so don't feel bad. No one knew what the issue was so you couldn't have known what to do. Please don't feel bad.
He lived well over five happy years with you. You did the best you thought to do for him in his last days.
I don't know guinea pig health very well, but syringe feeding him may not have been the cause of his death anyway. No matter if the vet confirms it was your feeding him or not, you still couldn't have done better than what you thought was best for him. He sounds like he was a very loved guinea pig.
He lived well over five happy years with you. You did the best you thought to do for him in his last days.
I don't know guinea pig health very well, but syringe feeding him may not have been the cause of his death anyway. No matter if the vet confirms it was your feeding him or not, you still couldn't have done better than what you thought was best for him. He sounds like he was a very loved guinea pig.
He was very loved but I feel like I should have separated and made sure he was pooping. I just was worried he’d die without being able to say goodbye to his cagemate if I did, which ended up happening anyway. I saw small poops and it only made sense they were his and poops where he was laying, but the Guinea pigs switch out. I didn’t have a positive experience with the vet. I don’t think they handled the situation properly. He was okay when I brought him in the night before. I did what they said and he was dead the next day. I feel so traumatized by the thought that I caused this and forced him through it for days.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
I want to reassure you of the fact this wasn’t your fault and actually you did the right things.
We would never have recommended you separate him. Doing that would have caused him stress and made everything worse for him.
Separating him from his friend is not how you monitor food intake via poop output.
Poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake so it is an unreliable method of gauging food intake each day. The only thing we would have advised you to do which you may not have known about is to weigh him every day. The daily weight checks are the way to gauge food intake and ensure you are syringe feeding enough to keep his weight stable each day, not by separating him and watching poop (which would only have given you unreliable and out of date information).
When a piggy is not eating and is going into stasis, you absolutely must keep syringe feeding. Syringe syringe categorically does not kill them. Feeding him did not push food into his chest and kill him - that is impossible.
If you don’t feed a poorly piggy, then the gut stasis will not have any chance of being rectified and the piggy will die.
With that said, unfortunately stasis is a difficult thing to overcome and depends very much on the cause behind it. Sometimes they cannot be saved no matter how hard you try - sadly this is the situation for you, a tumour in the liver would not have been something that could be overcome but please rest assured you did absolutely everything you were supposed to…you loved him, fed him and saw the vet when you saw something was wrong
Please don’t blame yourself. Look back fondly on the time you had with him.
Sending hugs
I want to reassure you of the fact this wasn’t your fault and actually you did the right things.
We would never have recommended you separate him. Doing that would have caused him stress and made everything worse for him.
Separating him from his friend is not how you monitor food intake via poop output.
Poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake so it is an unreliable method of gauging food intake each day. The only thing we would have advised you to do which you may not have known about is to weigh him every day. The daily weight checks are the way to gauge food intake and ensure you are syringe feeding enough to keep his weight stable each day, not by separating him and watching poop (which would only have given you unreliable and out of date information).
When a piggy is not eating and is going into stasis, you absolutely must keep syringe feeding. Syringe syringe categorically does not kill them. Feeding him did not push food into his chest and kill him - that is impossible.
If you don’t feed a poorly piggy, then the gut stasis will not have any chance of being rectified and the piggy will die.
With that said, unfortunately stasis is a difficult thing to overcome and depends very much on the cause behind it. Sometimes they cannot be saved no matter how hard you try - sadly this is the situation for you, a tumour in the liver would not have been something that could be overcome but please rest assured you did absolutely everything you were supposed to…you loved him, fed him and saw the vet when you saw something was wrong
Please don’t blame yourself. Look back fondly on the time you had with him.
Sending hugs
I’m so very sorry for your loss. Please don’t blame yourself. Reading your post, you definitely did all of the right things. You noticed he was poorly, took him to the vets and followed their advice. You have done nothing wrong.
Sometimes the call to the bridge is just too strong and not everything can be fixed.
Popcorn high over the bridge Bear.
