Hooting Sound Breathing While Asleep.

[SarahWonderland]

Hello Everyone.

This breaks my heart but my little Sonic has for awhile now been having a hooting sound to his breathing while asleep. He is 8months old.
I wish I could get it on video but it is hard.
I have watched him and it starts in the middle of his sleep and stops and shortly (1m or 2m later) he wakes and is fine.
He still runs around like a wild Sonic and eats like normal and drinks, I don't hear the sound while he is awake but there is a slight wheezing sound to his breathing when you hold him to your ear.
I am taking him to the vet this Wednesday but it isn't sounding good according to the vet.

I am hoping for honest answers. I have heard that it could be an upper respiratory infection but because he is acting normally during the waking hours it might not be that.
It could also be heart problems or Fluid in the lungs.

Tell me what you think the possibilities could be or if you have had a similar situation.
Thank You so much.

 

[Freela]

We had something similar with Hadley a couple of month ago (intermittently hooting, mainly at rest, did not appear sick.) She ended up being treated for a respiratory infection. She went through two courses of trimethoprim (antibiotic) but would have the hooting recur again after she stopped, so she ended up changing antibiotics to Baytril and thus far has been off meds for a little over a week with no recurrence. It's worth a vet visit just to rule out anything really serious and because respiratory infections can worsen fairly quickly, but it's not necessarily a dire prognosis. Hope this helps a little bit.

 

[Jesse's pigs]

Is there any other symptoms of a URI? runny nose, watery eyes, crusty ears/eyes/nose and hunched posture or sneezes? The fact it's only happening when asleep makes me think it's not a upper respiratory infection as it would be constant. I do advise another vet visit and please try not to worry. If he is still eating and toileting normally then hopefully it'll only be something minor or nothing at all. My Mo went really weird October last year with alot of sneezes and loud breathing so I rushed him to the vet only to hear his lungs were clear and he could have an allergy.

 

[SarahWonderland]

We had something similar with Hadley a couple of month ago (intermittently hooting, mainly at rest, did not appear sick.) She ended up being treated for a respiratory infection. She went through two courses of trimethoprim (antibiotic) but would have the hooting recur again after she stopped, so she ended up changing antibiotics to Baytril and thus far has been off meds for a little over a week with no recurrence. It's worth a vet visit just to rule out anything really serious and because respiratory infections can worsen fairly quickly, but it's not necessarily a dire prognosis. Hope this helps a little bit.

Thank You
It does, I hope this new antibiotics works for Hadley

 

[SarahWonderland]

Is there any other symptoms of a URI? runny nose, watery eyes, crusty ears/eyes/nose and hunched posture or sneezes? The fact it's only happening when asleep makes me think it's not a upper respiratory infection as it would be constant. I do advise another vet visit and please try not to worry. If he is still eating and toileting normally then hopefully it'll only be something minor or nothing at all. My Mo went really weird October last year with alot of sneezes and loud breathing so I rushed him to the vet only to hear his lungs were clear and he could have an allergy.

Hey.
He is sneezing more frequently than his cage mate/brother Jeffery but saying that its like 3 or 5 times a day, not all the time other than that no other symptoms.
We are taking him back just to rule out all possibilities and ease of my mind haha.
Thank You

 

[Lorcan]

Hey there. I had to take my Comet to the vet with this back in February, he'd made the noise before and would usually sneeze and it would stop, but this time he'd been making the noise all night. The vet wasn't happy with the way his lungs sounded so he had a 7 day course of Baytril...or should I say was prescribed a 7 day course, because I could not get him to take it at all. Whilst he never took the oral meds, he did have a Baytril shot and that seemed to make a major difference, because the week after the shot his lungs sounded much better. Not perfect, but definitely better.

However, while it could be symptomatic of a heart or lung issue, it could also be dust/hay etc related, especially if Sonic seems to "sneeze it out", which is what Comet was doing originally. Comet was also eating and drinking fine, and he was definitely alert enough to cause a ruckus at the vets (it took 3 of us to hold him still long enough to get the injection into him, the wriggly sod). I think another vet visit would be a good idea if only to put your mind at ease, but definitely ask the vet to check the heart as well as the lungs.