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Gagging pig

Lunarion

Lunarion

New Born Pup
Joined
Mar 13, 2021
Messages
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140
Location
Debrecen
I have been a really bad owner and last week, when I let my pigs play around in the room, one of them made it through to a closed area and ate a few bites of arrow head plant ( Syngonium podophyllum ). We were really worried, because it was Sunday and the vet on duty said that they are unable to care for guinea pigs and there is none in the 100km circle who can. At the end we gave the pig a little amount of activated charcoal and the pig seemed to be fine. Until yesterday. I gave them a small amount of apples (a 7cm diameter cut in half for two 3-month-old pigs) and I did not know I would need to remove the core. Right after they finished with the apple the one who ate arrow head started throwing up greenish half chewed grass, vomiting on the floor. I ran immediately to the vet and they said that the pig had something stuck in the back of his mouth and that was probably the cause. They cleaned the mouth and gave some powder (bio lapis isotonic solution) that should be given to them. He behaved normally for the rest of the day. Today when I arrived home the pig seems like he lost appetite, is curled up a little, humped and fluffed and in every minute or so it is having a gag reflex, throwing up something in their mouth, chewing on it for a while then swallowing and repeat. While chewing I hear sometimes a weird sound that is very much like he is munching on something. He is resisting very much when we are trying to open his mouth, so could not really inspect the inside and again its weekend with a national holiday on Monday so the earliest I can get to the vet is Tuesday. Any good advices?
 
You can soak his pellets in warm water and offer on a spoon, in a bowl or using a syringe. If syringe you would have to cut off the tip. Try that and see if he will take it. Have a read of the guide I’ve linked below as well.

Guinea pigs can’t vomit so whatever came out his mouth was just there and not swallowed. Are all vets closed, even general ones? Hope you can get him seen soon.
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
 
Can you get your piggy to see an emergency vet? As guinea pigs can’t vomit it sounds like he has an obstruction that will need to be cleared.
 
I had tried to give the mushed up pellet. He took it and tried to swallow but immediately after gag reflex and some droll came out of his mouth. After that he ran off to hide.
 
Is there any vet open at all who could see him?
 
We managed to get to a vet, looks like we are lucky, because this time the vet on duty is able to take care of him. I'm in the waiting room atm, while my girlfriend is in with the pig. Thanks for the advices. I will update with the results of our visit
 
So the doc said that he probably has Ileus. He got painkiller, apetite booster and some spec food we need to force feed him in mashed form. They said he is not sure to survive as he is still a youngling but he is not a lost cause yet.
 
Sorry, not really good with veterary english yet (and I hope I don't have to learn it too much). Thanks for the correction and all the advices. I will make sure to read through the syringe feeding guide.
 
Lunarion said:
I had tried to give the mushed up pellet. He took it and tried to swallow but immediately after gag reflex and some droll came out of his mouth. After that he ran off to hide.
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Please see a vet as soon as possible.
 
I would say that is the houseplant was 'sampled' last week it shouldn't be causing a problem this week? I am not an expert but I had a pig that ate something wrong in my garden. A plant in a tall pot so they couldn't reach it - fine - but after it died in winter a long stem fell and she ate half before I got to it... maybe because it was dead and had very little taste. She was ill and just laid in her cage on one side that night not eating. I cried buckets and gave her a little sloppy syringe food every few hours in the night - she wasn't keen but she took it - next day she was fine and back to normal. Like the experts said, they can't vomit so if it goes down it has to go through and that plant would have just passed through in a day or so, I'm pretty sure, and not hung around all week. My mum's rabbit ate a whole rubber plant bit by bit (she thought my little sister was vandalising it) and also some flex from a lamp - luckily not plugged in at the time!

