Heavy Breathing - Comes And Goes

[SweetJo]

Evening all.

Dilly is booked in to see an exotic vet on Wednesday (the earliest appointment we can get).

Over the past year or so, we have sometimes noticed her breathing being noisy. I'd panic and think she had an infection, then half an hour later she'd be breathing normal again and we wouldn't hear anything for weeks.

This past couple of days it has suddenly got louder and much more frequent. She is behaving totally normally. It doesn't seem like she is struggling to breathe, it just seems noisy. She is coming up to 3 years old, and lives indoors on fleece.

If she deteriorates she will of course see an emergency vet, but I was just wondering what it might be, other than an infection.

 

[Wiebke]

Evening all.

Dilly is booked in to see an exotic vet on Wednesday (the earliest appointment we can get).

Over the past year or so, we have sometimes noticed her breathing being noisy. I'd panic and think she had an infection, then half an hour later she'd be breathing normal again and we wouldn't hear anything for weeks.

This past couple of days it has suddenly got louder and much more frequent. She is behaving totally normally. It doesn't seem like she is struggling to breathe, it just seems noisy. She is coming up to 3 years old, and lives indoors on fleece.

If she deteriorates she will of course see an emergency vet, but I was just wondering what it might be, other than an infection.

Hi! All the best at the vets. It is good that you have booked her in.

Any guinea pigs have comparatively small airways and cannnot breathe through the mouth, so you hear every little obstruction in the airways. You can check with your ear if necessary whether the issue is sitting in the nose, the throat or in the lungs.

You can try and see whether a bowl of steaming water next to the cage can bring a little relief until she can be seen.