Sending you massive hugs.
Sometimes the call to the bridge is just too strong and not everything can be fixed.
Popcorn high over the bridge Bear.
Sending you massive hugs.
RosieLily
Forum Donator 2024/25
I feel your heartache. You did what you could - after it's over, we start bombarding ourselves with the "why's" and "what if's" because death doesn't make sense when it happens. It's our way of finding logic in the grief when sometimes we really just have no control over what comes next.
Breathe and be gentle with yourself. The good memories are with you forever.
Enjoy the Bridge, darling boy
Breathe and be gentle with yourself. The good memories are with you forever.
Enjoy the Bridge, darling boy
I was weighing him daily. At least for the last few days when I realized there was still a food problem. They told me to separate him after the vet appointment to watch for poo so against my better judgement I did. I could only with a big sofa pillow so he couldn’t even see or smell his cage mate when he got sick. They also failed to tell me how sick he was and sent me home knowing I would be an hour away. So I wasn’t there when he died either. He died surrounded by strangers, but at least not in pain. My heart breaks though thinking he never got to say goodbye to his little buddy and he was probably looking for me among the vet staff but I wasn’t there. I didn’t even say goodbye when I handed him over because I was so rushed and worried. It’s so hard to get over this. I did bring the body back for his cage mate to say goodbye and understand at least, but it kills me that he never had a chance to see either of us one last time.
Zorro1
Adult Guinea Pig
Don't be hard on yourself. It can be hard not to start blaming yourself, but know that there was nothing you could do. You couldn't have predicted when he was going to pass, but you did your best for him by taking him to the vet.
Hi
BIG HUGS
Please rest assured that you have not killed your piggy and that you have done all the right things. As humans we are wired to reflect everything back onto ourselves. In the case of a pet loss, strong feelings of failure, guilt, or intense soul-searching are something we all experience but sometimes you can get trapped in one of those weird mind loops -especially when you do not know what exactly has gone wrong and your mind is putting 2 and 2 together and is coming out with 523...
Your feelings are in fact a reflection of how deeply you care; they are reverse side of the coin called love. The more you love, the more you grapple with the loss.
Please try to be as kind with yourself as you can. It is OK not to be OK for a little while but if you find yourself trapped in one of the pernicious guilt loops, then this goes beyond not being OK, displays PTSD-like symptoms and needs ideally addressing before you go to pieces or stop functioning.
My thoughts are with you after your traumatic experience.
BIG HUGS
Please rest assured that you have not killed your piggy and that you have done all the right things. As humans we are wired to reflect everything back onto ourselves. In the case of a pet loss, strong feelings of failure, guilt, or intense soul-searching are something we all experience but sometimes you can get trapped in one of those weird mind loops -especially when you do not know what exactly has gone wrong and your mind is putting 2 and 2 together and is coming out with 523...
Your feelings are in fact a reflection of how deeply you care; they are reverse side of the coin called love. The more you love, the more you grapple with the loss.
Please try to be as kind with yourself as you can. It is OK not to be OK for a little while but if you find yourself trapped in one of the pernicious guilt loops, then this goes beyond not being OK, displays PTSD-like symptoms and needs ideally addressing before you go to pieces or stop functioning.
My thoughts are with you after your traumatic experience.
Merab
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So sorry for your loss.
You did everything right for your piggy. Please don’t feel guilty.
Be gentle with yourself as you grieve
Hugs
You did everything right for your piggy. Please don’t feel guilty.
Be gentle with yourself as you grieve
Hugs
exia
Junior Guinea Pig
I'm so sorry about yours loss, and I feel so much for you while reading your text. Remember Bear was 5,5 years old and that means he had a pretty long, healthy and happy life with you.
