Farewell Herbert the guinea pig

Yesterday, my lovely guinea pig, Herbert, sadly passed away.

Herbert was a lunkaraya guinea pig with a cloud of crazy, white fluffy fur. Just the sight of him would make anyone smile. He also had a way of lifting his head up, so it looked like he was smiling too. He always responded to my voice and would always greet me at the door of the hutch. He really was an adorable guinea pig.

We got Herbert in October 2020, when he was four weeks old. He was the replacement for Cedric, who was probably my favourite ever guinea pig. We couldn’t have asked for a better replacement. He lived with Henry, until Henry died in March 2023. Then we got Zebedee the rescue guinea pig. We had trouble getting Zebedee settled, but they had been good friends since May last year.

My husband called him ‘Sherbert’ and talked to Hetty about Sherbert. If he said ‘Sherbert’, she knew what he meant.

Herbert was 3 years and 4 months when he died, which was about the same as many of his predecessors. I must admit that, for the last two or three months I’d been expecting bad things to happen for him. Once they turn 3, it feels like my guinea pigs are on borrowed time. Every morning, I was relieved to find him alive and happy.

I weigh the guinea pigs about once a month, as a good way to monitor their health. I know from bitter experience how good they are at hiding when they’re ill. Herbert had lost a bit of weight over the winter, but that was normal as they can’t go out on the grass.

When I went to feed them on the evening of Monday 15th January, Herbert looked a bit withdrawn. He was facing the wrong way and didn’t come to me when I opened the hutch. Zebedee was hovering next to him in a protective way, which is always a bit of a worry. I got Herbert out of the hutch and stroked him. He made a noise as usual, so I was reasonably happy. I then watched him eat a bit of lettuce, which was reassuring.

But I couldn’t sleep that night. I kept reminding myself of the positives, but couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right. In the morning, I weighed him. He’d lost 160g in a month and was down to 887g, which was a bad sign. It was a cold day, so my husband suggested I keep him in the house in the ‘vet box’, which is a cat box, so reasonably spacious for a guinea pig. We managed to attach the water bottle to the box. I put him in my younger son’s room without the heating on, so it wasn’t too hot either. I saw him eat a bit of hay and drink a bit of water. My daughter told me she’d heard him drinking a few times.

I knew he needed to go to the vet, but I was afraid to take him in case they said he needed to be put to sleep. I hoped maybe they could give him some antibiotics or something to perk him up.

At the vet’s he struggled a bit, and even bit me, which I was pleased about. It showed he still had a bit of fighting spirit. I was pleased the vet wasn’t giving up on him. She didn’t think antibiotics would be right for him, but she gave him a bit of fluid, as he was slightly dehydrated. Then she gave me a liquid recovery food and a medication. These would hopefully help hydrate him and help him start to regain weight and start eating again. I booked a follow-up appointment for the next day with the vet who is most knowledgeable about guinea pigs.

When we got him home, I gave him the recovery food and the medication and put some red pepper, hay and lettuce in his box. I didn’t really expect him to eat them, but I saw him eating a bit of lettuce later on, which really gave me hope.

I repeated the recovery food and the medication just before I went to bed. The recovery food is very thick and wouldn’t come out of the syringe very well. It didn’t all go in his mouth and some dripped down his front. I cleaned him up as best I could and told myself I would give it to him more gradually in the morning.

I slept better that night, reassured that he was warm and that he’d had medication to help his recovery.

But in the morning, Herbert was gone. He looked like he was asleep. I stroked him and talked to him as though he was still with us. Then I went to tell my husband and had a good cry. Hetty knew I was unhappy and came to look after me.

Herbert was such a little character. Every time I remember he’s gone, I shed a tear or two. He will be very missed.

Before Herbert’s friend, Henry, died, I’d taken the decision not to get any more guinea pigs. We’ve had guinea pigs for nearly 10 years and the kids stopped being interested in them years ago. I adore them, but it’s not so easy looking after guinea pigs with a demanding dog and I couldn’t give them as much attention as I would like. After Henry died, I couldn’t quite go through with my plan, so decided to get a rescue guinea pig, Zebedee. While I hope that Zebedee still has a long life ahead of him, theoretically he shouldn’t be on his own as long as a baby guinea pig would have been.