What do these symptoms mean?

[dextersmycutegp]

Before Cocoa and Lucky died, (12/8/05 and 6/10/05) they both had really strange symptoms of sickness. Lucky couldn't stand fully up, she crawled around the cage, and visibly moved her head when she breathed. She died after having siezures in the vets office. What could that have been symptoms of? The vet said heart failure or a stroke but that was a guess. She had died before he actually saw her.

Cocoa died after losing bowel control, not recognizing me or Smores, her buddy. Her eyes where protruding and she was all fluffed up. She was a little sick for an hour or two then got much worse. She died during the night before I could get her to a vet. Could she have had a URI?
I really would like to know how I can prevent sudden deaths like that.

[spiffykinkajou]

Sounds like Lucky was having respiratory distress among other things.
What kind of diet were they on?
What kind of bedding were you using with them?
Were they fed something new?
How old were they?
Did your vet have emergency hours?
Had they had babies recently?
Sorry for so many questions, just a habit from my job and I like to research stuff like this so I can learn and help others.

[dextersmycutegp]

I love the questions, I would ask them too!
1. Lucky was eating 1/8 cup Mazuri alfalfa pellets, without the seeds. After Lucky died I switched the pigs to Timothy based pellets so Cocoa was eating 1/8 cup a day Kaytee Timothy Complete. They both always had unlimited Timothy hay.
2. Pine Shavings
3. Not that I can remember.
4. Lucky was 2 1/2 years old and Cocoa was about 3 1/2
5. No
6. No. Cocoa had had babies once, before I got her, I got her when she was 6 months old. All the babies were stillbirths except for Lucky, who was her baby. Lucky never was pregnant.

[spiffykinkajou]

http://www.guinealynx.com/emergency.html

Guinea pigs go downhill very fast.
This link has lists of symptoms and what could possibly be wrong.
I'm not a vet but from reading these I thought about scurrvy and uri.
I'm thinking about trying to locate and buy a vet book about guinea pigs if they have it.
Maybe I should have been a vet instead of going to nursing school!
The animals are much nicer sometimes. But I do love my job.

[Ly&Pigs]

Kaytee Timothy Complete.

This is not a good brand of pellets as it contains ethoxyquin which is a cancer causing preservative. I'd rather feed alfalfa based plain Mazuri pellets any day of the week over anything made by Kaytee. In fact, I do feed my herd (5 adult sows) limited portions of plain Mazuri.

I am not a vet but Lucky may have had scurvy or another vitamin or mineral deficiency. That is only going by the signs you posted.

For Cocoa, it could have been a number of things. This one did not have the classic symptoms of a URI so I am thinking it was not a URI. I am thinking along the lines of diarrhea which can be fatal if left untreated.

Dexter, the one thing you didn't mention for the diet info was whether they had veggies. Did you feed veggies in addition to the hay and pellets?

[dextersmycutegp]

Lucky didn't get very many veggies, so it is quite likely that she had scurvy, *sniffles* but after she died I found the part of this website talking about veggies, and started giving them to Cocoa and S'mores. I then stopped with the veggies after my vet told me they were causing Cocoa's gas, and I didn't even think to question that. I know better now. I have started giving my 4 veggies once again, which they enjoy alot.

I am going to start buying Kleemama's timothy based pellets as soon as she gets timothy hay again. They are less expensive in the long run and evidentally better for the piggies. I want my piggies to live long and healthy lives because of my care, not die from it.
I really apprieciate how you guys are so nice to me about helping me understand what happened!
By the way, after I stopped giving veggies I started giving 30-50 ml of chewable vitamin c every day. Now it's just being used as training treats.

[chisky]

My dog died of congestive heart failure. It was brought about by rat poison the city had put in our alley. The vet thinks she probably took a drink from a pool of raid water that the poison had leached into. She was in my back yard. She didn't get out of it. But water gets into pools on the sidewalk near my neighbors garage and our garbage cans. I guess that could have happened, but the symptoms were similar.

You Vet could be right with heart problems.

The rat poison works by dehydrating the animal but they are unable to drink. Water collects around the heart causing heart failure. Did your pigs have enough water? was it hot?

[Ly&Pigs]

I then stopped with the veggies after my vet told me they were causing Cocoa's gas

Bloat and torsion also come to mind. Feed gassy foods in moderation and not that often (once or twice per week). Daily they can have lettuces (no iceburg), cilantro, bell pepper, no more than one medium baby carrot each, one cherry/grape tomato per pig and zucchini. Other veggies should be rotated around. Fruits should be limited to once or twice per week.