Conditions Chewed Power Cord

[chesterandme]

Hello everyone,

My apologies if this has been posted before, but I did not easily find a reference in the forums. About an hour ago, my guinea pig Chester found and chewed part of my laptop power cord. A few centimeters of the plastic coating is missing and some tiny wires are sticking out.

Chester is 6 1/2+ years old, and to my knowledge, has never eaten anything like this before. I placed him on my bed while cleaning his cage, unaware that the cord was hiding in my sheets. I feel terrible. I heard no whimpers, and the cord is operative, so it doesn't seem he electrocuted himself, but I am worried about internal damage due to plastic and possible wire consumption.

Is there anything I should do for him? What signs should I look for to know if this is affecting him adversely?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Gigabyte]

Go to the ER vet ASAP because any wire or plastic could damage his intestines and kill him very painfully.
If ya have to ask "is it gonna kill/harm my guinea pig?" it's time to see the vet.

 

[chesterandme]

Hopefully I can. I'm not aware of a single ER vet in my area that sees guinea pigs. It took a long time to find a regular vet.

 

[bpatters]

The plastic likely won't hurt him. The wires might, but there's no way to get tiny wires out of a pig's GI tract.

If he's acting normally, I'd just keep a very close eye on him.

Guinea pigs and wires are a problem. When I first got interested in GPs, I saw a picture on the internet that was supposedly of a pig who had bitten into a power cord and whose whiskers were frizzled at the ends. I now think it wasn't due to that, and was maybe a photoshopped picture, but it was really cute.

 

[Kimberly713]

I don't think an ER vet visit would be necessary, just watch him closely.

My guinea pig is the worst with that! She finds anything and everything and just eats it! She munches them down like they are veggies. Thankfully, only a small part before it is noticed thus far.

She's never gotten anything as large as a laptop cord, but a few chargers have seen her wrath. I worry like crazy after I notice she gets something and just keep an eye on her. I could put her in a room with absolutely nothing in it and she'd find something to eat up.