I am brand new to these forums, and desparately searching for some answers.
Our guinea pigs, Linny (3.5 years old) and Sparky (2.5 years old) were playing quite happily this past Sunday in their 'playzone' while my daughter cleaned out their cage. They climbed into a corrugated plastic 'run tunnel' that they've played in dozens of times before, only this time, one went into each end so neither could exit out. They were in the tunnel less than 20 minutes as best as we can tell (as my daughter is not 100% sure of WHEN they climbed in, but that's the MAX) and when she turned around she noticed our 3.5 year old's foot seemed oddly placed. When she investigated, she found both guineas had died. Terribly traumatic for an 11 year old to have BOTH of her treasured babies die at the same time.
Despite our vet looking at them, we have no clue what happened to them. Our only guess (which seems absolutely improbable but is the only remotely possible thing we've come up with) is that they somehow suffocated. However, the play tunnel was quite bigger around than their bodies, so I cannot see how it would have blocked their airflow. We saw no sign of illness (e.g. vomit, diarhea, seizures, distress, etc) and neither did the vet.
I could undertand something like a heart attack taking one of them, but both at the same time? It seems that it just HAS to be something external....
Has anyone ever heard of a situation like this before? It would be such a comfort to us to know what happened.
Our guinea pigs, Linny (3.5 years old) and Sparky (2.5 years old) were playing quite happily this past Sunday in their 'playzone' while my daughter cleaned out their cage. They climbed into a corrugated plastic 'run tunnel' that they've played in dozens of times before, only this time, one went into each end so neither could exit out. They were in the tunnel less than 20 minutes as best as we can tell (as my daughter is not 100% sure of WHEN they climbed in, but that's the MAX) and when she turned around she noticed our 3.5 year old's foot seemed oddly placed. When she investigated, she found both guineas had died. Terribly traumatic for an 11 year old to have BOTH of her treasured babies die at the same time.
Despite our vet looking at them, we have no clue what happened to them. Our only guess (which seems absolutely improbable but is the only remotely possible thing we've come up with) is that they somehow suffocated. However, the play tunnel was quite bigger around than their bodies, so I cannot see how it would have blocked their airflow. We saw no sign of illness (e.g. vomit, diarhea, seizures, distress, etc) and neither did the vet.
I could undertand something like a heart attack taking one of them, but both at the same time? It seems that it just HAS to be something external....
Has anyone ever heard of a situation like this before? It would be such a comfort to us to know what happened.