I'm posting this message for the benefit of other guinea pig owners who may encounter a piggie with a heart murmur.
We have 3 male piggies: Spot, Stripe and Squiggy. Spot and Stripe are almost 9 months old; Squiggy is 3 months.
My 13 year-old daughter (Jackie) and I take care of the piggies, but my wife and other 2 daughters enjoy them.
Spot is Jackie's favorite. Several days ago, Jackie told me that Spot seemed lethargic and didn't seem to be eating. She also said that she thought that Spot was losing weight -- Spot is the biggest of the three. Spot has always been less active than Stripe and Squiggy, and I didn't see that he was behaving any differently than normal.
This morning things took a turn for the worse. Spot's breathing was very labored, and he was quite obviously not eating or drinking. We put him in a separate cage thinking that he may have an URI. I did a little research on this forum and concluded that Spot needed to get to a vet ASAP. Our normal vet was booked solid today, but recommended an emergency vet.
My wife and Jackie took Spot to the emergency vet. Before they left, I reassured Spot that the vet would fix him up. I was expecting the vet would give Spot an antibiotic that would have him popcorning again very soon.
But my wife called from the vet and told me that Spot had been diagnosed with a level 6 congenital heart murmur (the highest level). Spot's lungs were filling, which meant he was going into heart failure. The vet didn't expect Spot to live through the day.
It would have been nice if Spot could have come home to say goodbye to Stripe and Squiggy and to spend his final hours in his home with all of us. But the vet felt that Spot would suffer too much in his final hours. So, with the vet's urging, we opted to have the vet put Spot to sleep.
As I am writing this, my wife and Jackie are driving Spot home for burial. It's amazing how attached one can get to these little guys.
I've been scanning my memory to see if I can recall any behaviors that may have been a tipoff that Spot had a congenital heart murmur. The thing that sticks out most is that Spot was not as active or as agressive as Stripe and Squiggy.
Spot did participate in the
GP dominance rituals with Stripe, but there were little things that set him apart from Stripe and Squiggy. For example, when we bring vegetables to the piggies, Stripe and Squiggy squeal and compete for position to see who can be first. Spot always hung back and waited for me to offer a veggie to him personally. Spot also spent a lot of time in one corner, which he filled with poop and pee. Stripe and Squiggy are all over the cage -- rarely staying put in one spot. In hindsight, I guess that Spot's relative lethargy was a clue that something was wrong.
In the last few days, Spot was showing symptoms that seemed to point to an URI -- lethargy, not eating, losing weight, very labored breathing. However, I've never been around a piggie with an URI, and an URI may present with symptoms that Spot didn't have. There may be URI symptoms that Spot didn't have that would distinguish between an URI and a heart murmur.
Also, there may have been another clue that pointed to Spot's bad genetics. We got Spot last fall from a lady my wife knows who breeds guinea pigs. We found out early this year, that Spot's sister died suddenly at around 4 months, his mother died suddenly after a subsequent birthing and Spot's father died at a little over one year. Perhaps, if we had been more familiar with guinea pigs, that unusual grouping of deaths would have told us Spot might be in jeopardy.
As I was writing the previous paragraph, my wife and daughter arrived home with Spot. Spot's favorite place was on Jackie's shoulder. Jackie said that in his last moments, Spot held on tightly to his place on her shoulder.
Stripe and Squiggy seem to sense that something's not right.
For what it's worth, when the vet found out that we had 3 male piggies, the vet told my wife that she raised guinea pigs for 14 years when she was a girl. The vet said that putting adult male guinea pigs together was a recipe for disaster. She said that our piggies were juveniles now, but when they grew up, they would fight to the death. On this and other guinea pig Internet sites, I have seen information stating that adult male guinea pigs can get along just fine. Ours seemed to have few problems -- but they are certainly not fully grown yet.
Well, so long, Spot. I didn't expect this day to end with you gone. We'll see you again some day. You certainly brightened our lives while you were with us.
Finally, some technical details: to euthanize Spot, he was put into a chamber and gas was introduced to anesthetize him. He was then given an injection that put him to sleep permanently. It was all over very quickly I am told. The emergency visit to the vet was $85. The euthanasia was $15. I only mention these rather morbid details because they may benefit someone here.
I hope this post has provided information that may be of value to some other
cavy slave.
05-23-09, 03:20 pm
Not Ranked. Helpful AND tactful post? : 0 
I'm crying reading your post. I'm sorry for your loss. There's nothing else that can be said. 
