Heat Stroke
The most likely guinea pigs to suffer from this are those
housed in hutches at the bottom of the garden during a hot
spell in summer that have no shade. Such hutches quickly turn
into ovens with the temperatures soaring.
I have also seen a case and heard of others of people leaving
their animals, as some do their dogs, in locked cars to cook
in the summer time!.
'But they come from South America, don't they?' I have often
heard said, when I tell people that guinea pigs are very prone
to heat-stroke. They do indeed and it does probably gets even
hotter out there than it does here. However, they are not
imprisoned out in the open in a little wooden box!. Like most
wild animals their senses are attuned to the weather far more
acutely than our own. By the time the sun reaches it's zenith
they will have found a cool spot to shelter from it.
The symptoms of heat-stroke are that the animals will be
flat on it's belly, unable to move, breathing is shallow and
the pulse is rapid and very weak.
Treatment must be immediate for the animal is very close
to death. Soak a towel in cold water and wrap the guinea pig
in it, or get a bucket of cold water and continuously sponge
the animal down. If there is one to hand, an electric fan
should be played on it at top power.
If you are not too late already, recovery can be amazingly
quick. The guinea pig will shakily try to get onto it's feet
and it should be assisted and supported under the belly once
its up. At this juncture, the water treatment should cease
for it could swing the other way and chill the animal.
As soon as it is able to, give it rehydration treatment,
water if you have no rehydration fluid to hand. The best method
of course is something like Ringers solution subcutaneously
by hypodermic needle.
Those that pull through the ordeal usually make a full recovery
with no bad after effects.
