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Help! Young Piggy With Rapid Breathing

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Curtis Cavies

Curtis Cavies

Junior Guinea Pig
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Have a young female that I found this morning sat still. Very rapid breathing, lethargic, quite limp. Didn't want to eat but I held her and she had cucumber. Later on has hand eaten a handful of dandelions. Not keen on taking CC, have syringe fed water. Looking on here for similar problems or advice, seems similar to URI. Have got Pro C probiotic, never used it before and it says to give in drink water. Does anyone know if its ok to add to CC and syringe feed her? Just trying to do what I can till I can get Aneka to vet tomorrow.
 
You can carry on with the CC to keep her from going into stasis and syringe feed her water with the pro c in it I would think this would be okay. Tagging some people who know alot more than I. If she is also eating a bit of veg keep this going...@helen105281 @Wiebke
 
GloriousGuineaGirl said:
You can carry on with the CC to keep her from going into stasis and syringe feed her water with the pro c in it I would think this would be okay. Tagging some people who know alot more than I. If she is also eating a bit of veg keep this going...@helen105281 @Wiebke
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Thank you, have also given 0.4ml baytril. Keep fingers crossed!
 
I agree with @GloriousGuineaGirl

Get as much food in as you can overnight. She may have fluid on her chest so ask the vet about diuretics in the morning. If she gets worse she will need the emergency vet.

Take the feeding very slowly if her breathing is bad. Will link to hand feeding sticky in a mo. On my phone.
 
helen105281 said:
I agree with @GloriousGuineaGirl

Get as much food in as you can overnight. She may have fluid on her chest so ask the vet about diuretics in the morning. If she gets worse she will need the emergency vet.

Take the feeding very slowly if her breathing is bad. Will link to hand feeding sticky in a mo. On my phone.
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Thank you Helen. You are a goldmine of information. Have syringe fed quite a few times, so feel confident I'm doing that right. This is the 5th of my 10 piggy family that have been ill, all with different things in the last month! Unfortunately, it means I'm down 1 in numbers and my bank balance is in the red! Really don't want to les Anneka. She is such a lovely affectionate girl and only 4months old. Will leave my daughter on watch duties till home from work, then get her to vet. She is eating small amounts at a time of cucumber and dandelions and some hay. One thing, I mixed her CC up with her probiotic water, is that ok?
 
GloriousGuineaGirl said:
Also with the Baytril don't give the Pro C until at least 1 hour after. :) Thanks Helen :)
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Hi there, thanks for your reply. Didn't see this till this morning but just to let you know that I gave CC mixed with some probiotic water last night, then probably about only half an hour after, gave 0.4ml baytril. With reading your post now, wondered if you could let me know the reason for the hour gap and why it should be baytril first, or doesn't it matter which first, so long as an hours gap?
 
Yes that's fine, I do that sometimes too. Glad you are happy with syringe feeding. How is her breathing?

When she goes to the vets it would also be a good idea to ask for Bisolvon as it helps clear mucous if she has any.

If the vet does not think there is any sign of URI or Pneumonia then I would ask about heart issues as rapid breathing can be a sign and though it is not all that common for younger pigs I have known of at least 2 pigs recently who were diagnosed at under 6 months.
 
Thank you both for your replies and help. May I just ask how you administer the Pro C? Instructions on mine say to mix in to water bottles, so I have assumed its a safe thing to have there all the time if needed. I mixed Anneka's CC up with it last night to ensure she was getting some. Is this alright or how would you do it? Looking forward to your help. Cant get in at vets till pm.
One more thing. My one decent gp book, Peter Gurney one, in the health and illness section, on looking up her symptoms last night, they also fit for chemical poisoning, respiratory problems. Is what I'm doing still ok for that too? Cleaned living area out with new cage product I haven't used before on Sunday. All others seem fine, just panicking I hope!
 
helen105281 said:
Yes that's fine, I do that sometimes too. Glad you are happy with syringe feeding. How is her breathing?

When she goes to the vets it would also be a good idea to ask for Bisolvon as it helps clear mucous if she has any.

If the vet does not think there is any sign of URI or Pneumonia then I would ask about heart issues as rapid breathing can be a sign and though it is not all that common for younger pigs I have known of at least 2 pigs recently who were diagnosed at under 6 months.
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Hi, just seen this after typing my others to you. Her breathing is very rapid. But she is eating herself very small amounts for about a minute, then she flops out and sprawls out really low.
 
Curtis Cavies said:
Hi, just seen this after typing my others to you. Her breathing is very rapid. But she is eating herself very small amounts for about a minute, then she flops out and sprawls out really low.
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prebiotoc doesn't work as well I think when given too near to Baytril @helen105281 will confirm. She really is very knowledgable everything ive ever asked advice on has been solid and effective :) I very much doubt it was the new cleaning product as long as it is safe to use on gp and you waited until all eas dry x
 
It is because they have a bad effect on each other, something like the antibiotic kills the good bateria you are putting in with the probiotic or I may have it backwards.

What cleaning product was it? I doubt it was that but you could mention it to your vet in case?

