Coughing-how often is too often?

[Josie_lg]

Hey everyone,
One of my guinea pigs buttercup is extremely food orientated and eats very quickly. She is the dominant piggie and also the biggest. I’ve noticed that she coughs occasionally. It started about 3 weeks ago and she did two straight after each other in the first week. Two straight after each other in the second week. And then coughed once yesterday and once the day before. She’s been to the vets before (roughly about 5-6 weeks ago) and the vet thoroughly listened to her heart and lungs and heard nothing bad.
so my question is do some guinea pigs just cough more than others? The other piggies haven’t coughed at all. How often is too often for them to cough?
I’ll add that they’re all indoors at the moment, on fleece, I try to get the best quality hay I can but a lot of good places around where I live have closed because of the virus. But I try to make sure it’s dust free good quality etc. We’ve noticed that all four of the guinea pigs can be quite sensitive to the hay we feed. Meadow hay in particular x
Thank you x

 

[Piggies&buns]

In literal terms, this doesn’t sound like enough to be a consistent, sustained, worrying cough - one cough yesterday and one the day before would not concern me if it was my piggies particularly if it is was when they were eating. They have narrow airways and eating too fast can cause them to cough. Even a couple of coughs a day isn’t concerning if it is related to them eating too fast. However, if it becomes consistent, many times a day, breathing sounds wheezy etc, then that is a different matter.
But we can’t see your piggy to know the exact circumstances, some infections will start off slow with inconsistent symptoms etc. All we can say is that you should speak with a vet if you are concerned.

 

[Wiebke]

with @Piggies&buns

 

[Josie_lg]

In literal terms, this doesn’t sound like enough to be a consistent, sustained, worrying cough - one cough yesterday and one the day before would not concern me if it was my piggies particularly if it is was when they were eating. They have narrow airways and eating too fast can cause them to cough. Even a couple of coughs a day isn’t concerning if it is related to them eating too fast. However, if it becomes consistent, many times a day, breathing sounds wheezy etc, then that is a different matter.
But we can’t see your piggy to know the exact circumstances, some infections will start off slow with inconsistent symptoms etc. All we can say is that you should speak with a vet if you are concerned.

Thanks so much for your reply! We took her along to our vets today as one of our other piggies had an appointment booked. She listened to her heart, lungs, chest and checked her molars as best she could and was happy with her. She’s a greedy piggie so I’m putting it down to that.
thanks again xx