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Advice please - noisy breathing

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JayneG

JayneG

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi all. Can someone advise me on my 5 year old boar please? He has very crackly breathing, going on for 5 days now. Vet doesn't know what it is but has put him on Baytril (along with bio lapis). It's no better. Pig is fine in himself, doesn't appear to be struggling to breath and is eating really well. I can't think what it could be. Vet says heart problem or tumour maybe? Any ideas please?

All my vet ever seems to do is put my pigs on Baytril when there's any problem.
 
hi i have no expertise on this matter but i wanted to wish your piggy well and hope everything is ok once he has had baytril

someone with more experience will be along shortly :)
 
is the heavy breathing while he's eatin?

harry one of mine breathes heavy when he eats his nuggets
 
Thanks guys. Mojules he looks a look like your piggy on the right :-)

The crackling/congested noise is there constantly not just when he eats. Doesn't seem to affect him at all though, very strange.
 
have you changed anything that you use? like washing powder purfume anything like that?
 
I had a thing with tiger a while back but he is a very young pig (at time just under 1 year) 2 or 3 times it happened that he had funny loud breathing and was all hunched up but it only lasted a hour or so and then he was fine. It was always in the morning, vet didn't know what it was but it cleared up by itself! think it was just one of those things!

If it is worse in morning could be due to heating not being on at night? only an idea though! hopefully he will be back to his normal self after the antibiotics :) x
 
JayneG said:
Thanks guys. Mojules he looks a look like your piggy on the right :-)

The crackling/congested noise is there constantly not just when he eats. Doesn't seem to affect him at all though, very strange.
Click to expand...

aw thanks Jayne - so I'm guessing thats not the crackly pig in your avatar :))
 
:-) no not crackly pig, that's Toffee in the pic :-)

No not changed washing powder either. Not worse in the morning, although we do have heating off during the night. He's always lived indoors though. Fingers crossed that the antibiotics get rid of it though, he's on them for another two weeks.
 
Hmm, I can't work out how on earth to post a pic on here, it's not very straightforward! I'll try again tomorrow!
 
if you load them to photobucket they have a list of links, just copy and paste the one that is for forums! :)
 
Ok, I think I got it. Still looking for ideas as to what could be wrong with him so any ideas welcome guys :-)

This is Baja. He is very vocal, yells a lot when it's dinner time, such a character!

Baja.jpg
 
I very much doubt that it is an infection, so don't be surprised if Baytril has no effect.
It is possibly a reaction to hay, pollen etc.
There are occasions when a pig has "hay fever" and is given Baytril and a few days later the problem goes away, this does not mean the Baytril was a cure!
In the first instance, I would let the pig have a quick sniff of Olbas Oil three or four times a day for 2 or 3 days.
What is his bedding, is it just hay?
 
I am having exactly the same problem with one of mine. She is lively, eating well and behaving normally - apart from the crackly breathing
 
I have had this recently with one of mine... she had VERY raspy breathing, even whistly sometimes and three weeks of baytril in a row didn't shift it.

The baytril slightly improved her symptoms but never cleared them completely and her symptoms worsened again afterwards.

Eventually I came to the conclusion, with some help from guys on here, that an allergy may be to blame so she is now known as my "suspected allergy pig" :))

I have recently changed her hay to the soft hay from dustfreehay.co.uk as the hay she had (King Alfafa's Timothy Hay) was increasingly dusty in recent months and so far I have heard only 2 sneezes from her in 4 days (compared to many sneezes every day). And I suspect that the sneezes she has done is due to dust from the old hay still being present in her cage as cleanout day is tomorrow.

Apart from the symptoms already mentioned (sneezing, crackly and whistly breathing), my sow has been full of beans... eating normally... behaviour as normal.

Hope that helps.
 
He just has hay and lives indoors. Hmm I'm inclined to agree with the possibility of an allergy to the hay. I'll try the dust free and see if this helps him. He's always been fine with it, but they can still develop allergies through life can't they.

Indeed the Baytril appears to be doing nothing! Thanks all :-)
 
JayneG said:
He just has hay and lives indoors. Hmm I'm inclined to agree with the possibility of an allergy to the hay. I'll try the dust free and see if this helps him. He's always been fine with it, but they can still develop allergies through life can't they.

Indeed the Baytril appears to be doing nothing! Thanks all :-)
Click to expand...

We have had Piglet for nearly 2 years now and so far she had not shown any symptoms until recently so yes, I agree, they can develop allergies ;)
 
Well now I'm half convinced it is the hay. I cleaned him out yesterday and hour later the wheezing had totally disappeared! I wonder if there was something in that particular batch of hay perhaps. Going to call the vet tomorrow to see if I still need to carry on giving him Baytril for the next 2 weeks. Seems a bit pointless. He's been on it over a week already and I don't want to carry on upsetting him with it if I don't have to.
 
Hi

This is probably going to sound like a really silly question but what is URI? rolleyes

I'm new to keeping guinea pigs, well haven't done since I was a little one, and things have changed so much, I'm learning new stuff everyday :^-

Thanks :)
 
My 5 year old guinea pig has pretty much the same symptoms. She has been making snuffly noises for just over a week. She has been to the vets twice and is on baytril. The first vet said that he could possibly hear something in her lungs, but only slight. The second vet at her follow up said her lungs were clear and that she could come of the baytril in a couple of days. I've bought a fresh back of straw incase i'd picked up a dodgy bag but there is no improvement. She was behaving normally but she seems fed up today. She is only picking at food, the rattling is worse and she isn't moving about much. I feel another trip back to the vest comming on, just wish i knew what was causing it. Hope your piggy feels better soon x
 
My 5 year old guinea pig has pretty much the same symptoms. She has been making snuffly noises for just over a week. She has been to the vets twice and is on baytril. The first vet said that he could possibly hear something in her lungs, but only slight. The second vet at her follow up said her lungs were clear and that she could come off the baytril in a couple of days. I've bought a fresh bag of straw incase i'd picked up a dodgy bag but there is no improvement. She was behaving normally but she seems fed up today. She is only picking at food, the rattling is worse and she isn't moving about much. I feel another trip back to the vest comming on, just wish i knew what was causing it. Hope your piggy feels better soon x
 
Sorry to hear about your girl Chocolatepig, I hope she gets well soon.

Would it be worth trying some dust free hay? Someone mentioned it earlier in this thread. I don't use straw as I found my lads kept getting poked in the eyes with it as it's more coarse. I just use hay.

She needs to keep eating if she is under the weather. Will she not even eat her favourite veg? Back to the vet might be a good idea. Fingers crossed for you x
 
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