I tend not to put probiotic in water bottles as it goes off quickly, I syringe directly as much as I can throughout the day. Most brands say to put it in the bottles but it is not recommended.

It sounds like she is worn out and breathing is a struggle, hopefully the vet can help. Try not to let them fob you off with just Baytril though if you can. She possibly needs diuretic and Bisolvon too and good antibiotics for URI and Pneumonia are Zithromax and Marbocyl and Septrin is ok too. A lot of vets say they have tp try Baytril first though. Personally I always ask for Zithromax (Azithromycin). My vets give me a prescription to get it from the chemist as they don't stock it.
 
Please have your vet check the heart and check for gut stasis. If she has been hot, you may also have to consider heat stroke as a cause of her problems. the sooner you can have her seen by a vet the better.
 
Hi. At moment vets think she has just got Uri, so on baytril for now. Heart sounded good so don't suspect anything along those lines. Keeps coughing and lurching forward like choking though, so not out of woods yet. Will post again with news update. Hope yours goes on ok.
 
dearbarbie said:
Hi there - just checking in with how your piggie got on, I have one with a breathing issue x
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Posted below your entry but just been going back through these notes. I would say Anneka is holding some mucous, so when I return tomorrow, I will ask for Bisolvon, as Helen suggests. I'm not having a good run of luck at moment with my little clan. Lost one last night, rushed one to vets this morning and they are keeping her overnight on oxygen as she is so fiat. Have to make decision tomorrow as to whether her little system is so immune compromised with all her health issues she's suffered in her short life, that I may have to say goodbye to yet another. That would be three in three weeks! Wish me luck, more to the point, wish my little Sasha lots of courage and strength to battle on. Poor little poppet is only 4 months old.
 
I'm sorry you are having such an awful time. The little girl staying at the vets, does she have URI symptoms too or is it more a breathing issue?
 
helen105281 said:
I'm sorry you are having such an awful time. The little girl staying at the vets, does she have URI symptoms too or is it more a breathing issue?
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Hello Helen. Sasha's story is a long up and down one, bless her. I got 4 newbies to my clan in March from a country wide pet store, won't mention names. They all came with extras of their own, mites! Sasha and her little sister Grace were suspiciously tiny for supposedly 6 to 8 weeks of age, so small in fact my son nick named them gerbils! I would think they were nearer 4weeks, or younger, going by all the others I've had. Sasha had particularly infested ears, one became at least 1cm thick and solid to touch. Initial treatment seemed to work, then she was unfortunate to get pneumonia on top of this lot and was on antibiotics for that! She seemed to pull through all this and was a particularly friendly little soul, full of energy and life, pop corning all over and very vocal! After 2 months of enjoying the good life in my living room I eventually had to concede that they were all fit, well and the climate warm enough for them to move in with my other 4 ladies in their 8x12ft shed, purposely bought and fitted out for my Cavies. From that point on I've had nothing but a run of bad luck. She got E. Cunniculi, probably because of the earlier earmite infection. She made a fantastic recovery, her head straightened within two days and by the end of the ten day treatment she was her usual dashing self, perhaps a bit slower. The only thing is she is still tiny, for some reason she's not thriving. So the morning after I lost Echo to the gut torsion, I found her all hunched up and not moving or eating. Vets again then, xrays and diruectics to remove any fluid from her chest and she was so flat, she spent the night on oxygen. Glad to say she has responded so well that she is now back home with me, munching away on fresh pulled grass and dandelions and some strawberry leaf. And she and Anneka have sat and eaten nearly a whole cup of CC! Her future prognosis isn't too good but you can't deny she's a little fighter! Did you think there could be a link to the two's illnesses? They are both back to vets Tuesday. Hope they are ok as I am financially wiped out and don't want rotten money to be a deciding factor on what to do. So sorry I have waffled on. Got some brill info about E.C. from my vet which I intend to share on the forum in due course. Thank you for your help and advice!
 
Oh bless her she's been through so much. I am not sure if there is a connection between the 2, though if one pig gets pneumonia (especially a fast hitting one such as A typical Pneumonia - known as walking pneumonia) it can hit others in the herd. My other though would be heart as failure to thrive and recurring respiratory infections can be a sign. Did the xray show anything other than fluid?
 
helen105281 said:
Oh bless her she's been through so much. I am not sure if there is a connection between the 2, though if one pig gets pneumonia (especially a fast hitting one such as A typical Pneumonia - known as walking pneumonia) it can hit others in the herd. My other though would be heart as failure to thrive and recurring respiratory infections can be a sign. Did the xray show anything other than fluid?
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Hi. No, they didn't say it did, so I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one. Today my cheeky Sasha has been chewing the cages of my transit cage which is at the moment doubling as my medical quarters as my old indoor cage I used for such, totally fell apart on me! Its inadequately small, so I have given her and Aneka, in a separate transit box, 15mins on the garden in this glorious sun, shaded of course. She has loved it, in fact looked most grieved with me when I told her it was time to come in again. God love her and all her kind, they have such wonderful individual characters don't they?
 
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