My Guinea Pigs Health

Question
my guinea pig is about 14 months old and is not moving or eating and has a noticable larger back end. she was fine when i put her in the run in our yard about 5 hours ago. we brought her in at 2:00 when we noticed she was breathing very heavily. we forced her water and layed her on icepacks to make sure she wasnt over heating. her stomache looked noticablely larger when we put her back in her cage at 2:00 pm. she has one gunky eye and moves very slowly if at all.she is taking short breaths. also if you go to touch her back she squeaks so loudly almost as if it hurts. we are worried about her. any idea what this could be ?

Answer
Guinea Pigs cannot endure heat for a very long time.  They are most comfortable in the 70-80 degree range.  They are native to the mountain areas of Peru where the climate is fairly cool.

It sounds like she is overheated and dehydrated.  It was a good idea for you to cool her down.  You could also try a cool bath.  Keep trying to keep her cool.  Hopefully, she will begin to breathe more comfortably.  

Also, I'm taking a guess that she got an insect bite of some sort.   All kinds of strange things can happen.  When she is less stressed, I would try to look at her bottom for a bite mark and swelling.  The cool bath will help that also.

I hope that she is breathing more calmly by now.  Keep on watching her for the next few days.  She could have some sort of delayed reaction, if she doesn't get enough water.  I would also try to feed her some fruits that have a high water content.  

Please let me know how she is doing.  I hope that she improves.  Good Luck, Cindy