Not long after I arrived home this afternoon I helped myself to a nectarine, cut out the bruised bits with a generous bit of the flesh for Keith Richards, who was still in a large box in our bathroom and sat down to read. I checked him a few minutes later and he'd eaten all the nectarine, and I sat back down. Not long after, I heard a dreadful racket that sounded like stuff clattering to the floor and asked Gam if he was ok, but it wasn't Gam, it was Keith Richards. He was having a fit- on his side with his legs kicking wildly, with audible panting, and it was his legs kicking against the cardboard that was making the noise.
I put my hand on him, and he didn't respond, but it stopped a few seconds later and he sat there quietly. We'd already decided by that stage to take him straight to the vet, but within minutes he was acting completely normally, as if nothing had happened. We put him in a shoebox with a towel and walked him to the vet anyway just to have him checked out... after asking general questions about his health and diet and checking his lungs and heart, the vet said both his lungs and heart are in good condition and that we're feeding him well. She said that the most common cause of fitting in guinea pigs is mites, so she took a skin scraping. KR didn't like that at all, and squeaked in protest. No mites were evident, but she said that it's still the most likely cause (other causes of fits are things like brain tumours and are basically untreatable) so she gave (sold) us some Revolution for puppies and kittens. We're to use half an ampoule on Keith Richards every two weeks for 6 weeks. Fingers crossed there's no more fitting!
On our way home I picked him a nice bunch of grass and put him back in 'his' garden, at which he muttered very happily and started munching the grass... hopefully there'll be no more such drama!
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