Gonzo
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2005
- Messages
- 93
Mickey, our oldest guinea pig, died early this morning. She went from having no apparent symptoms to death in less than 24 hours. She was a female, about 4.5 years old.
Yesterday morning during their cage cleanup and fresh hay routine, I noticed Mickey was a little slow to race out for the fresh hay. When she did come out of her pigloo, she seemed a little unsteady, but went about eating, purring as I petted her, and otherwise seemingly okay. It bothered me a bit, so when I fed them their afternoon vegies a few hours later, I made it a point to watch her.
As she came out to eat, she was very unsteady, staggering, and tilting her head. I called the vet and rushed her there ASAP. They diagnosed her with an ear infection, gave me drops, TMS and MetaCam. I gave her the first dose of her meds around 7pm, and then another dose about 2:30 or 3am (about 8 hours later). The dosing was at 12 hour intervals, but I thought 8 hours was safe enough. All the time, she continued to eat veggies and some pellets; and even though she was very unsteady, she continued to purr and seemed to have to pain.
This morning we found her dead - only about 4 hours later than when I last checked on her. I am flabbergasted, and extremely saddened. This is the quickest I've ever rushed a piggie to the vet, as I learned a lesson after the last piggie we lost.
We lost Whiskers, her daughter, only about 5 or 6 weeks ago, apparently to a bad staph infection, or possibly cancer, since her lymph nodes were badly swollen. She initially appeared to have an eye infection, and I treated it with some anti-biotic ointment and drops for a day or so before taking her to the vet. We ended up having to put Whiskers down, as she was not eating enough, and got to the point where she was not even able to walk. I did not want to make the same mistake with Mickey, but alas... we lost her anyway.
I just don't understand it. She went SO quickly, and really had no signs of problems other than the ear. This is the third piggie we've lost this year! We started out with two 'males', but Mickey turned out to be a female, and we ended up with 4 piggies. We lost Griffin, the father, back in February, to bloat.
We only have one left - Bandit. Even though I know he needs a companion, I'm afraid we can't get any more, as each loss devastates us all, especially my daughter, who suffers from depression. We will just have to work doubly hard to make Bandit's life as active and engaged as possible. We just don't have the 'psychic energy' to take on any more piggies, and we can't bare to part with him. Thank you for indulging me if you made it this far!
Yesterday morning during their cage cleanup and fresh hay routine, I noticed Mickey was a little slow to race out for the fresh hay. When she did come out of her pigloo, she seemed a little unsteady, but went about eating, purring as I petted her, and otherwise seemingly okay. It bothered me a bit, so when I fed them their afternoon vegies a few hours later, I made it a point to watch her.
As she came out to eat, she was very unsteady, staggering, and tilting her head. I called the vet and rushed her there ASAP. They diagnosed her with an ear infection, gave me drops, TMS and MetaCam. I gave her the first dose of her meds around 7pm, and then another dose about 2:30 or 3am (about 8 hours later). The dosing was at 12 hour intervals, but I thought 8 hours was safe enough. All the time, she continued to eat veggies and some pellets; and even though she was very unsteady, she continued to purr and seemed to have to pain.
This morning we found her dead - only about 4 hours later than when I last checked on her. I am flabbergasted, and extremely saddened. This is the quickest I've ever rushed a piggie to the vet, as I learned a lesson after the last piggie we lost.
We lost Whiskers, her daughter, only about 5 or 6 weeks ago, apparently to a bad staph infection, or possibly cancer, since her lymph nodes were badly swollen. She initially appeared to have an eye infection, and I treated it with some anti-biotic ointment and drops for a day or so before taking her to the vet. We ended up having to put Whiskers down, as she was not eating enough, and got to the point where she was not even able to walk. I did not want to make the same mistake with Mickey, but alas... we lost her anyway.
I just don't understand it. She went SO quickly, and really had no signs of problems other than the ear. This is the third piggie we've lost this year! We started out with two 'males', but Mickey turned out to be a female, and we ended up with 4 piggies. We lost Griffin, the father, back in February, to bloat.
We only have one left - Bandit. Even though I know he needs a companion, I'm afraid we can't get any more, as each loss devastates us all, especially my daughter, who suffers from depression. We will just have to work doubly hard to make Bandit's life as active and engaged as possible. We just don't have the 'psychic energy' to take on any more piggies, and we can't bare to part with him. Thank you for indulging me if you made it this far!
