sick baby Guinea pig

Question
QUESTION: Ok well this is the 4th Guinea pig that has died on me.. The last 3 I had got last summer. I bought a male and about a month later I decided to get a buddy for him. The female I bought was fine one night and the next morning dead. I bought another female and then my male Guinea pig got really sick and died on Thanksgiving. Two days later my female died. I didn't want to get any more because I didn't want to suffer another heartache... Well about a week ago I bought a 3 week old female Guinea pig. Today noticed she was breathing pretty fast and she sounded congested. I went to check on her after I had given her some antibiotics I had from the last Guinea pigs. She was pretty weak n cold. She died in my hands very quickly. I don't know what's wrong and why I am having such horrible luck with Guinea pigs.. Her cage was clean and she had alfalfa hay, pellets, and clean water. My apartment baits for bugs could that be harmful to them? I have a chihuahua and she hadn't had any problems, but I'm sure Guinea pics are different.. Please help:(

ANSWER: I'm sorry you're having such a rough time. It just doesn't seem fair. Three week old pigs should not be in pet stores or anywhere else for sale. At that age they're still nursing and should be with mom. Of course there are exceptions to that but generally speaking they're too young to be transported around the country to their final destinations, which is usually a pet store.

Their immunity systems are not ready for that kind of exposure, and they succumb easily just as yours did. Antibiotics are not fast acting, so they wouldn't have done any good for her with just a dose or two. It's also easy for them to aspirate when trying to give liquid medication to the very young ones.

When you say 'bait for bugs' are you speaking of spraying to just using a food bait that the bugs will ingest? If it's a spray it's entirely possible that could be the culprit. If it is literally food bait then it's not an issue. It doesn't work until it's eaten and your pig wouldn't have access to it.

If you got your pig from a store I would go back there and ask what their guarantee is. If it was from a private party the right thing to do would be to give you another, but that depends on the integrity of the breeder you got her from.

It certainly sounds like she got pneumonia and probably had it when you got her. Unfortunately you'll not be able to prove that to the store.

In the future I would suggest you dont' get a small baby. Make sure it's at least two months old, that way the chances of this happening again are lessened. I know this isn't helping answer your question but it's not really easy to say why this happened to her.

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QUESTION: When I say baiting I mean that every 6 Months the housing authority comes into my apartment and poor this dark brown pasty stuff inside my cabinets. The last two years my apartments have had problems with bed bugs. Although I have never seen one there were two apartments in my complex that had them. We all had to abide by rules. Washing everything fabric and high heat drying twice. The other day it looked like the people who do the spraying. I say that because a man walked out of an apartment in the full white uniform. If this is harming the Guinea pigs is it possible its harmful to my son and me.

Answer
I would hope that if they're not spraying, what they're using is safe around humans and animals. I think I would ask exactly what they're using, the chemical name and contents. They should be able to provide you with this without an argument.

What you want to ask for is an MSDS sheet. That stands for Material Data Safety Sheet. It's a Federal law that any chemical that is used in any building must have that MSDS available to those who ask. The purpose is to protect people from being exposed to things they may be allergic to. OSHA requires that book in every company in the country and is to be made available upon request.

With that information you should be able to see what the chemicals are and what the dangers of them may be. Nowadays you can Google that kind of information easily. If your housing authority is a type of public housing they most certainly would have to provide that to you.

I would think that it must be safe around humans or they wouldn't be using it. The hazardous material suits would be appropriate for those who are going from building to building to spread it to avoid overexposure to themselves.

I doubt this was an issue with your pig, and surely it should be safe to you and your son. But don't be shy about asking for information on its safety and potential dangers.

As I said before, baby pigs are shipped all over the country. Local wholesalers purchase them from local breeders, then they're sold to larger wholesalers who ship to many different states.

This is where the animals in the larger chains like Petco and PetSmart get their stock. The very young ones are exposed to many different environments before they reach their destinations. The mortality rate is far less than you would imagine, but if you're the buyer of the sick animal that doesn't make you feel any better.

Although the FDA regulates these wholesalers and most animals are healthy and arrive safely, a very young pig can easily pick up something along the way simply because their immune systems are not fully developed. This may be what the problem was with your little guy and had nothing to do with the treatment of the bugs.  

I don't think it's anything you've done Megan, I think it's just been a case of bad luck. Hopefully this will be over with for you now. Maybe before you get another pig you should really evaluate all the possibilties for things like: where is the cage located, is it too close to a window or direct sunlight? Is is too close to a heater where they could have gotten overheated? What are you feeding and where are you getting your food?  

It may be something simple that you just overlooked. But before you get another do your research on what is being used in your home environment. You need to do that for your own peace of mind.

Do let me know what you find out about the chemicals they're using in your home. I'm very interested to know.