Rescued guinea pig came pregnant. Seeking advice.

drewbles

Post   » Fri Nov 23, 2018 1:46 am


My partner and I adopted 3 guinea pigs from the animal shelter.

This shelter is run by only volunteers, and the one who adopted out our trio apparently confused them with another trio. (No idea how this happened, and it's very upsetting) The guineas we adopted were actually ones on pregnancy watch because of possible contact with males before they were surrendered.

Turns out one of them is definitely pregnant. We have seen a vet and it is confirmed by xray. 3 for sure, maybe 4 pups.

We are terrified, we've completely fallen in love with this girl. She is so cuddly and social, climbing right into our laps and everything. The vet has explained the risks of pregnancy, and the risk being even higher due to her age. He said she will probably need a c section unless she's had a litter before. (We have no way of knowing)

He said she's at most, 2 weeks from delivery. We have 2 other females who aren't pregnant and got a clean bill of health. He told us that if she shows signs of labour to bring her in right away. He also said there is a good chance she won't make it. We are heartbroken but hoping for the best.

On to my questions though: would it be best to seperate her from the other 2? I know this would likely be stressful but right now the guineas are in our office and we don't want something to happen during the night without us hearing her. If we had her on her own in a smaller temporary cage, we could keep her close at all times so we would know right away if we need to take her in for surgery.

If she does pass, the vet advised us that her pups would die shortly after. Is there any chance of being able to hand rear them if she isn't there providing milk?

We just want to do the best we can with this awful situation. We want our girl to have the best chances we can provide, and if we still can't help her then we want to do everything we can to save her pups.

Obviously we are working closely with the vet too and will be asking him at our next appointment. I just wanted to get as much info as possible in the meantime.

If you weren't against breeding before, read my post again.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Nov 23, 2018 9:45 am


If the pups are normal sized, she may be able to deliver them. Sows, particularly elderly ones, have the most problems delivering a large, oversized pup.

I wouldn't separate her from the others unless the cage is small. Being alone will be stressful, and the other sows aren't likely to be a problem.

It might be helpful to be close to her, but it's entirely possible that you could be next to her and never hear anything.

You also might be able to raise the pups by hand. They're born ready to go, and particularly if they're in the cage with the other sows, will quickly learn to eat. The only appropriate milk substitute for guinea pig milk is goat milk. If you can find some of that to have it hand, it might be helpful in keeping the pups hydrated until they learn to drink from the water bottle. Without the goat milk, get some pedialyte, dilute it half and half, and syringe it to them several times a day.

You can also give them a very wet, sloppy slurry of Critical Care for a few days until you see them eating.

Good luck to you and her! Keep us posted on how things are going.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Nov 23, 2018 10:42 am


Ditto bpatters. I am so glad you have been proactive with this and are working with a vet. I trust you have read all the info here on reproduction and delivery?
www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html
www.guinealynx.info/labor.html

Do let us know how things go. Read over www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html#pups too.

drewbles

Post   » Sat Nov 24, 2018 1:14 am


Hey, thanks for the replies.

We honestly aren't sure how old she is which is part of the problem! The vet estimated that she is under 2 years.

The cage isn't particularly small but it will be once she doubles our herd size! We weren't anticipating more than the original three we adopted, but now that these pups are almost here we are pretty sure we will be adding any females to our herd. It hurts my heart thinking that some of her babies might be stuck in a shelter instead of a home. (The shelter we adopted the trio from has offered to take in any/all of the pups, since adopting her out pregnant was their error. It's a decent enough place but in a small town there's even less demand for guinea pigs than usual so we want to keep as many as we can care for responsibly) We intend on expanding the cage while the pups are still young. Right now it is only a 4x2 c&c. We will likely end up doubling this.

We actually decided that instead of stressing her out by moving her we are going to instead set up a webcam on them so we can check from anywhere/anytime. We see them often but the peace of mind that we can check anytime was important to us.

Thank you for the information on hand rearing! We wanted that in our back pocket just in case something goes badly, as it often can.

Thank you for the links! I had found the first two on my own but we will definitely give the other a read too.

I had maybe a silly question while we're here, I can find a lot of information about the standard length of a guinea pig at birth but not the width. Does anyone here have a rough idea about that? I ask because at the xray the vet said the pups were a little less than an inch wide. (Discussing the possibility of birth difficulties because of age) I was taking in so much information I forgot to ask about length. I'm trying to get as much info as possible to pin down her due date more closely because we have no way of knowing when she became pregnant.

We will keep you updated! Thank you for the advice and information.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:17 am


If there's ANY way to expand that cage before the pups come, I'd do it. Get some extra grids and open one end of the cage up, or add an L-shaped addition. Crowding is one of the major reasons for guinea pig aggression, and the pups will be the ones who get their ears bitten.

Also, a 2x4 isn't large enough for three guinea pigs anyway.

Here's a thread I wrote for another forum that might help you guess when the pups are coming: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/th ... ong-is-she

drewbles

Post   » Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:51 am


Ok, noted. We weren't sure if changing things around too much would stress her out. We will go ahead with expanding sooner rather than later.

Thank you for that link as well! I hadn't seen that in my info hunting yet.

drewbles

Post   » Thu Nov 29, 2018 10:13 am


Hey, just a quick update!

Evie is still very pregnant, but in good health.

We took your advice on expanding the cage. We have a 6x3 now (minus 2 columns on one grid in the width).

The 4x2 was nothing compared to this, they're very excited!

I'm not sure how to add pictures directly to my post but
https://imgur.com/a/UIZgNN0 has a few.

I will update again when we have pups! Thank you again for the advice.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Nov 29, 2018 10:52 pm


Wow, what a great, roomy cage! You can have fun switching it up, hiding some tasty bits of food, adding a couple plastic step stools to run through and hide under.

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GrannyJu1
Supporter in '21

Post   » Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:39 am


Congratulations on the new cage! It looks great!

Please continue to keep us posted on your little one's pregnancy and birth. I have my fingers crossed for you all.

rjespicer

Post   » Fri Nov 30, 2018 2:43 pm


Just curious but did you cut and make the Cloroplast base yourself?

drewbles

Post   » Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:07 am


We did! We just got the biggest sheet they had at home depot, removed squares for the corners and scored all the way around.

Anyways, update!

Early this morning, sometime between 4 and 8, Evie had her pups! She did it all on her own and they all appear to be doing well. She's taking really good care of them already. We are SO relieved and very, very proud of her. Not sure about sexes yet, we plan on weighing them later today and seeing if we can figure out what's what then. Thank you all for the advice through this!

https://imgur.com/a/jylPp15

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:36 am


They are awfully cute! Do weigh them daily to make sure they are getting enough food.
www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html#pups

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