Lost my 8 month old boar today

[Melxava]

My young rescue guinea pig Binx was playing and eating just fine until Sunday. He is 8 months old, 5 of those months spent with us. He is housed with his buddy in a 6x3 C&c cage indoors and enjoyed a variety of veggies and hay each day. On Sunday I noticed he stopped eating and drinking and wasn’t pooping/peeing. I gave him critical care and water every 2-3 hours until I was able to take him to the vet Monday morning. Vet checked him over and kept him in for observation for 6 hours and advised me he was fine and to bring him home. I brought him home and when I sat him in his cage he just sort of dragged himself around and seemed to have lost full use of his legs. Vet asked me to bring him straight back, she prescribed Metacam and asked me to bring him back this morning. I stayed awake all night with him, sat by his cage, he rapidly deteriorated to the point he couldn’t even lift his head. He started to have what looked like seizures, opening his mouth wide repeatedly and twitching his head and back legs. At 8.30am this morning at the vet we made the decision to let him go. It was a hard decision but we could not see him suffer any longer. The vet couldn’t tell me what could have caused this, other than a “neurological illness”. Has anyone experienced anything like this before with their piggy’s? We have owned gp’s for the last 12 years and I have never came across this. We are so heartbroken to have had to let him go :-(

 

[Siikibam]

I’m so sorry for your loss. They’re small creatures but take up such a big part in our hearts. Sometimes, try as you might, the call of the bridge is too strong. Just be peaceful in the knowledge he felt loved and cared for right up to the end.

Take care of yourself and I hope any remaining piggy will be of some comfort to you

 

[My Piggies]

I'm so sorry for your loss. It sounds like he had a wonderful life, and was very loved and well cared for.
Sleep tight little one, enjoy the rainbow bridge

 

[Melxava]

I’m so sorry for your loss. They’re small creatures but take up such a big part in our hearts. Sometimes, try as you might, the call of the bridge is too strong. Just be peaceful in the knowledge he felt loved and cared for right up to the end.

Take care of yourself and I hope any remaining piggy will be of some comfort to you

Thanks for your reply. They become part of the family and take a piece of our hearts with them when it’s their time to go. I just wish I knew what could have caused this, he was so young. But he was loved beyond measure

 

[Wiebke]

My young rescue guinea pig Binx was playing and eating just fine until Sunday. He is 8 months old, 5 of those months spent with us. He is housed with his buddy in a 6x3 C&c cage indoors and enjoyed a variety of veggies and hay each day. On Sunday I noticed he stopped eating and drinking and wasn’t pooping/peeing. I gave him critical care and water every 2-3 hours until I was able to take him to the vet Monday morning. Vet checked him over and kept him in for observation for 6 hours and advised me he was fine and to bring him home. I brought him home and when I sat him in his cage he just sort of dragged himself around and seemed to have lost full use of his legs. Vet asked me to bring him straight back, she prescribed Metacam and asked me to bring him back this morning. I stayed awake all night with him, sat by his cage, he rapidly deteriorated to the point he couldn’t even lift his head. He started to have what looked like seizures, opening his mouth wide repeatedly and twitching his head and back legs. At 8.30am this morning at the vet we made the decision to let him go. It was a hard decision but we could not see him suffer any longer. The vet couldn’t tell me what could have caused this, other than a “neurological illness”. Has anyone experienced anything like this before with their piggy’s? We have owned gp’s for the last 12 years and I have never came across this. We are so heartbroken to have had to let him go :-(

Hi and welcome

BIG HUGS
I am so sorry for your loss. It is very distressing and traumatising to see them go down like this and being so utterly helpless.

Unfortunately, I haven't come across this cluster of symptoms. I have had to pts/euthanize a couple of my own guinea pigs to a mystery neurological syndrome this summer but the symptoms have been distinctly different from yours; the main problem was massive vertigo (i.e. balance issues/falling and flopping over) and the head (sudden blindness, deafness, in later stages unable to lift head as more head muscles were affected etc.) The symptoms developed over a 2-4 weeks period and the problem was very much located in the head and didn't affect the spine (back leg paralysis/pooing/peeing), unlike with yours. The unstoppable but slower deterioration and the ultimate decision wasn't any less heart-breaking, though.

Please be kind with yourself in the coming days. There is nothing you have done wrong and nothing more you could have done. It is just one of these nightmare issues that I call 'cosmic bad luck'; that you cannot foresee, prevent and that happen at random. The longer you keep piggies, the more likely you are to come up against one of them sooner or later. Nothing to do with your ownership. Take the time to digest it. The need to make sense of what has just happened and the strong feelings of guilt and failure are typical for the onset of the grieving process and usually much stronger in the wake of a sudden traumatic death; especially in a young piggy. You wouldn't be feeling so strongly if weren't a loving and caring owner in the first place.

