farm guinea pigs (meat cavy!)

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

wow, that's disappointing.

Describe her diet for the duration of the pregnancy?

 

[Bug n Flock]

Unlimited timothy and alfalfa hay, rotating third variety (currently orchard grass) hay, looots of fresh veg and fruit of many different kinds, sometimes fresh grass hand cut from my pesticide free lawn, sometimes sunflower or safflower seed, and manna pro rabbit pellets. Same thing I fed during the last pregnancy.

A few days ago their water bottle flooded out the cage and I had to clean and change a few things around. I tried to minimize stress, but possibly this was related I'm thinking?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Pic of some of ours.
Cleaning cages so had them where I could get several in one pic for once.

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

Unlimited timothy and alfalfa hay, rotating third variety (currently orchard grass) hay, looots of fresh veg and fruit of many different kinds, sometimes fresh grass hand cut from my pesticide free lawn, sometimes sunflower or safflower seed, and manna pro rabbit pellets. Same thing I fed during the last pregnancy.

A few days ago their water bottle flooded out the cage and I had to clean and change a few things around. I tried to minimize stress, but possibly this was related I'm thinking?

Was one of the grass varieties you fed Tall Fescue?

 

[Bug n Flock]

Maybe. I don't know what is growing in my yard, but many different species. Is that a bad variety?

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

Wondering if the sow seems ok now? Eating normally, any changes in her health?

I don't have the right kind of experience and understanding to be able to write sensibly about what can cause an abortion of live fetuses like that. But if the sow shows signs of sickness, the answer could be related to whatever is causing that.

About the tall fescue, for what it's worth - there are plants that grow in yards and such that have alkaloids in them that cause problems for livestock that eats them (problems up to and including abortion, from what I've read). It's supposed to be a bigger problem for animals like horses (and guinea pigs) vs. cows (cows have different-ish digestive systems).

Naturally-growing tall fescue is a well-known problematic one (a.k.a, "infected" tall fescue), but it's not the only one. I found a reference to yarrow having problem alkaloids, as one example. I don't know which alkaloids are in fine fescue (there's a study but it's paywalled). Supposedly meadow fescue and ryegrass are on the safe side.

I found a reference to a study that was an effort to verify whether guinea pigs' responses to similar alkaloids were bad (like what happens to horses and such). The study determined that it did affect them in the same sorts of ways..

Being careful not to feed plants with the bad alkaloids (which means not feeding unidentified plants) seems to be a good idea.

But I'm not saying that alkaloids are the reason your sow aborted. There are plenty of other reasons it can happen, from what I've read.

If any of my sows had that happen, I would be calling my vet's personal ph# and asking questions. I wouldn't be surprised if they suggested I bring her in after something like that.

 

[Bug n Flock]

She seems fine. Eating, drinking. That was my first concern. Ive watched her drink and eat pellets, hay, and tomatoes. She seems a little grumpier with her two daughter cagemates, but I don't blame her. And no grumpier now than before this morning.

Seems silly to me to try and ID every plant they eat considering that in less than a year's time they will be living protected in the outdoors with choice of what plants to eat.. But don't get me wrong: I appreciate your input tons. I could stop feeding grass for now.

 

[Bug n Flock]

She is also eliminating normally. Observed.

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

It's unfortunate if you have to skip the grass. Grass is generally one of the best things you can give them. Fiber is the fuel that runs their gut and grass, unlike vegetables, is packed with it. But one should learn to identify tall fescue and not use that.

Maybe you can find some stands of grass that you can positively identify as not being tall fescue and use that instead of whatever it is that you're not sure about.

Identifying grass is like,

http://onpasture.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Forage_Grass_ID_Characteristics_ID_NE_2014.pdf

http://caes2.caes.uga.edu/commodities/turfgrass/georgiaturf/Turfgras/1130_DiagramParts.htm

Full grown tall fescue is some big, thick stuff, but it seems that it is harder to identify when it is used for lawns and chopped short.

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

Seems silly to me to try and ID every plant they eat considering that in less than a year's time they will be living protected in the outdoors with choice of what plants to eat.. But don't get me wrong: I appreciate your input tons. I could stop feeding grass for now.

This is the thing about that - abortions like the one that happened to you are exactly the threat that makes me so careful about the alkaloid plants.

The web page below is about alkaloid toxicity in horses (fescue toxicity specifically) but you'll understand what I mean if you check: http://poisonousplants.ansci.cornell.edu/toxicagents/fesalk.html - scroll down to the part about broodmares and the next few paragraphs afterwards.

I note that hobbyists claim that those exact things are common when breeding guinea pigs. My own experience says it's NOT common. Their reports make me wonder if some of them are experiencing these nightmare scenarios due to following (inappropriate) hobbyist feeding recommendations that are not digging deeply into the alkaloid content of the plants.

I don't have an outdoor area where I could turn mine out but if I were doing it that way, they would only go out there after I understood everything that was there and had made changes as I saw fit.