If he's trying to eat he's hungry. When mine have developed gut stasis they refused all food - no interest - no appetite. I'm wondering if something is stuck in his throat, poor boy. I personally haven't given apple core but could you accidentally have given the top end with stalk in? If something is blocking the throat you might have to make the food very sloppy and syringe very small amounts (maybe 0.1 to 0.3ml at a time if he can cope) and just hope some can trickle down past any obstruction he might have - if he has one! It is a bit risky to syringe plain water to drink as it is easy to inhale or choke, so sloppy food should hopefully also quench his thirst and keep him peeing. If he can't swallow it might accumulate in his cheeks. Listen carefully as he chews and rest your fingers lightly behind his ears to feel the vibrations... it should be a smooth grinding action and a healthy young pig should chew pretty quick (try comparing with his friend). If he is hungry, wants the food and is chewing well but can't swallow I would go back to the vet, because if he can't get food down and his pooping slows, gut stasis will eventually develop anyway. If he fights the syringe try offering his friend a little - I did this to prove to myself it was tasty enough because the healthy one gobbled it down.

Sometimes they get dental problems but yours are very young for that. Back teeth can meet badly and not chew properly, front teeth can overgrow and stop them chewing with the back ones, and sometimes they can get a sharp point that rubs on the mouth and is sore. But I think if it is any of these things you will hear or see or feel a problem with chewing and anyway it should not really affect eating the sloppy syringe food - they 'chew' this but it is soft enough to just swallow.

I lost a lovely piggy to a swallowing problem and although we don't know what exactly it was (maybe a growth) it didn't happen all of a sudden. It wasn't like she was happy one day and ill the next. She stopped eating herself, but could still be syringe fed for some weeks without 'vomiting' it out of her mouth... increasingly slowly and she had increasing trouble, but this was over weeks, actually over a month. If yours has come on suddenly it sounds quite different.

Good luck, and I hope you have success with the syringe food. You sound very conscientious owners and he sounds quite a character 💕
 
So looks like he is pooping now. Not the normal ones, but at least something. Smaller deformed ones, first it was more blackish and hardenned. Now it is light brown and a little wet. My guess is that the medicine he was given yesterday took effect and got the stuck poop (which was probably built up from the activated charcoal we gave him last week) out of the way. He still doesnt have any apetite and when we are trying to syringe feed, he is very resistant and spit most of the mashed food out.
 
You may have to just be firmer when syringe feeding. What you don’t want is for him to stop eating completely. How often are you feeding him and (roughly) how much are you able to get him to take? Have you weighed him again today to compare to yesterday?

Small poops are because he hasn’t been eating.
 
Up until now he was the same weight as his brother. He is 505g now while his brother is 550g. We tried to feed him yesterday night, this morning and will try next in half hour or so. The doc said to support him 15ml, but the most we got was 7ml at the morning after 2 hours of struggling.
 
It’s quite normal to only be able to get them to take a little at a time. You will need to feed little and often. Aiming for at least 60ml in a 24 hour period where a piggy is not eating anything for themselves - although your daily weight checks are the way to know whether you are getting enough into them.
 
7ml is quite a bit. As above, try little and often. You can’t and shouldn’t compare his weight to that of his brother. Every pig is different and you need to monitor his until he’s better. You should weigh him (once) daily at the same time - ideally before any top up feeds or hay refreshment/veg/pellet time.
 
He is losing weight pretty rapidly :( . The 505g which I wrote was yesterday night at the vet at 9PM. We weighted him now 5PM and now he is only 433g. So in 20h he lost 70g. This is probably the weight of his poo he got rid of while not eating much. We are trying to feed him more regularly now with less amount, starting now.
 
The main problem with the support feeding is that he looks like cannot swallow at all. He is taking the bit (0.5ml) at a time to its mouth, however after a while it comes back with a gag, sometimes ending up on the floor, sometimes stays in the mouth for additional chewing before the same repeats.
 
It sounds like he is pooping better which is a good sign that his guts are still active. He might be hungry but still refusing food because he knows he can't swallow it very well - which can make them stressed and upset. In my situation, I found that because I knew feeding would take a long time I just had to relax about it, put the radio on quiet, make a hot drink and settle down near the cage so I wasn't taking my girl away from home. It was the best I could do - and give small amounts at a time with plenty of time for piggy to try and chew and swallow each time. I had to forget about 'how much is left' in the pot or syringe and just take my time because my girl needed the nourishment and there was just no way she could eat any faster. We took about 2 hours each time for maybe 15 ml. She didn't do 0.5ml very often - it was too much for her with her swallowing problem. Believe me I tried all the methods to increase her intake... making it thicker just made the whole thing more difficult, and she needed fluid as well so thinner was better.

