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Breathing noises and sides moving

aimzer

aimzer

Adult Guinea Pig
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Hello, it's me again!

Maple is recovering well from her dental around 2 weeks ago. She is started to put on weight slowly and is now weighing 770g.

On and off I can hear her breathing. This has been going on for a while now. I noticed it a couple of times before the dental. Its muffled. She did this the evening i picked her up from the vet after the GA but seemed to settle as the days went on now its back today. No coughing or sneezing. I can see her sides move in and out.

She's seems well, moving round the cage, eating, pooping. I give her a little top up feed of CC in the evenings. She has just completed a course of baytril.

Does this sound like a URI? Given that shes just finished antibiotics and there's no discharge from nose.
Or could it be a heart issue?
 
aimzer said:
Hello, it's me again!

Maple is recovering well from her dental around 2 weeks ago. She is started to put on weight slowly and is now weighing 770g.

On and off I can hear her breathing. This has been going on for a while now. I noticed it a couple of times before the dental. Its muffled. She did this the evening i picked her up from the vet after the GA but seemed to settle as the days went on now its back today. No coughing or sneezing. I can see her sides move in and out.

She's seems well, moving round the cage, eating, pooping. I give her a little top up feed of CC in the evenings. She has just completed a course of baytril.

Does this sound like a URI? Given that shes just finished antibiotics and there's no discharge from nose.
Or could it be a heart issue?
Click to expand...

It could be either and only a good vet will be able to tell. Even after antibiotics a persistent URI could need other antibiotics to get rid. Best to have it checked out.
 
I took Maple to the vet today and he said she sounds congested. We are trying a course of septrin and continuing the metacam.

I have her in the bathroom just now after my shower with the fan off to see if the steam helps. Do you guys recommend this? Feels awful warm and stuffy in there!
 
aimzer said:
I took Maple to the vet today and he said she sounds congested. We are trying a course of septrin and continuing the metacam.

I have her in the bathroom just now after my shower with the fan off to see if the steam helps. Do you guys recommend this? Feels awful warm and stuffy in there!
Click to expand...

All the best!
 
How long should it take to see a difference with new antibiotics? Maple had a dose of septrin last night and 2 doses today morning and night.

She is looking a bit worse today. Sitting fluffed up. Not coming over for veg or approaching veg bowl. She will eat the veg if I put a pile right in front of her. Nibbling at small amounts of hay.

I am working 12 hours shifts over the weekend so haven't been able to give constant feeds. She has lost 20g in weight since this morning. She only weighs 720g after bereavement and dental 😞
 
aimzer said:
How long should it take to see a difference with new antibiotics? Maple had a dose of septrin last night and 2 doses today morning and night.

She is looking a bit worse today. Sitting fluffed up. Not coming over for veg or approaching veg bowl. She will eat the veg if I put a pile right in front of her. Nibbling at small amounts of hay.

I am working 12 hours shifts over the weekend so haven't been able to give constant feeds. She has lost 20g in weight since this morning. She only weighs 720g after bereavement and dental 😞
Click to expand...

It usually takes at least 1-3 days for any improvement to show; sometimes a week. Please see a vet asap if there is a noticeable deterioration during that time, as that means that the antibiotic may not be working or the problem is not caused by a bacterial infection.

Has your vet checked for fluid either in the lung or the chest?
 
Wiebke said:
It usually takes at least 1-3 days for any improvement to show; sometimes a week. Please see a vet asap if there is a noticeable deterioration during that time, as that means that the antibiotic may not be working or the problem is not caused by a bacterial infection.

Has your vet checked for fluid either in the lung or the chest?
Click to expand...

I did ask him about fluid in the chest related to heart failure. He said the heart SOUNDS fine but I am aware heart failure cannot be detected just by sounding the chest. If no improvement by Monday I will ask him to try some furosemide. Not overly keen to sedate her again for an x-ray!
 
aimzer said:
I did ask him about fluid in the chest related to heart failure. He said the heart SOUNDS fine but I am aware heart failure cannot be detected just by sounding the chest. If no improvement by Monday I will ask him to try some furosemide. Not overly keen to sedate her again for an x-ray!
Click to expand...

@helen105281 and @Jaycey have both experience with heart piggies and can tell you what pointers to look out for.

But I hope that you can get to the bottom of your problems. As long as she is eating on her own and holding her weight and is reasonably bright and active, I would not yet panic.
 
I've had one piggy who we treat as a heart pig. He was never medically confirmed to be one as the vet and I weren't happy to sedate him for an x-ray or scan. His heart sounded fine when listened too.

He was a very lazy boy with quite visible breathing. Quite often I'd find him asleep in his food bowl. On occasion he would have a it of discharge from his nose. We decided to just try the heart meds to see what happened. And when we had him on all three he improved quite a lot.

Heart conditions are really difficult to diagnose and the symptoms can vary so much that quite often a vet will trial a heart medicine on them to see if it helps. In my experience we tried Frusol first and then added in more heart meds when that wasn't having the full effect we needed.
 
Lots of good poops tonight and she took timothy hay straight from me when I got home. Still fluffed up. Taking her feed well but she has lost another 20g since this morning:(
 
Ok so we are 11 days on septrin now. Breathing is not as loud and sides are not moving in and out quite as bad. However she is still fluffed up almost 24/7.

Back to vet today and he thinks the lower right tooth is starting to bridge over again! Says chest sounds better.

I have booked her in for ANOTHER :( dental on Friday. She is approx 7 years old so he is going to do it under a small amount of gas and have her under as little as possible.

He is going to take an x-ray at the same time to see if there are any other issues causing her not to eat as much.

I'm very concerned as don't feel like I'm getting to the bottom of it this time :( again he checked her heart and said her chest does not sound wet and she does not feel full of fluid so does not think heart failure.

Her right eye is weepy, wondering if this is due to tooth issues. He thinks upper teeth look ok but I guess x-ray will tell us.

I think she's finding it harder to bounce back due to 1) her age and 2)being recently bereaved :(

If anyone has any input, it'd be greatly appreciated.
 
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