Guinea Pig Illnesses

Question
My guinea pig, Oreo, died late October in 2011. It's January now and i am still wondering how she died. We thought she was pregnant, she wouldn't eat, couldn't walk (she kept falling over,),and she kept lying on her back and pushing almost like she was about to give birth. Also, i looked up pictures of pregnant guinea pigs and she looked just like that. the only problem is that i am almost positive my other guinea pig, Koko, is a girl. I am very confused and really want to know how she died and if maybe my other guinea pig is a boy.

Answer
It's entirely possible she was pregnant and was unable to pass her babies. If that were the case she would have become toxic and died. Guinea pigs do not lie on their sides to deliver. They are standing, hunched over a bit and push the babies out. They will often reach down and pull the little ones out. If a baby were malpositioned it would have meant an emergency c-section. Without it, just as in humans, the mother dies and so do the babies.

Having said that I want you to know that you would have had no knowledge of what was going on, so please don't think I am saying you did anything wrong or different from what any other owner would do. The sad thing is that c-sections in guinea pigs are seldom successful as the percentage of deaths of both mom and babies is extremely high. So you have no blame.

There is also the chance that she wasn't pregnant and there was something else going on. Your description of her lying on her side kicking her feet is a description of a pig who may be dying. There could have been a tumor on the spine or any number of possibilties that you will never find out.

Sometimes even a necropsy (the animal version of an autopsy) doesn't give a cause of death. And as I tell most people who ask, a necropsy is not inexpensive the only thing you may find out for sure is that your animal died, period. Most household budgets just don't support or allow for that kind of expenditure.

Question # 2:  The only way I could tell you the sex of your other pig is if you can take a picture of it by holding the pig up and spreading the legs enough to get a good visual of the genetalia. DON'T try to take it up close. So often I get pictures that I cannot really see because the person taking them gets too close to the subject, causing it to blur.

If you take a picture from at least a foot or 18 inches away I can zoom in on it with my photo program. So better to be a little far than too close. If you would like to send me a picture I'd be happy to see if I can give you a definite and correct answer.