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Guinea Pig Has Difficulty Breathing - What Actions To Take?

Siikibam said:
You can’t judge hay by sight hence the weighing daily. Sorry if you have to repeat but how long has he not done a poo? If he wasn’t eating enough he won’t - poo output is 1-2 days behind.

I would try to get him seen Monday. All the best and do let us know how you get on.
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We didn't see him poo yesterday, but since then he's started eating a lot of hay and we've seen droppings all over the place today. We also weighed him today and he's apparently lost about 30g of weight, hence probably the reason he started eating hay again. Being hungry. Surprisingly, he's not too keen on veggies anymore. We're a little worried he might not get enough vitamin C since two of his favourite treats, peppers and cabbage, aren't interesting to him anymore. He seems to only be eating hay now, which should be a good sign... it's just he's eating it all over the place. New, old, trampled. It doesn't matter it seems like. Could this be a bad thing?
 
AlleBalle said:
We didn't see him poo yesterday, but since then he's started eating a lot of hay and we've seen droppings all over the place today. We also weighed him today and he's apparently lost about 30g of weight, hence probably the reason he started eating hay again. Being hungry. Surprisingly, he's not too keen on veggies anymore. We're a little worried he might not get enough vitamin C since two of his favourite treats, peppers and cabbage, aren't interesting to him anymore. He seems to only be eating hay now, which should be a good sign... it's just he's eating it all over the place. New, old, trampled. It doesn't matter it seems like. Could this be a bad thing?
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There is vitamin c in hay also. Do you have access to fresh grass? Grass is their natural diet and contains vitamin c also so he may be more interested to eat grass than veg.
No it doesn’t matter which hay he eats, just as long as he is eating plenty of it. Ensure he has fresh hay at all times, but if he wants to eat older hay then that is fine
 
Being hungry isn’t why he’s eating hay again. I would offer him some syringe feeds - maybe a few ml twice today - and see how he goes. Continue weighing daily at the same time. In the grand scheme of things, 30g loss isn’t much. But a continual downward trend can be.

Glad he’s eating hay again. Don’t worry if he won’t eat veg. Hay and more hay for his gut and teeth 🙂
 
Piggies&buns said:
There is vitamin c in hay also. Do you have access to fresh grass? Grass is their natural diet and contains vitamin c also so he may be more interested to eat grass than veg.
No it doesn’t matter which hay he eats, just as long as he is eating plenty of it. Ensure he has fresh hay at all times, but if he wants to eat older hay then that is fine
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Thank you. That's really good to know. We do have a big garden, but alas it's covered in snow this time of year. I will keep this in mind.
 
Siikibam said:
Being hungry isn’t why he’s eating hay again. I would offer him some syringe feeds - maybe a few ml twice today - and see how he goes. Continue weighing daily at the same time. In the grand scheme of things, 30g loss isn’t much. But a continual downward trend can be.

Glad he’s eating hay again. Don’t worry if he won’t eat veg. Hay and more hay for his gut and teeth 🙂
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Thank you so much for your advice. We will make sure they have enough hay and feed him as often as possible. I'll return with updates soon. :)
 
I'm deeply saddened to inform you all our boar passed away this evening. This is the last update I'll make to this thread. Everything seemed better yesterday and his breathing was almost entirely normal. His appetite had been restored to normal as well. He even sang for us when we cuddled up with him in the couch, which was unusual now, since he's been so focused on trying to breathe over the past few weeks. Needless to say, this morning we woke only to find him drooling all over himself, probably due to injuries to his tongue caused by an overgrowth in his molars. I was wondering if it's anything like us humans, sometimes when we are getting a sickness, we may feel slightly better than usual the day just before it truly kicks in, since he seemed to be doing better the day before. Or maybe they are just really good at hiding their troubles. At least perhaps he can get some rest now. Nevertheless, I thank you all for the continued support and invaluable advice!
 
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