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Farmers lung?

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CharlieH

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Have spent the morning at the vets with Esther again :(
She gets recurrent URI's and makes a horrid honking noise when breathing when they're bad.

The vet thinks she has a Farmers Lung type condition and the best we can hope for is to be able to medicate her when she gets the infections :(

Her hay is in a hay rack and is already virtually dust free but we seem to get a spell of infection about every 3 - 4 weeks regardless, she makes a horrible coughing noise every now and again too :(

We've got a largish bottle of septrin to keep her going and to give courses when it stats up each time, we're getting quite used to the initial signs nowadays lol!

Any thoughts? / Anyone with a pig with recurrent URI's had any success?
Having read into Farmers Lung a bit, it does seem quite plausible has anyone else had this diagnosis before?



:(
 
No advice but just wanted to send Esther some healing vibes x
 
Hi. I have read that oxygen therapy is helpful in humans so wondered if there was anyway that this might be useful with your piggy - not sure but just a shot in the dark!

I have had a piggy with pneumonia that got through it. While speaking to my friend, whose piggy suffered with it too, she mentioned that she helped aleviate her piggys symptons with setting up her electric veggie steamer in one of her piggie tents, putting her piggy in it with her favourite veg, for about 15 minutes a day. She obviously kept a very close eye on her while she was in it, but she said it really helped. Hope the idea doesnt sound too daft!
 
I don't know about farmer's lung in guinea pigs, but my understanding it that it's aspergillosis, which is fungal. Maybe speak to you vet again as you may need an anti fungal treatment rather than an antibiotic.
 
Thanks all for your replies, this is one of the things I love about this place - ideas!

I'll take these suggestions to my vet and see what he says, he seemed receptive to new ideas and things to try so we'll see what he says!

I'm also hoping to have a chat with one of the doctors I work with to see what treatments are most effective in people, hopefully that'll shed a few ideas to suggest too.

Thanks again! :)
 
Sorry to hear she is still poorly. recurrent respiratory problems could be one of a number of causes.
a) bacterial infection which hasn;t cleared up with usual antibiotics baytril or septrin - in which case it might be worth trying a course of zithromax
b) fungal infection such as farmworkers lung - this is very unlikely and would need a course of itrafungol or griseofulvin to clear it and antifungal meds are not to be given lightly to piggies as they can casue liver and kidney damage
c) developing heart issues - often first indicated by recurrent breathing issues and hooting. Diagnosed by Xray and ultrasound of thee heart and lungs - which will also show if there is any fluid in the lungs or around the heart which is often the cause of this type of problem. Furoseamide diuretic and fortekor or pimobenden heart meds can be given and there is a lot of useful info on the guinea lynx site including example Xrays you can print off for your vet
http://www.guinealynx.info/heart.html
d) sensitivity to hay, woodshavings, essential oils such as candles/air fresheners or disinfectants - causing inflammation in the sinuses and airways - not necessarily a full "allergic" reaction. Alternatively if you have an indoor piggie it could be dry air as a result of the central heating. In this case cutting down exposure and perhaps creating a more humid atmosphere can help. Also i have used a nebuliser with F10/saline for some of my piggies with breathing problems. I've also used olbas oil or vicks bubble bath in a tupperware box with holes in the lid placed next to the cage to increase humidity and clear noses
e) foreign body such as a hay seed in the upper respiratory tract - might show up on Xray
f) I am aware of a report of some piggies from a certain petstore found to have pinworm egg infection in their lungs - in which case panacure might help - again this is probably unlikely and highly unusual - suspect it is one breeder who supplies that has this problem

Having had several piggies with recurrent respiratory issues I think from my experience i would opt for
a) Xray and ultrasound for heart/lung issues - most of my noisy breathers were sorted with heart meds
b) before any further antibiotics/anti-fungals are given it might be worth stopping antibiotics or two weeks and then performing a culture of throat swab for fungal/bacterial infection -this will probably require sedation in order to take it). We did this first and all was negative for fungal/bacterial - also post-mortems on all my respiratory pigs when they finally passed showed no evidence of any past/current fungal/bacterial infections - just non-specific inflammation with influx of lymphocytes
c) bisolven as an anti-mucolytic if there is congestion within the nose/upper respiratory tract. Also either olbas oil/vicks steam chamber or F10/saline with a nebuliser helps when there is a a bad attack
d) depending upon the results in b above, a stronger antibioitic - either zithromax or marbocyl - or if there is evidence of a fungal infection then itrafungol
e) consider use of furoseamide when she's next very wheezy -I can PM you doses if you wish. This together with the vicks steam bath worked very well for my Grommie pig

Hope this information helps - I know how frustrating this can be having spent a lot of time and money at my vets to try and find out the cause of chronic respiratory issues with several of my genetically related piggies over the last 3 years. Happy to talk further to either you or your vet
x
 
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