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Guinea Pig Hiccups Question

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Shadow1995

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Hi, I have a four month old male guinea pig who has started hiccupping. Sounds unusual to be concerned about but the last one I had didn't have any hiccups for four years before she one day had a case and a month later was found to have a URI and sadly passed away. I was wondering if hiccups can be a sign of a more serious problem in a guinea pig or if I am just being a paranoid piggy parent. Any info is appreciated.
 
I don't know of a connection between hiccups and URI, but if you are worried and the hiccups happen on a regular instead an episodal basis, I would have your boy checked to see whether there is an underlying issue that could cause them. They shouldn't be all that regular.
I would recommend to stay off all gassing foods, limit the veg to 1 cupful/ca. 50g per day and make sure that up to 80% of the diet is fibrous (hay).
http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/Heaving-hiccups-guinea-pigs.shtml
 
I don't really give him to much veggie or fruits, I try to keep that more as the occasional treat for him and my main concern is I recently got over a URI and during that time my mom was taking care of him, I'm rather concerned that he may have gotten it from me if he did get it.
 
Sustained or regular hiccup episodes in guinea pigs are rare; we only see about 1-2 cases on here in a year on average where members are worried, considering that we get enquiries in the higher hundreds. None has ever been brought into connection with a URI. It is either a shared underlying issue that is causing both problems or they are simply coincidence. But that is for a properly trained vet to decide!
 
Ok, thank you for the help. Thankfully for the moment he is very active and eating and drinking normally. I'm just a little concerned that of all the guinea pigs I have owned, only two have ever had the hiccups and I'm hoping like hell I didn't some how manage to give Dante (my piggy) my URI.
 
It is very rare for respiratory viruses to jump over, especially if you are sensible about not handling them much etc. But it is always diffcult after you have lost a piggy to a certain issue when you come across it again.
 
My mom is the only one who handled him. I wouldn't even go near him for fear of giving it to him. I just want to make sure history doesn't repeat less than three months after I lost my last one. Even then I bought a new cage, a new water bottle, new food bowl. Basically I started over completely. Maybe I am just a paranoid piggy parent with this, and again, Thank you for the help. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't found this site with my last one I would have lost her sooner and I would probably be completely freaking out right now lol.
 
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