moms guinea pig just died.

Question
hi, i was wondering if you could answer a few Q's for me, my mom called me asking me questions about her guinea pig because it was really sick, not eating or drinking and was limp since i had had a sick ferret she thought i would know a lil bit and all i could tell her was to keep him hydrated and take it to the vet. but it was too late. It was just probably 1/2 yr old too. i was wondering what could he gotten sick from how to take care of a sick guinea like that? sshe said he was fine yesterday and was limp today.. if you can help me that would be great so i can tell her something next time this happens. oh her other guinea is pregnant too is there any extra proprer care they need for her? thank you sooooo much

lauren

Answer
Lauren,

Your mom's Guinea Pig most likely died for an infection, an Upper Respiratory Infection, or something along those lines, which unfortunately is very common in young Guinea Pigs. The only thing a Guinea Pig owner can really do for a sick Pig is learn its behaviors, how it normally acts and such so that once they notices something out of the ordinary then they can take the Guinea Pig to the vet right away, because guinea Pigs are very fragile so they need to see a small animal or exotic vet as soon as the owner notices something is wrong.

As for the pregnant girl there is special care needed in her care from now all the until the babies are weaned at 3 weeks of age. Your mom is going to need to start feeding her alfalfa hay along with an alfalfa based guinea pig pellets which is any brand unless it says on the bag something like timothy complete then it is a timothy hay based pellet. The alfalfa hay is fatty but it also has calcium in it so it is great for babies, nursing Guinea Pigs and pregnant Guinea Pig. So the Guinea Pig will need to be kept on alfalfa hay and the alfalfa based pellets until the babies are weaned at 3 weeks of age, then she needs to be switched back to timothy hay and a timothy hay based pellet as the alfalfa based has far to much calcium for an adult Guinea Pig. She is also going to need extra vitamin C in her diet the best way to provide that is through fresh foods as most Guinea Pigs hate the Vitamin drops and also you never know for sure how much C a Guinea Pig is getting. She'll need that again until the babies are weaned at 3 weeks. Other then that your mom doesn't have to do much, just let the Guinea Pig mother do her thing.

Care for the babies is different, once they are 3 weeks your mom is going to need to sex the babies and separate the males from mom and sisters as the boys can and will get mom and sisters pregnant. Which isn't a good idea for either mother or sisters. The babies will need alfalfa based pellets until they are a year old, and alfalfa hay is needed for them until they are about 6 months old. If the girls stay with their mother which they can make sure the mom isn't eating any of the alfalfa stuff as that can lead to kidney and bladder stones due to all the calcium.

I hope this helps,
  Take care,
     Jules