barely alive guinea pig

Question
QUESTION: my male guinea pig was very lethargic and lame. he was unable to control his body or head movements. he seemed to get better and now he is barely breathing and gasping please answer me soon.
 cheers and thank you

ANSWER: Oh Christine, I'm so very sorry to hear this. It's so hard when this happens because you feel so helpless. Guinea pigs don't seem to show their illnesses until it's very often too late.

I wish I could give you some kind of encouragement or answer as to what's happening, but I would be misleading you if I gave you any hope that this was something we could fix. The average life of a guinea pig is only about five years for most. Some age faster than others and sometimes they simply leave us for no reason we can find.

The best advice I can give you is to tell you just to hold him in your arms and pray his suffering passes quickly. I'm so sorry for your little guy. I wish there was something I could do to make it easier.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: he has 2 brothers, they are fine. they are running around the hutch squeeking and eating and drinking- just like he was this morning. does this mean that his brothers will join him in heaven? he has now died- i tried to keep him with me but massage of the chest (heart) area and mouth to mouth didnt work.

Answer
I'm so sorry he's gone. There shouldn't be any reason the brothers would follow suit. If they're acting like they normally do there isn't any reason I can think of that they should become ill as well.

Sometimes these things happen and we have no idea why. Hopefully the other two boys will fill the empty spot in your heart and will live for a long time. So please don't worry about losing them. It sounds like whatever happened to the other little guy was just a sudden fluke with no explanation.