fits

Question
hello im daisy i have 2 guinea pigs charlie and piggy the other day they were in their run when my mum said "look a frog!" she picked it up and i had charlie in my hand suddenly charlies eyes rolled back his moth was open, he was shaking and his legs were flapping i cried he carried on doing it for about 5 minutes how did this happen??

Answer
Hi Daisy,

Was the frog in the run? As a defence mechanism, frogs are toxic to most other animals. Dogs behave very strangely after licking a frog, and as a guinea pig is much smaller, the reaction is likely to be more severe.

Does Charlie seem to be okay now? If so, the fit was likely to have been caused by him coming into contact with the frog. In which case, you will need to make sure this doesn't happen again as long-term fitting can be fatal. Make sure you supervise your piggies whilst they're in the run, and intercept any frogs before they have a chance to hop into their run or get near to your piggies.

If Charlie has had another fit since, or you are worried about him, then please take him to see a specialist small animal or exotic pet vet, who will make sure there's no underlying cause for the fitting. Does Piggy seem fine?

Best wishes and if you have any other questions, just ask.

Jenny.