Death, Dying, Terminal Illness, Grieving and Bereaved Companions: Information and Support for Owners and Their Children

 

[weepweeps]

I’m so sorry you had to make the heartbreaking decision to let your piggy go. You did everything you could. They go downhill so quickly sometimes. Take care.

 

[Melxava]

Hi and welcome

BIG HUGS
I am so sorry for your loss. It is very distressing and traumatising to see them go down like this and being so utterly helpless.

Unfortunately, I haven't come across this cluster of symptoms. I have had to pts/euthanize a couple of my own guinea pigs to a mystery neurological syndrome this summer but the symptoms have been distinctly different from yours; the main problem was massive vertigo (i.e. balance issues/falling and flopping over) and the head (sudden blindness, deafness, in later stages unable to lift head as more head muscles were affected etc.) The symptoms developed over a 2-4 weeks period and the problem was very much located in the head and didn't affect the spine (back leg paralysis/pooing/peeing), unlike with yours. The unstoppable but slower deterioration and the ultimate decision wasn't any less heart-breaking, though.

Please be kind with yourself in the coming days. There is nothing you have done wrong and nothing more you could have done. It is just one of these nightmare issues that I call 'cosmic bad luck'; that you cannot foresee, prevent and that happen at random. The longer you keep piggies, the more likely you are to come up against one of them sooner or later. Nothing to do with your ownership. Take the time to digest it. The need to make sense of what has just happened and the strong feelings of guilt and failure are typical for the onset of the grieving process and usually much stronger in the wake of a sudden traumatic death; especially in a young piggy. You wouldn't be feeling so strongly if weren't a loving and caring owner in the first place.

Death, Dying, Terminal Illness, Grieving and Bereaved Companions: Information and Support for Owners and Their Children

Thanks for your reply this is comforting. We have arranged for an individual cremation for him through a service our vet uses. It’s hard to not blame ourselves, like could I have done something else or how did I not notice something was wrong sooner? Very tough times, but he was loved very much. I’ll miss him always

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for your reply this is comforting. We have arranged for an individual cremation for him through a service our vet uses. It’s hard to not blame ourselves, like could I have done something else or how did I not notice something was wrong sooner? Very tough times, but he was loved very much. I’ll miss him always

It is hard not to blame yourself. While I have been able to make my peace with the other five piggies I have lost since August (after an amazing one and a half year gap), I have grappled with these two deaths more than the others, apart from the one who fell ill over the weekend but took a turn for the worst and died just hours before the earliest piggy savvy vet emergency appointment I could get hold of.

However, it will hopefully help you to know that these feelings are what every of us experiences to some degree or others. You haven't missed anything because there has been quite simply nothing to miss and there was nothing you could to do to prevent it.

Some piggy problems can quite literally blow up out of the blue and kill in a matter of of hours or a day or two - or in the case of a devastation heart attack or stroke in a matter of seconds ot minutes. They can also suppress symptoms to an amazing degree until it is quite literally too late (not that this has been the case with yours).
It has left me on occasion sitting outside the vet clinic quite literally shaking like a leaf after a piggy with suspected heart problems died quite literally on the examination table.

If you feel overwhelmed or unable to move on, please contact the Blue Cross pet bereavement services for the UK. The best thing you can do is talking it out. You will find the relevant support resources links at the end of the grieving guide via the link in my previous post. All members who have made use of the services and reported back to us, have come back feeling better in themselves.

I hope that this will help you.

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

I'm really sorry for your loss!
Please don't blame yourself, you couldn't have done more. I have had piggies for a bit more than 30 years and sometimes everything goes wrong in a really short time, leaving the vet clueless ... if you even have the chance to see a vet in time.
We can only try to cherish every moment we get to spend with our beloved sweethearts. And be prepared to make the kind decision when the time comes.

I have had a piggy with seizures and sudden inability to use it's legs some years ago and a girl that rapidly lost the ability to walk, starting with the hind legs and progressing to the front legs in the course of a few hours. Both times the vet didn't have an idea what was happening, but everything just sort of shut down.
Both were much older, but this can happen at any age. So please be kind to yourself.

 

[Julesie]

I’m truly sorry for your loss.

piggie in my avatar had something similar recently. He lost the use of his back legs and started to drag himself. It was very touch and go but his back legs started to work again and after a day or two acted like nothing had happened.

I also had it happen to another boar who I sadly did lose from it, I had to make the difficult decision to put him to sleep. I really don’t know what caused it. My vet suspected possibly a seizure but we never found out.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Sending hugs, I’m so sorry you lost your little chap, I’ve know answers but you gave him love and happiness in his short life and he will have known how much you cared x
Sleep tight little man

 

[Merab]

So very sorry to read this news.
Piggies do take a chunk of our heart with them.
You gave Binx a lovely life filled with so much love and care. You couldn’t have done more.
Be gentle with yourself as you grieve