losing young females

Question
One of our cavies passed away about 2 months ago.(peruvian female)She was fine one day, then got weak, walked wobbly, stopped using her back legs, and soon died. Now we have another peruvian female,also junior(no litters yet)that's acting the same way. Could this be a lethal gene? Some of our peruvians look satin, and some are pastels(lilac, rainbow, red eyed, but no white.)Hope you can help. Can't stand to lose another sweetie this way. Thank you very much,  Reverend Jackie  PS these are all beautiful peruvians bought from the same pet shop. I was shocked to see such beautiful ones there. All were bought one or two at a time over about 6 months. All others happy and healthy.

Answer
This doesn't sound like a lethal gene, but it may be a vitamin deficiency. You've obviously done some homework and have read about Osteodystrophy in satins. Some satins suffer from this bone development disorder, but it's not been clinically proven that it is a genetic disorder even though all the evidence points to that. It almost always occurs in satins of any breed of pig and rarely in the normal coated pigs.

This Osteodystropy is caused by a calcium deficiency, but even supplementing calcium in their diets does not prevent it. There's an apparent deficiency in their ability to properly metabolize calcium so that even with supplementation they may fall victim to it.

Satins guinea pigs are a relatively new breed, having only been discovered in the 80's. I was contacted about five years ago by a pharmacist/cavy breeder exhibitor from the UK inquiring about the problem in the US. He's done extensive research of his own trying to isolate the cause and hopefully find a prevention or effective treatment.  To date this has still not been accomplished.

The other issue may be vitamin C deficiency aka Scurvy. Guinea pigs do not manufacture their own Vit C like rabbits do so it is added to guinea pig pellets. Feeding rabbit food is often a cause for scurvy to show up seemingly without warning.

With Peruvians it's difficult to see the subtle signs in the early stages because of their long coats which easily mask changes in gate, swelling of joint, etc.  You were very fortunate to find Peruvian sows in a pet shop. Typically the boars are petted out and the sows are kept for breeding.  But once in awhile you find that someone has either had to thin their herd or they didn't get the expected results from breeding, so the babies were sold to a wholesaler who then sells them to the pet stores.  

When breeding for show animals the breeders are very selective about what they keep in their breeding programs.  That may have been the case and the result was your good fortune.

Back to the question at hand, no this doesn't sound like a lethal gene. It may be nutritional caused by whatever you're feeding. The safest thing to feed is always the quality pellets manufactured for guinea pig, without all the 'fruit loops' and colored tid bits that are added for the owner's pleasure but is useless as a good feed for the animals.

It's very typical that one day your pigs look good, then suddenly become just as you described. I'm leaning toward this being a nutritional issue and not an illness. Try changing your feed to see if that prevents reoccurrence. It may not help this latest victim, but hopefully prevents any others.