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HEAT STROKE

If your guinea pig develops heatstroke immediate action needs to be taken in order to save your guinea pigs life and before serious internal damage occurs resulting in death.

Symptoms of heatstroke are:
- Guinea pig will be lying flat on their tummy or side and will be unable to move
- Guinea pig will be hot to touch and in the worse stages be floppy and limp
- Rapid Pulse
- Weakness
- Drooling
- Labored breathing

Treatment for heatstroke is as follows -

PLEASE NOTE - If you do not have all that is required to treat heatstroke in your own home or if you are unsure of how to follow the below steps then immediate veterinary attention and advice must be sought. Your vet will inject and administer lifesaving rehydration and electrolite replacement fluids and will be able to closely monitor your guinea pigs condition.

What you will need

- towels

- rehydration/electrolite replacement mixture

- fan

- 1ml syringe

- Glucose, Honey or Nutrigel

- Take your guinea pig and place them in a tub of luke warm water. Make sure the water is cool but not cold as your guinea pig will catch a chill and the sudden cold water can put your guinea pigs body into shock.

- Hold your guinea pig in the water ( keeping your guinea pigs head well out of the water ) while gently wetting your guinea pig all over for around 10 minutes.

- Take your guinea pig and place them on a damp towel.

- Place a fan ( on medium speed ) behind your guinea pig so that the air is blowing onto your guinea pig although not directly onto your guinea pigs face.

- Your guinea pig will need urgent re-hydration/electrolyte replacements so you will need to have this on hand. " Vitrate" is a very good electrolyte/rehydration powdered mix which can be bought from your local vet for a few dollars and is simply mixed with water and administered via qml syringe. Lectade and Gatorade are two other formulas which can be purchased from your local foodstore. Your local chemist, food store and local vet should also have other drinks and formulas available. If you do not have a rehdration mix on hand you need to get your guinea pig to a vet. Water and water mixed with Vitamin C is also good to have on hand to administer to your guinea pig.

- Get your 1ml syringe and start syringing fluids into your guinea pig. Give your guinea pig as much as they will take. Administer the fluids gently and do not force feed as if fluid gets onto your guinea pigs lungs it will cause pneumonia and further complications.

- Your guinea pig will also need urgent ' energy '. Glucose, Honey and a product called " Nutrigel " ( available at your local vet ) are high energy supplements which will help keep your guinea pigs energy levels up. Syringe feed energy supplements ( approx 2mls ) via 1ml syringe to your guinea pig every hour.

- Within 2 hours with the above treatment your guinea pig should be able to stand on their legs. Your guinea pig will be very shaky for a while and may not want to eat for a number of hours. If your guinea pig is not able to move at this point then repeat the entire process above of bathing and so forth until your guinea pig responds. Continue to administer fluids to your guinea pig until your guinea pig is able to drink/eat on its own and is showing no more emergency signs of heat stress. This may take between 12-48hrs depending on the severity of the heatstroke.

- Keep your guinea pig in a quiet/dim and cool area ( inside ) for the next day few days and closely monitor their breathing and energy levels. Within 24 hours of heatstroke treatment your guinea pig should begin eating and appear normal.

- If the above process has been used and repeated for several hours and your guinea pig does not appear to improve then your guinea pig will need to seek veterinary attention.

Guinea pigs generally respond well to the above treatment if treatment is given promptly. Some guinea pigs who come through severe cases of heat stroke can be prone to heat stroke easily in the future or may become weaker animals as a result although careful monitoring and care of your guinea pig in the warmer months will help prevent any further damage or future repeats.