Hooting

[Dilly's Piggies]

I have two girls that both hoot, one can be random and the other is only when she eats. However one of them has been on antibiotics for 2 weeks now for a UTI, and I haven't heard any hooting at all, maybe she had a URI as well and the antibiotics cleared it? She was hooting for around 6 months and in my experience URI's progress very fast, within days to a week, I don't know if a URI is possible given how long she had the symptom?

The same situation is with my other too, but she has just turned 1 years old, only hoots when she eats and it has been on and off for about 4 months now, she is overweight and I've had her on a 'diet', I just switched the pellets from junk pellets to Oxbow, and she has been having more exercise, she has lost 100g over the past 2 months which is really good, she used to be almost 1400g but I've got her down to 1305g, I know being overweight leads to heart problems however I don't know if it's too late, since her hooting is becoming very regular now. I keep syringing her water when she's hooting just incase there's something stuck in her throat, sometimes lots of food does come out, and I'm giving her extra vitamin C in case of a URI, both of these things seem to clear it up but it's never long before it comes back again, usually within a few days.

Since it only occurs when she eats, is this typical of a heart problem, or does it mean something else, like she is constantly getting food stuck in her throat? She doesn't have any symptoms of a URI, no discharge, sneezing, coughing or being unwell, she's still her normal self besides the hooting. It also seems to get worse with dusty hay, when I had hay on the floor she was much worse, then I switched to bags and it stopped, recently I had to buy cheaper hay and she has started up again with it, but I know allergies are rare, so I honestly have no idea what to think here.

I've had a previous sow with these symptoms before, she sadly died during surgery as her heart failed, it was found in an xray she had an enlarged heart, so I do believe it was a heart issue in her case, so maybe Aspen is also a heart pig? She just seems really young and happy. I did take her to the vet around 2 months ago, they couldn't find anything obviously wrong, her heart and lungs sounded normal, but I think I should take her back for an xray of the chest and have her mouth looked at again more thoroughly.

Thoughts? Thank you

 

[DM030819]

I think that if you're confident in your vet then you should go for the x-ray. It will at least rule out, or confirm heart or lung problems.

I have a boar that hoots on and off. Sometimes he does it when he eats, sometimes I can hear him doing it through the night. He was doing it last night and this morning he is okay. I know for definite that the dust from hay can set him off so allergies are a bit more common than people think.

The Cat and Rabbit clinic in Northampton is my vet so I'm pretty confident in them. He had a URI about 2 years ago when the hooting was pretty much constant. He's been xrayed and there's no sign of heart or lung issues. They believe that his airways aren't as good as other pigs and the fact that they are so tiny then it only needs a tiny obstruction to cause the hooting. The URI compromised it somehow.

He had a snotty nose during the URI but now 99% of the time his nose is clear which is why the vet doesn't think it's anything like a URI.

Now he has a nebuilser which I use with F10 (not an antibiotic) whenever he hoots. He regularly has his breakfast or dinner in there. The vet and I decided to try it after I had tried using steam with him and and it helped.

After the nebuilser I sometimes hear him sneeze or cough and his airway is clear again.

We're going to maintain him like that and if he ever gets to the point where it might become a URI again or the nebuilser isn't helping we're going to add in an antibiotic to the nebuliser.

I wonder if it could be something like that with your piggy?

 

[Wiebke]

If in doubt, and as the hooting is a regular occurrance, I would recommend to have them checked by a vet. Just episodal hooting is harmless and mostly caused by a slightly blocked nose.
I would however also recommend to check whether a bowl of steaming water can help; dry indoors air (especially in the recent cold days with the heating on full blast) can make issues more prominent. Also checking whether there are potential mild issues with hay dust etc. might be useful before you home in on potential heart problems.

Please be aware that guinea pigs have narrow airways and that any problems are usually more noticeable when piggies are eating. It is not easy to diagnose a heart problem for a vet, though. For those, you want to ideally have more indicators.
@helen105281 has experience with heart piggies

 

[helen105281]

I have pig that hoots occasionally but her heart has been checked and I know it is an environmental thing, like dusty hay etc. I do however, also have heart pigs who can hoot occasionally. Keep an eye out for any of the following in addition to the hooting:

Laboured breathing
Rapid breathing
Nodding when breathing
Random coughing
Abdominal bloating
Weight loss
Recurrent URIs
Bumblefoot
Blue tinge to ears and feet

With a heart pig the hooting tends to lead to them coughing which stops the hooting until the next time it happens.