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Cali's Breathing

R

Rochester Piggy

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi all,

I haven't been on the forum for the past 2 weeks as I have been very busy, but I've noticed that Cali's breathing has been a bit off.

For the past 2 mornings, around 7:00, Cali has been hooting for about 2-5 minutes randomly. She'll start, go on for a few minutes, then stop, and we won't hear it again. I've listened to her lungs and checked her nose and paws for snot, but nothing abnormal is there. She's acting and doing everything completely normal, and her weight is steady. She hasn't had any diet changes or big changes/ stressors lately. She visited the vet about 2 months ago, was given a VERY through exam (the vet definitely knew what he was doing) and a clean bill of health. She is 3 1/2 years old, and besides having this same thing happen before a few times and breaking off her top teeth (once by her old owner's child dropping her on slate floors, the other she jumped off my lap during snuggle time) she has had no health problems. She lives alone due to the fact she has drawn blood on other pigs before. What could be wrong?
 
Hooting can be the sign of a URTI, heart disease or dental troubles. If in doubt please take her to the vet. Things can have changed since her last visit to the vets.
 
It's possible that she just has something irritating her nose. I would monitor it and see if it resolves completely (in which case I would think it's just hay dust or something bothering her nose), or if it's an on-and-off ongoing issue. Hadley had intermittent hooting last winter with no snot or signs of illness and it ended up being a very low-grade URI that cleared up with antibiotics (though we had to do two courses of antibiotics to get an effective one, as the first one did not fully resolve the problem.) On the other hand, I have had pigs hoot occasionally and then have it not recur, in which case I think something had just irritated their upper respiratory tract. So if it's just over the course of a few days I wouldn't worry, but if it keeps intermittently recurring I would see about a check of her respiratory tract and possibly a course of antibiotics. Hope this helps!
 
Freela said:
It's possible that she just has something irritating her nose. I would monitor it and see if it resolves completely (in which case I would think it's just hay dust or something bothering her nose), or if it's an on-and-off ongoing issue. Hadley had intermittent hooting last winter with no snot or signs of illness and it ended up being a very low-grade URI that cleared up with antibiotics (though we had to do two courses of antibiotics to get an effective one, as the first one did not fully resolve the problem.) On the other hand, I have had pigs hoot occasionally and then have it not recur, in which case I think something had just irritated their upper respiratory tract. So if it's just over the course of a few days I wouldn't worry, but if it keeps intermittently recurring I would see about a check of her respiratory tract and possibly a course of antibiotics. Hope this helps!
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She didn't do it this morning.
 
Rochester Piggy said:
She didn't do it this morning.
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That's good! I would just keep on watching! With Hadley, we would hear it once or twice a day more days than not over the course of a week or so, and at that point I decided to have the vet check it out. If it had tapered off before then, I would have chalked it up to dust/minor irritation. So I would just keep an eye on it and see what happens.
 
Freela said:
That's good! I would just keep on watching! With Hadley, we would hear it once or twice a day more days than not over the course of a week or so, and at that point I decided to have the vet check it out. If it had tapered off before then, I would have chalked it up to dust/minor irritation. So I would just keep an eye on it and see what happens.
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I'm especially watchful over Cali's breathing because I had a piggy die suddenly of pneumonia.
 
I would get her checked at the vet. Just to put your mind at rest. You clearly felt it wasn't right or you wouldn't have posted.
 
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