Hi there, we got my daughter 2 baby guinea pigs for her birthday almost 6 years ago now. We lost one of them naturally 2 years ago but the other one has kept on going and my daughter has always really loved and looked after them/it.
Recently we discovered a lump underneath our remaining one which resulted in surgery to remove a huge stone but unfortunately have just found out today, after a check up at the vets, that she hasn't healed properly from this and that there's little point of putting her through further surgery that she probably wouldn't survive anyway, having already been through so much and being elderly. We've brought her home for now and made her as comfortable as possible but my daughter is terribly upset and won't talk about it at all at the moment. I've left it for now for her to process for a while but need to chat with her soon about it being the kindest thing for her pet to let her go, that we've done all we can and that really we'd only be keeping her going for our own sakes rather than for the guinea pig's sake etc.
Has anyone else being in this position and, if so, how did you handle it? For context my daughter is coming up 12 now so has had the guinea pig half of her lifetime and is so upset. TIA for any advice on how to handle this!
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Small pets
Daughter's poorly guinea pig
WhatTimeIsItCuckoo · 02/06/2018 16:34
Very 
for your DD and your guinea-pig. 6 is a good age for a piggie , but that's no real consolation.
My DD was 9yo when we got our boar pair and now we have GP6/7/8 so we've had to deal with animal deaths along the way. There was only one (my guinea-pig) that we had to make the hard decision to have PTS , the others went at home (some within hours of vet treatment , they don't hang about being ill, they do Fine-Not Fine-Dead in hours sometimes)
My DD was in floods when our young boar GP3 died (he saw the vet twice in 3 days but we couldn't save him, I let her decide if he was to be PTS or come home , obviously if the vet said PTS we would have done) . Sometimes just having the time to say goodbye (and cuddle an ill guineas pig to their death) is hard but its a fitting way to see an old friend off.
If you choose to have the guinea-pig PTS, it is hard to watch even as an adult. Its peaceful (some vets will give them a whiff of gas first , ours had two injections, one to sedate , one to finish) . It is hard making the decision to end it but sometimes there is no humane alternative.
You might find that the guinea pig dies peacefully at home, just keep it comfy and quiet , keep checking and chatting, they might want to stay n their cage rather than be cuddled.
Very sad, but the price we pay for sharing our lives with these little animals is that one day , they leave us. Then you look back and think "i did my best for them". And they don't really ask for much out of life , its only fair to make it the best life and the best death.
Thanks @70. She actually died peacefully tonight but our daughter doesn't know yet as she's spending the night at her friend's. I didn't want to call her and spoil her time there as the sleepover was a nice distraction for her. However we'll have a sad day tomorrow telling her the news and having to bury the little thing, as I know she'll want to do. At least the decision of PTS has been taken from us though which is a good thing I think. I feel sad myself, for the fact we've had her for 6 years and for the fact my daughter was just so little then. It's the end of an era as well as everything else. RIP little piggie, you'll be missed .
Sorry about yr daughters piggy. One of the vets we have used send a card and a packet of forget-me-knot seeds which is a nice touch. Hopefully she will take some comfort that she looked after it well. I have found that dcs usually recover quicker than the adults.
to hear she's gone and hope your DD is coping.
My DD is nearly 16 now , so she's had seven years of pig wrangling. Ours guineas are all 4yo so getting into middle aged years , they insist they need extra care in hot weather /cold weather/wet weather/fireworks/
I do always witter on about bury them securely - foxes will ransack a pet grave for an easy meal. We put ours in Lock&Lock boxes now (I had to do a ducktape wrapped box for GP3 and a toilettries bag for GP2 because I had nothing else)
GP2 was dug up twice but they didn't get the bag open thankfully, we found him . It would be 100 times worse for your DD to find the guinea pig fox-mangled .
We put a slab or tile on the top of them , then the soil.
Thanks all 
. She's been extremely upset as we knew she would be. Upset that she wasn't there to say goodbye and also thinking we might have saved her if she'd had another op. I've explained the last 6 weeks since her last op weren't really very nice for her in hindsight so now she's upset thinking she didn't do the best for her after all . It's hard, she's a sensitive soul and a real animal lover but we've done the best we can today - burial in the garden, stones laid down and a wooden cross with the GP's name and the name of GP's sister who we buried in the same place 2 years ago. We had taken on a rescue dog 2 years ago too, just before we lost her first GP, who is so funny and lovely and adores the kids, so I think that's helping her somewhat - dog's been licking her tears away... 
. Thanks again all, much appreciated
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