Coughing While Eating, Hooting, Sneezing?

[tayboonexx]

Hello everyone,
My piggy Theo seems to be coughing (or sneezing). It sounds like a rocket going off, not really like a human sneeze. He seems to only do this while he is eating. This lead me to believe that he is just eating too fast etc. However, there is like a hooting sound when I pick him up and ONLY when I pick him up. He shows no symptoms in his cage. I hear odd sounds in his breathing ONLY when I have him in my arms or outside his cage. He is eating and drinking normal. My friend had this same thing where it sounds like a URI and she has taken her piggy twice to the vet and it was simply because he was in a 'stressful environment' and just made him breathe a little more heavier than normal.

Any advise? I know it is kind of confusing.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! Welcome to the world of greedy eaters! Your boy may also have a little hay dust up his nose.

You can hear any slight obstruction of airways because they are so narrow in guinea pigs. when you pick up your boy, he is breathing more quickly and therefore more audibly. Guinea pigs can also not breathe through their mouth, so you hear hooting (which in most cases is simply a slightly blocked nose) because he needs to breathe around his chewing.

Try and see whether a bowl of steaming water next to the cage can help ease the breathing. Because of the current cold weather in both the US and the UK, indoors air is drier than normal due to increased heating.

URI is a potentially deadly bacterial respiratory infection. Symptoms are generally crackly breathing, sometimes sneezing every few minutes for hours at the start (often not); later as it advances you get loss of appetite (the need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat). If the infection stays in the throat and nose, you get thick yellow/greenish crusts that can close an eye and around the nose. If it goes on the lungs, you get pneumonia and very visible breathing with heaving sides as each breath is a struggle.
If you notice any of those symptoms, please see a vet asap; the sooner you can treat, the better the recovery chances. You also need to support feed your piggy until its breathing has eased again that it has the strength to eat and drink.
More information on URI (upper respiratory tract infection) in this link here: https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...inea-pigs-vet-checks-sexing-parasites-illness.

 

[tayboonexx]

Hi! Welcome to the world of greedy eaters! Your boy may also have a little hay dust up his nose.

You can hear any slight obstruction of airways because they are so narrow in guinea pigs. when you pick up your boy, he is breathing more quickly and therefore more audibly. Guinea pigs can also not breathe through their mouth, so you hear hooting (which in most cases is simply a slightly blocked nose) because he needs to breathe around his chewing.

Try and see whether a bowl of steaming water next to the cage can help ease the breathing. Because of the current cold weather in both the US and the UK, indoors air is drier than normal due to increased heating.

URI is a potentially deadly bacterial respiratory infection. Symptoms are generally crackly breathing, sometimes sneezing every few minutes for hours at the start (often not); later as it advances you get loss of appetite (the need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat). If the infection stays in the throat and nose, you get thick yellow/greenish crusts that can close an eye and around the nose. If it goes on the lungs, you get pneumonia and very visible breathing with heaving sides as each breath is a struggle.
If you notice any of those symptoms, please see a vet asap; the sooner you can treat, the better the recovery chances. You also need to support feed your piggy until its breathing has eased again that it has the strength to eat and drink.
More information on URI (upper respiratory tract infection) in this link here: https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...inea-pigs-vet-checks-sexing-parasites-illness.

This makes so much sense. He is constantly chewing for NO REASON, which makes the hooting happen! Thank you for the realization.