Have you got anything like a food blender or smoothie maker? Perhaps you could blend some raw carrot - if you can get the 'juice' out it might tempt him to try something new. Or can he manage softer veg like crushed cucumber middles? He can't live on this but it's good for fluid.

How is his chewing - are you noticing any problem or is it more that he can't swallow properly. Is his breath smelly? They usually have sweet breath (in my opinion!) but if food is accumulating in his cheeks and around his teeth for any length of time it might start to smell. I have heard that if they get oral thrush it can make eating very difficult but what bothers me is that this seems to have come on suddenly and he is struggling with everything and it is coming back out again like it just can't go down.

In all honesty, I don't think anyone can know which way this is going to go. He might suddenly start to improve and eat for himself. Or you might just manage to keep him going until you can get back to a vet - urgently. If he was my piggy I'd want to know how they can investigate whether something is blocking his throat and this might mean a general anaesthetic and putting a tube down to have a look and potentially shift any blockage. But he is struggling at this point and might be panicking so - although it sounds sad - I would try and think that if these are going to be his last times with us we will make them as peaceful and comfortable as possible. Keep him with his friend for comfort. Then if you can get him back to the vet and they can find the issue, that's great! But if not you'll know you did all you could and it is a really hard situation to be in 💕
 
Vet is not an option again. The one on duty cant take care of him. Would it be a good idea to feed him veggies? When I tried to offer him bell pepper he was interested (I took away and did not give it to him yet).
 
Right now I'd be trying anything but my girl would be put off if she couldn't manage it and not try again so help him along. Cut a piece and peel off the skin (which would not break down so easy) and cut very small slices so he has to slow down his chewing. If you give a big bit he might try to gobble it (they eat fast before the other pig can get it) and is more likely to choke it out again which could put him off trying. So tiny bits at a time.

I'd be assuming that whatever goes in he will end up swallowing a bit and gagging up a bit - you'll just have to go at his pace x
 
Free Ranger said:
How is his chewing - are you noticing any problem or is it more that he can't swallow properly. Is his breath smelly? They usually have sweet breath (in my opinion!) but if food is accumulating in his cheeks and around his teeth for any length of time it might start to smell. I have heard that if they get oral thrush it can make eating very difficult but what bothers me is that this seems to have come on suddenly and he is struggling with everything and it is coming back out again like it just can't go down.
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He is chewing just fine, I checked under his ears. I feel that grinding sense. No smelly breath either.
 
Fibre (the syringe feed) is the most important part to be getting into him, but trying him with anything to get him to eat is a good idea.
If he cannot swallow though then there is a problem.
 
That's great that it's not teeth - they can be a massive pain to get done right. Smelly breath can mean mouth infection so it's great that his breath is fine too.

Like @Piggies&buns says it is the fibre that is most important in terms of weight gain and keeping guts moving but if you can tempt him to keep trying with veg that will make him feel happier, less hungry and more positive. If he doesn't know what's going on but understands you're trying to help him you will be working together rather than battling. Give him lots of tender reassurance. Leafy things will be difficult as they are hard to chew down to a mush - but something like cucumber (no skin) can be crushed with the back of a fork. If it is a blockage it could be complete but it could be partial so small amounts of anything going past it can help.

If he's fighting the recovery food you can also try soaking his normal pellets in boiled, cooled water and mixing to a slurry.
 
Whilst you do need to syringe feed, forcing a guinea pig who cannot swallow or seems to have some sort of blockage might do harm.
He definitely needs to be seen by an exotic vet ASAP to identify what is going on, if the vet hasn’t/isn’t doing a conscious X-ray during something like this, then I’d be concerned that they’re not the right vet you should be going to. I understand that it’s expensive due to being out of hours, but waiting could have disastrous consequences and leave you with a lot of guilt depending on the outcome.
 
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