You followed the vets instructions. I dont know why they would have told you he had a tumour if he didnt? I recently lost two of my boys to lymphoma/tumors, when I lost my second one I felt so guilty, like how on earth could two of my boys get a the same kind of health issues? The vet told me its not uncommon for non-castrated boars to get this problems as they get older. When my first started to show signs I as a owner was sure he "just" had a URI because of his symptoms. Just like Bear he was a bit hunched, acted a bit off and was breathing funny. It was a brutal chock to hear he had lymphoma.
I dont know what you could have done in a different way. You dont know if he really was bloated, or the small poos was just from not eating enough. Its not easy to feed a sick pig, and I know that anxiety very well when you just want them to get enough food in the belly without stressing them.
The most important thing is that you loved Bear, and you really cared for him and did your best. He lived healthy for 5,5 long years in your care. Be nice to yourself, and take your time to grieve your boy. They leave such a big and empty place behind and an eternal footprint in our hearts
You followed the vets instructions. I dont know why they would have told you he had a tumour if he didnt? I recently lost two of my boys to lymphoma/tumors, when I lost my second one I felt so guilty, like how on earth could two of my boys get a the same kind of health issues? The vet told me its not uncommon for non-castrated boars to get this problems as they get older. When my first started to show signs I as a owner was sure he "just" had a URI because of his symptoms. Just like Bear he was a bit hunched, acted a bit off and was breathing funny. It was a brutal chock to hear he had lymphoma.
I dont know what you could have done in a different way. You dont know if he really was bloated, or the small poos was just from not eating enough. Its not easy to feed a sick pig, and I know that anxiety very well when you just want them to get enough food in the belly without stressing them.
The most important thing is that you loved Bear, and you really cared for him and did your best. He lived healthy for 5,5 long years in your care. Be nice to yourself, and take your time to grieve your boy. They leave such a big and empty place behind and an eternal footprint in our hearts
I thought maybe they were trying to make me feel better by hiding that I caused it. I woke up at 2am and decided this, so probably not my most logical thinking. The vet was rather cold at times in how they handled it, they didn’t do diagnostic testing until it was too late instead sending me with a bunch of pills, and they didn’t communicate the severity of his condition to me at any time including when they sent me home. They kept giving me conflicting answers about his care and giving me a hard time about my inability to pay, basically leaving me highly stressed out, confused, and guilty. Then I rushed home to check if I could get my credit card numbers to pay so they’d stop withholding treatment and it’s an hour process to get to and from the vet one way, so he died while I was on the bus trying to get back to him after they called me. But in their notes they knew hours in advance that he was not going to make it. I’m just so devastated. It’s not so much his death, that is hard enough. But it was the experience at the vet, the fact that he couldn’t say goodbye to his lifelong cage mate, and the fact that I wasn’t there when he died. I can’t forgive myself for leaving. I hesitated twice but the staff said he was responding well to oxygen, that she had seen pigs in far worse condition than him, and that he wasn’t that old being only five as many pigs live until 7-8. So I left feeling optimistic and assuming it would be treatable if I could just get my credit card info. I promised myself I would never leave my pets alone at the vet to die with strangers in a strange place. Even if his death wasn’t avoidable, if they had done the testing the night before he could have died at home. And his little buddy is having such a hard time and I don’t know what to do for him. It’s all so heartbreaking and I know I can’t change it but the way the vets handled it was traumatic and I’m struggling so much with it.I'm so sorry about yours loss, and I feel so much for you while reading your text. Remember Bear was 5,5 years old and that means he had a pretty long, healthy and happy life with you.
You followed the vets instructions. I dont know why they would have told you he had a tumour if he didnt? I recently lost two of my boys to lymphoma/tumors, when I lost my second one I felt so guilty, like how on earth could two of my boys get a the same kind of health issues? The vet told me its not uncommon for non-castrated boars to get this problems as they get older. When my first started to show signs I as a owner was sure he "just" had a URI because of his symptoms. Just like Bear he was a bit hunched, acted a bit off and was breathing funny. It was a brutal chock to hear he had lymphoma.
