Sad death of my sons 8 month old male Degu

[toffee39]

Hi I've just joined the forum as sadly one of my sons Degus died very suddenly this afternoon.

My son is eleven years old and his pair of Degu's were bought by him with money he saved from his birthday, back in February of this year.

I believe the pair of male Degus, Scruffy and Paddington, were around 3/4 months old when we got them.

They have proved to be fantastic and very entertaining pets and my three sons aged 7, 11 and 14 have loved having them charge around the bedroom for playtime in the morning and evenings.

Unfortunately one issue kept cropping up regularly with the pair, after they had a sand bath. The more dominant male Paddington would harass and chase the smaller but far more cheeky and entertaining Degu, Scruffy, for a period of time, following the sand bath, to the point we would remain in the room, with Scruffy sitting on our shoulders for refuge from his bully brother. Eventually Scruffy would climb back down and after a bit more chasing, squeaking and jumping things would calm down and an hour later they would be curled up together snoozing.

So this very scenario played out today and of course the weather in the UK is barmy at the moment with my garden temperature showing 37 degrees c. this afternoon, therefore even warmer inside the house. My son complained of them fighting following the sand bath, remained with them for some time and eventually went out to play with friends, having returned them to their cage.

I was downstairs and could hear some squeaking, but that was normal in this situation and thought nothing of it.

Then during the start of my sons bedtime procedure approximately 1-2 hours later, my son shouted down Scruffy didn't look well, I went upstairs and immediately could tell it was far worse. He was laid out on the floor of the cage motionless. I immediately took him out, rigor mortis had set in. Apart from the enormous upset for everyone involved, I was left trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

My uneducated guess is that during the bullying process poor Scruffy couldn't deal with the extreme temperatures and suffered a major organ failure, although being young very active animals I still wonder if this is the wrong conclusion?

After everyone said their sad goodbyes to Scruffy we had a proper burial, but we will miss that little character he was such a cheeky chappie.

We now have the problem of Paddington on his own and some very sad boys (and Dad) wondering just what happened.       

Both Degus were well taken care of, had the correct degu food, plenty of water, hay and were attentively cared for.  

Thanks for listening/reading to my rambling on.

[uglibug]

So sorry for your loss. We had a sudden death a while ago and it really is a shock.

[deguconvert]

Did you have a good look at his body to see if there were any visible injuries? If there were none, and no blood spilled, I suspect that your guess at heat exhaustion may be correct.

I am so sorry for your loss of Scruffy! You will all be feeling his absence, and so will Paddington. He will likely be in shock and you could see him interacting less than usual with you. Just in case the cause is the heat, do you have a water bottle, or a stone bottle? Something you can put cold water/ice water into, or can chill in your refridgerator, and then can put in the cage for him to lay on so as to cool his body down? Watch Paddington for signs of depression, which can look like lethargy, eating and drinking less, no interest in his usual activities, refusing treats he loves, things like that. His grief at the loss of Scruffy, or the heat, or both could bring about these kinds of symptoms. If you think he is depressed, spending more time with him will help, but really you need to consider getting him a new companion to live with. Degus are colony animals and very seldom do very well when kept alone. We have a fighting and introductions board on here with threads about introducing new degus to each other. They would be worth a read so that you can know a bit of what you would be facing. SIGH, my mouse is broken, so I'll just hav tell you they are the top two threads on that board.

Please don't be shy to ask any questions. That's why we are here.

[moletteuk]

I'm sorry for your loss. You can't really know for sure what happened, heat combined with stress could be the culprit, especially with temperatures like that, but there may have been some underlying weakness too. I know it doesn't help with the grieving when you don't know exactly what happened.

I agree that you will need to figure out a cooling system if your house is prone to going over 30C and up towards 40C. Sealed containers that you put ice in or things like rocks or sand with some mass that you can refridgerate will help.

Here are the intro links mentioned above
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/17619/deguconverts-detailed-introductions-fighting-guide
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/17618/introductions-fighting-quick-guide

We can help you a bit more when you are ready to think about getting a new friend for Paddington.

[toffee39]

Thank you all very much for your advice and kind words. I left early for work this morning, with my boys all heartbroken. I'll keep a close eye on Paddington, this morning I looked in on him and he seemed nervous and squeaked on approach to the cage. I did explain to my son he would need more attention now as he would be confused at where his buddy has gone.
Thanks.

[toffee39]

Hi deguconvert, I did inspect Scruffy and did find some wet on his fur, but not blood. His ears had what looked like wet in them but again not blood. He looked fairly injury free and even had some hay and food in his mouth. On inspection of the cage there were some small streaks of blood on some of the shelves but not significant amounts.
Unfortunately it's seems inconclusive what exactly was the cause.

[deguconvert]

What a puzzle. I am sorry there is no way to conclusively determine the cause of his death, short of retrieving his body and having an necropsy (sp?) done by a vet. Those are expensive, I think.