Hot Weather Management and Heat Stroke in Guinea Pigs

Popcorn corner, stories and chat about guinea pigs
Post Reply
sdf76
Posts: 8808
Joined: 16 Oct 2011 20:40
Location: gloucestershire

Hot Weather Management and Heat Stroke in Guinea Pigs

Post by sdf76 »

shared from Windwhistle Warren facebook..( originally posted by the guinea pig forum uk)

Hot Weather Management and Heat Stroke in Guinea Pigs

Domestic guinea pigs do not cope well with big jumps in temperatures and need time to adapt very gradually! They also struggle with hot weather.

Please keep in mind that anything above 25 C / 75 F is hot for piggies and that they need protection from the sun at all times.
That includes hutches, conservatories, hot indoors rooms and uninsulated sheds!
Beware of patios that are heat traps and open lawns that are fully in the sun with no shade. Without additional shade protection, plastic pigloos quickly turn into ovens!

Never leave any living creature in a car or in a conservatory in full sun, not even with a window cracked open; the temperature will soar to over 50 C within minutes!


Signs and treatment of heat stroke

Signs: Lying flat on the belly; unable to move; shallow breathing; rapid and very weak pulse.

Please see a vet or out-of-hours vet immediately as an emergency if you notice any of these signs! Contact details for an out-of-hours vet are usually available from your vet's answering machine.
Your guinea pig will require additional medical support to help get the stressed out body (especially the heart and the guts) going again after a heat stroke.

On the spot treatment:
- Soak a towel in cool, but not ice cold water and wrap the piggy in it, loosely at first in order to not shock the system.
- Or get a bucket of cool, but not ice cold water and gently sponge the piggy down. Lower the body temperature gradually in order to not cause the heart to stop.
- If you have a fan, put it on full blast.

Recovery, if there is any, should be quick and pretty dramatic. Support the piggy as soon as it is trying to get back on its feet and stop the cooling down instantly to avoid the piggy from getting a chill instead.

Warning: Don't dunk an overheated guinea pig into cold water or it will go into cardiac arrest!
http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/


What you can do during a heat wave:

- keep your piggies out of full sun at all times. If they are on the lawn (preferably not during the hottest hours) or in a hot indoors room, place wet towels or fleece over the run or cage and keep these damp. The evaporating water will cool the surrounding air.

- move your indoors guinea pigs to the coolest room in your house. Air this room as much as safely possible during the cooler hours between late afternoon/evening until early morning, so you can get it as cool as possible; run a fan near window to help bring the cooler air inside. Wetting your net curtains before you open all windows in the evening can additionally help to cool down your rooms provided air humidity is not high, in which case it would add to the misery.

- During the hottest hours of the day, please close any windows and draw your curtains where the sun is going to shine on to keep the room cooler than outdoors. If you are at home, you can close and open windows as the sun moves round; if you are out working, please consider which windows are impacted.
If you can, turn on your air conditioning or a fan, but please do not blast your guinea pigs with it directly.
Do not open all your windows wide with a fan running on full on very hot day - all you do, is to encourage the even hotter outdoors air inside!

- move the hutch away from full sun and hot patios that throw the heat around. If that is not possible, move the piggies out of a hutch or hot shed to a cooler place for the duration of the heat wave.

- wrap a frozen bottle of water in a towel or a sock or use freezable gel cool bags or pods instead.
You can also improvise with cool bag freezer blocs if you have those or even by putting your microwaveable snugglesafe heat pads in the fridge (NOT the freezer!).
Please remember to leave room for the ice to expand when putting a water filled plastic bottle into the freezer, or you will get soaked bedding!

- place a ceramic tile in their cage/hutch for them to suck heat from their body. Alternatively, move your guinea pigs into a bath tub you have run cold water across. Please provide a towel to sit on at one end so they can get away whenever they start feeling cool.

- Wiping your piggies gently down with a cool but not ice cold damp rag can also help to lower the temperature in a guinea pig that is suffering in the heat. Don't cold-shock overheated animals to prevent cardiac arrest.

- feed more watery veg like cucumber, chopped celery sticks, lettuce or melon, but please don't overdo it; too much can cause diarrhea!

- make sure that they have access to fresh, cool water at all times. You can use ice cubes or crushed ice if you are away during the heat of the day and need the water to stay cool for as long as possible. Sippy water bottles that open at the top will allow that.
Otherwise, please refresh the water regularly. Keep any water bottles out of full sun.

- Please DO NOT feed frozen treats! Piggies can badly injure their lips and tongues when nibbling to eagerly!

- give long-haired pet piggies a short haircut or at least cut the back and sides short and only leave a thin long top layer for show! They will feel a lot perkier without wearing the equivalent of skiing gear on a tropical beach. Their coats will grow back again for the cooler autumn and winter!

Here is a link to a good and comprehensive list from an Australian site (with the exception of frozen treats, as a member on here has reported a bad experience when trying it!)
http://guineapigsaustralia.com/summer heat management.htm
Coco my 13yr old (bridge) bunny
sdf76
Posts: 8808
Joined: 16 Oct 2011 20:40
Location: gloucestershire

Re: Hot Weather Management and Heat Stroke in Guinea Pigs

Post by sdf76 »

Please do not use plastic hutch covers in hot weather as guinea pigs have died from this recently...see topic

http://www.pledgeapound.net/forum/viewt ... 486#p58832..
Coco my 13yr old (bridge) bunny
sdf76
Posts: 8808
Joined: 16 Oct 2011 20:40
Location: gloucestershire

Re: Hot Weather Management and Heat Stroke in Guinea Pigs

Post by sdf76 »

It's still very warm weather so please take care with piggies.. plenty of fresh water and air.:)
sue :)
Coco my 13yr old (bridge) bunny
Post Reply