I dont know what you could have done in a different way. You dont know if he really was bloated, or the small poos was just from not eating enough. Its not easy to feed a sick pig, and I know that anxiety very well when you just want them to get enough food in the belly without stressing them.
The most important thing is that you loved Bear, and you really cared for him and did your best. He lived healthy for 5,5 long years in your care. Be nice to yourself, and take your time to grieve your boy. They leave such a big and empty place behind and an eternal footprint in our hearts
Not pills but meds. I thought maybe the vet felt bad and was hiding that the mass was a build up of i digested food. I tried all alone for a week to save him and it wasn’t enough and then the vet was an awful experience and it’s all just been so difficult.
Bill & Ted
Forum Buddy
I’m so sorry you lost your little piggie. Please don’t think it was your fault, you sound like you did everything right, I would have done exactly the same. Take heart he was very loved and he will have known just how much you cared
Thank you for this. It helped me a lot. This entire forum has.Hi
BIG HUGS
Please rest assured that you have not klilled your piggy and that you have done all the right things. As humans we are wired to reflect everything back onto ourselves. In the case of a pet loss, strong feelings of failure, guilt, or intense soul-searching are something we all experience but sometimes you can get trapped in one of those weird mind loops -especially when you do not know what exactly has gone wrong and your mind is putting 2 and 2 together and is coming out with 523...
Your feelings are in fact a reflection of how deeply you care; they are reverse side of the coin called love. The more you love, the more you grapple with the loss.
Please try to be as kind with yourself as you can. It is OK not to be OK for a little while but if you find yourself trapped in one of the pernicious mind loops, then this goes beyond not being OK, displays PTSD-like symptoms and needs ideally addressing before you go to pieces or stop functioning.
My thoughts are with you after your traumatic experience.
exia
Junior Guinea Pig
From what you describe, it sounds like the vet wasnt very experienced in Guinea pigs and that stress with your creditcard must have been such a painful stress for you and I understand it hurts so bad. But this is not your fault, sadly our loved little friends are with us for such a short time and they tend to hide their sickness until its too late. You really did what you could and most important you gave him 5,5 years of your love.
I'm sure your pigs knew it was time and had their goodbyes. Pigs just know. All you can do and should do is to give all your love to the friend. Grieve with each other, hug him and give him so much treats! When you are ready, please write a little tribute for your Bear and give us some photos. Its really hard to write, but for me the answers always have been very comforting and I felt a bit less lonely. Not many of my friends or my husband understands how attached I am with my boys, and they dont understand how hard it is to lose them. On this forum people know
I will definitely post a tribute sometime soon. And they were exotic pet specialists and I was told the vet had 10 years experience with small pets and was getting her masters in it. I think when I said I had money troubles meaning to make a plan on what was the best thing to start with, it’s like they just washed their hands of it. I may make a complaint to the veterinary council after I have had more time to grieve but I haven’t decided yet. I just can’t shake the feeling that something was handled wrong but maybe it’s just grief and they truly tried their bestFrom what you describe, it sounds like the vet wasnt very experienced in Guinea pigs and that stress with your creditcard must have been such a painful stress for you and I understand it hurts so bad. But this is not your fault, sadly our loved little friends are with us for such a short time and they tend to hide their sickness until its too late. You really did what you could and most important you gave him 5,5 years of your love.
I'm sure your pigs knew it was time and had their goodbyes. Pigs just know. All you can do and should do is to give all your love to the friend. Grieve with each other, hug him and give him so much treats! When you are ready, please write a little tribute for your Bear and give us some photos. Its really hard to write, but for me the answers always have been very comforting and I felt a bit less lonely. Not many of my friends or my husband understands how attached I am with my boys, and they dont understand how hard it is to lose them. On this forum people know
Mrs Tiggy Winkle
Teenage Guinea Pig
I'm so sorry for your loss, and for how badly this is hitting you.
I understand because I was usually hit pretty badly too.
I second everything that has been posted by everybody above.
I understand because I was usually hit pretty badly too.
I second everything that has been posted by everybody above.
