Wet spot and lethargy...

Question
Greetings, we have 3 GP's. For clarity's sake, I'll just name them here as A, B and C. A is almost 2 years with us, B is almost a year with us and C is about 4 months with us.

The other day B started to become lethargic and we noticed that added to just being hunched to like a ball she had a wet spot that smelt of pee on her. She still ate though when we gave her food but we didn't give her a bath fearing that it will add into the problem.

Yesterday she has become totally lethargic while huddling to A and C. Earlier this morning, things took for the worst as B passed away.

We are suspecting that the food we bought (it's mixed food that you get in packs) days before B started getting lethargic had something to do with it because B only started showing signs a day or two of feeding this food. Whether it has gone bad or something, we don't know but when B started getting really really lethargic we have stopped feeding all 3 the said food.

Add to our sadness is that A (my mother's favorite) is starting to show the same signs as B. We are still wondering what's wrong, I have read on some sites but still cannot pinpoint it.

Right now we are still monitoring A...

Answer
I'm not sure what you mean by food that comes in packs. If it's anything but a cavy pellet without any added colored pieces or seeds it may not be the food. If it's one of the cheaper foods that have all kinds of other things in it you may be right.

The other possibility is vegetables or fruits that may have been given to them in the previous day or so.  If the food is bad it causes severe gastric (stomach) issues and can indeed cause death in a short period of time.

Moldy or spoiled vegetables are often a culprit. Feeding grass from your yard can also cause this. If the grass were sprayed with any kind of insecticide or fertilizer it will do the same.

I wish I could give you something better to help pinpoint the problem, but the other pigs behaving in the same manner does certainly point to a spoiled food problem. As for reversing the effects that's not possible at this point. We just have to hope the pig's own immunity will get her through this.

Unfortunately at this point a vet may not be able to offer any cure either.