Guinea pig scared to death?

[akane]

Is it possible for these durable bricks to bash themselves to death? I know rabbits accomplish it but that's often a broken spine somewhere from use of their strong hindlegs into cage walls. Over the holidays the cats got the guinea pig room door open all day, twice (we did attempt to change things the second day), and harassed the guinea pigs. The ones in the open top cages and babies are all alive and acting normal. I didn't fill any food yesterday and when I went to feed them today a sow about 6-8months old was dead by the J feeder with her head in the corner. Her nose was all bloody with no cuts but possibly some missing hair. No other sign. She was in a wire top cage so a cat might have been able to time it just right and hook a claw in a guinea pig through the wire if they ran close by but it wouldn't be a death blow. It would just be an infection risk. She only had other, younger sows in with her and never exposed to a boar so guinea pig aggression or pregnancy complications are not really a possibility. Laying with her head in the corner near the J feeder, bled out through the nose or mouth I can only guess she slammed the front of her face into it and/or the wall and died. :? I've had these guys hit concrete face first from carrying height though and do nothing but bloody a lip or chip a tooth. The other 3 sows are fine, the food and water is the same as everyone else...

 

[Zass]

I would say it's possible, just because anything is possible. Perhaps she was startled and hit at just the wrong angle.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Bleeding from the nose can also be due to incredibly high blood pressure, so it's possible that if she was running around in a panic that could have caused it as well.

Sorry you lost her.

 

[ladysown]

Sorry you lost your guinea pig.

I had one squirrely enough I thought he'd kill himself one...he'd run so hard to get away and didn't think about what he was doing when in full flight.

I can totally see a guinea pig dying from fright.

 

[akane]

She might be double related to "psycho boar". This guy had to go into a wire topped cage because he'll flip himself over 12" walls if he sees pretty much anything. I had to keep hunting him down in the basement because my akita, who is completely harmless and he was born with her around, would go stick her nose over the cage to check for pups and he'd flip out (literally). She helps me keep track of new births everywhere and I'm not really interested in stopping her from helping. I have to throw him in a rabbit carrier when I clean his cage because if you try to clean around him he tries to climb the walls. He just decided to turn on all his cage mates and fly around in circles for 24hrs straight until there is a track worn in the bedding so now he's caged alone. He's just been awaiting me putting together a co2 chamber and have some other growouts to butcher since he's been replaced by 3 better boars that are not related.