Conditions: I have no idea what happened...please help.

[sophistacavy]

Before you read further, I just want to forewarn that this is a bit graphic. I have been in shock all day..

I woke up this morning to find two of my guinea pigs, Opal and Noel, deceased. My third little porker, Lily, was just fine.

When I looked closer at Opal & Noel, I found some very very disturbing things. Opal was the worst. She had a streak of hair missing on her side, her mouth looked messed up, her feet looked chewed up/messed up, and I forget where else right now, but there was some blood.

Noel appeared to be in better condition then Opal, except the one eye of hers that I could see appeared bloody and/or missing or damaged...

Lily is fine, I removed Opal and Noel as soon as I discovered what happened. I refilled the water bottles and offered Lily fresh food, and she is eating/drinking normally, as she always has been. It's kinda sad because she still walks up to the bowls (both the pellet bowls and veggie bowls) timidly, because even though she was kinda porky, she seemed apprehensive about taking food when the other 2-3 were there lol.
I guess you could say she's super polite.

Noel and Opal were both healthy and at normal weights....didn't seem any lighter when I removed them...

I had a pair of mice before where one of them passed on overnight from old age, and the one that was left actually cannibalized part of the deceased one. I know that's normal in mice, and I even know why that happens (stems from wild mice's behaviors and survival tactics).

But, do guinea pigs do the same thing? Opal and Noel were not old enough to even be the minimum lifespan. They seemed perfectly normal, and I rush to the vet (or at least the phone lol) as soon as something seems amiss. I am super-observant to the point of being paranoid sometimes, so I definetely would've picked up on an illness/problem.

I am going to have Lily checked out by the vet as soon as possible, and I am going to wash the fleece in as warm a water as it can tolerate with color bleach (has hydrogen peroxide in it in place of the chlorine) with extra cups of vinegar. I'm also going to super-sanitize and disinfect the coroplast w/ this 50/50 water:bleach solution that I made up.
Does anyone know how hot a temperature of water that coroplast can withstand?

I was thinking of pouring "just-stopped-boiling" or even barely-boiling water on the whole thing, outside in our driveway.

Also, I've never really sanitized the grids before except for wiping with a wet paper towel, but I'll go over them with the bleach solution too.

Ok, and this is going to sound just gross, but if I wanted a necropsy or at least an autopsy done on Opal and Noel, could they still do it accurately if I put them in the refridgerator to prevent them from decomposing? I just don't want anything that could help figure out what happened to be affected while I wait for an appointment to get the procedure done on them...

Well, thanks in advance for any help you may have.

[Tergale]

First off I'm sorry for your loss.

Secondly there are so many things in this post I can't answer and I wish I could but what I can tell you is that you "should" be able to use very hot water in cleaning your coroplast. The melting point will vary greatly on the type of plastic that was used but using this chart Comparison Table for Plastics. I don't see any plastics with a melting point below boiling.

However I would be very careful and start off warm and move up as how corrugated plastic is very thin layers of plastic and while it may not melt it could be damaged easily with very hot water.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

I'm sorry. It could be that Lily was trying to 'revive' Opal but did it overzealously. This happens sometimes with sows who have babies that don't make it.

A necropsy could give you some answers probably, if you can afford it.

[MileyPiggyMom]

Oh my...this breaks my heart! I'm so sorry for your loss!