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Flossy - Older Guinea Pig With Breathing Difficulties

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Chris24

Chris24

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Hi All,

Flossy, our elder (5+ year old) piggy is unfortunately unwell.

We adopted her about 9 months ago but she had a URI the adoption center hadn't picked up on. We got her straight onto baytril and this cleared up within a week or so.

On and off since then we notice she has been having difficulty with her breathing, making a wheezing noise. It has only happened intermittently, and is usually a lot worse during and after eating.

We had taken her back to the vets a few times and she has been on a course of antibiotics but the problem never seemed to worsen and she was remaining at a healthy 1000g.

Unfortunately over the past few weeks, the wheezing has been getting worse and her weight has been slowly dropping. When we took her back to the vets 2 weeks ago, her chest sounded very noisy and we put her on a course of twice daily 0.21 Sulfatrim and nebuliser with F10 solution.

We took her back again a few days ago to be checked over and the vet said her chest was completely clear and to stop the Sulfatrim and just continue with F10 solution. Unfortunately she still sounds very wheezy and he weight continues to drop (she is now 900g).

It seemed like a URI at but i'm not so sure as her chest is clear at the moment but the symptoms remain. I have posted a video of Flossy here (taken today just after she had eating and had her nebuliser).


Aside from the wheezing she is quite sprightly in herself (maybe sleeping a bit more than normal) and is very resistant to syringe feeding.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Regards,

Chris
 
Ditto to Poppy'sMum, it's worth asking the vet to trial a diuretic and look into heart problems as that can cause breathing issues.

Also, how long and how often do you nebulise? I had a boy that we uses a nebuliser for as he had intermittent noising breathing. On his off days he had 30mins 3x a day, which is a lot more than F10 suggests. Sometimes he needed that extra boost to clean him out.
 
Chris24 said:
Hi All,

Flossy, our elder (5+ year old) piggy is unfortunately unwell.

We adopted her about 9 months ago but she had a URI the adoption center hadn't picked up on. We got her straight onto baytril and this cleared up within a week or so.

On and off since then we notice she has been having difficulty with her breathing, making a wheezing noise. It has only happened intermittently, and is usually a lot worse during and after eating.

We had taken her back to the vets a few times and she has been on a course of antibiotics but the problem never seemed to worsen and she was remaining at a healthy 1000g.

Unfortunately over the past few weeks, the wheezing has been getting worse and her weight has been slowly dropping. When we took her back to the vets 2 weeks ago, her chest sounded very noisy and we put her on a course of twice daily 0.21 Sulfatrim and nebuliser with F10 solution.

We took her back again a few days ago to be checked over and the vet said her chest was completely clear and to stop the Sulfatrim and just continue with F10 solution. Unfortunately she still sounds very wheezy and he weight continues to drop (she is now 900g).

It seemed like a URI at but i'm not so sure as her chest is clear at the moment but the symptoms remain. I have posted a video of Flossy here (taken today just after she had eating and had her nebuliser).


Aside from the wheezing she is quite sprightly in herself (maybe sleeping a bit more than normal) and is very resistant to syringe feeding.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Regards,

Chris
Click to expand...

I would have her checked out by a very good vet as to whether she is suffering from permanent damage because of a not healed out URI earlier in her life/lung disease. Try to see whether a bowl of steaming water next to her cage can help her. In advanced stages she may need a nebuliser. It is not all that uncommon in older guinea pigs when the airways gradually narrow even further.

I would also have her checked for potential heart problems. These are often very difficult to diagnose, though.
 
Thank you all for your helpful advice. I think we will take Flossy to see another vet for a second opinion and ask about diuretics and chest x-rays.

Chris
 
Hi All,

Flossy is now on a diuretic and is doing well. She is still a bit wheezy on and off (but less so than before), is holding her weight and is bright and happy. We will be taking her back for a check-up soon.

Thanks again,

Chris
 
Thank you for the update! Glad that Flossy is much better in herself!
 
Hi All,

I thought i'd provide an update on Flossy's progress. Unfortunately the Frusol didn't make as much difference as we first thought and Flossy went back to being wheezy. After a second consultant with the vet, we decided to have her x-rayed. The x-ray showed some lung damage in one lung from a set-in chest infection that was not picked up by the adoption center just before we got her. In addition she has some tooth spurs going in her top teeth that are impeding her nasal canal.

Unfortunately there is not much the vet can do for either problem, although he said the Frusol may help for any liquid build up on the lungs (it does seem to be helping a little bit).

So we are keeping her as comfortable as possible by hand feeding veggies if her weight drops and nebulising her for a minute or so if she becomes wheezy (we're currently doing this 2-3 times a day), this seems to really help her.

Despite all this she is a very happy and contented piggy and despite the laboured breathing she is very much acting normally in the cage (apart from sleeping a bit more than normal).

Chris
 
Chris24 said:
Hi All,

I thought i'd provide an update on Flossy's progress. Unfortunately the Frusol didn't make as much difference as we first thought and Flossy went back to being wheezy. After a second consultant with the vet, we decided to have her x-rayed. The x-ray showed some lung damage in one lung from a set-in chest infection that was not picked up by the adoption center just before we got her. In addition she has some tooth spurs going in her top teeth that are impeding her nasal canal.

Unfortunately there is not much the vet can do for either problem, although he said the Frusol may help for any liquid build up on the lungs (it does seem to be helping a little bit).

So we are keeping her as comfortable as possible by hand feeding veggies if her weight drops and nebulising her for a minute or so if she becomes wheezy (we're currently doing this 2-3 times a day), this seems to really help her.

Despite all this she is a very happy and contented piggy and despite the laboured breathing she is very much acting normally in the cage (apart from sleeping a bit more than normal).

Chris
Click to expand...

Thank you for the update. I am sorry that it is not better news, but at least you now where you stand and can keep her as comfy as possible for as long as possible.

It is not quite easy to pick up untreated/undertreated old URI issues and have them properly diagnosed when they are not all that obvious - it took me about two years and several vet trips until a very piggy savvy vet could diagnose my emergency intake Ffraid's off and on crackly breathing as upper and lower lung disease resulting from an old not fully cure URI and not a potential heart problem. Of course, she usually stopped being crackly as soon as she was at the vets. Prey animals are very good at hiding problems, especially when they are out of their comfort zone. :(
 
If you're not using prescribed medication jn the nebuliser it would be worth speaking with your vet to see if you can increase the time.

We used F10 in ours which isn't any kind of antibiotic and were able to use it for upto 30mins at a time.
 
We are using a saline and ventolin mix at the moment but keeping the times low (1-2 minutes) due to increased heart rate from the ventolin. It really makes a difference, though!

We used F10 for a while when there was a suspected chest infection a few months ago.
 
It is with great sadness to report that Flossy took her final journey over the rainbow bridge on Tuesday. She died of old age in the end and her passing was very peaceful. We have set up a rainbow bridge page in her memory. Thank you all for your help and advice.

Flossy
 
So sorry to hear she passed. I've lost a Flossy too. My heart goes out to you.
 
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