How fast do URI's progress?

[Popcorn bby]

My Piggie has been on Baytril for seven days, and Doxycycline for one. We stopped for three days because of a bad gas episode, which she's almost completely healed from now. My other piggie has finished ten days of Baytril already. The Piggie that just recovered from gases is sneezing lots, but no other symptoms. Keep in mind, they did get placed on antibiotics for POSSIBLE URI, and we added Doxycycline because they were still sneezing on the fifth day. I noticed more sneezing yesterday from her rather than the first day we stopped the antibiotics on her. I'm just wondering, I know URIs progress fast, so if this is a URI, would it have been worse by now? I'm going to wait at least three or four days to start her on Baytril and possibly Doxycycline again, SO of this is a URI, would I see more symptoms these next days? Hopefully not, I'm just asking cause I do have doubts about if this is a URI or dusty hay.

 

[Freela]

There are a lot of different URI bacteria out there, some of which are really quickly progressive and some of which are not. Hadley once had a URI that mainly manifested as wheezing on and off without a lot of other symptoms (incidentally, her exposed cagemate passed away during her treatment for the URI, but because she was quite elderly it was impossible to know if she had contracted the same bacteria and it just took a much harder toll on her due to her age and other chronic problems she had.) So having a fairly stable condition doesn't necessarily rule out a bacterial URI. It's also possible to take a course of antibiotics and not see symptoms fully resolve, usually because the antibiotic chosen is not a good match to the bacteria present. So you can't totally rule out a URI if not much improvement occurs on antibiotics. All you can really do is watch closely for any escalation in symptoms and get prompt vet attention if you see any changes.

 

[Freela]

Sorry, don't know how I managed to quote myself here! LOL!

There are a lot of different URI bacteria out there, some of which are really quickly progressive and some of which are not. Hadley once had a URI that mainly manifested as wheezing on and off without a lot of other symptoms (incidentally, her exposed cagemate passed away during her treatment for the URI, but because she was quite elderly it was impossible to know if she had contracted the same bacteria and it just took a much harder toll on her due to her age and other chronic problems she had or if she simply passed from other causes around the same time by coincidence.) So having a fairly stable condition doesn't necessarily rule out a bacterial URI. It's also possible to take a course of antibiotics and not see symptoms fully resolve, usually because the antibiotic chosen is not a good match to the bacteria present. So you can't totally rule out a URI if not much improvement occurs on antibiotics. All you can really do is watch closely for any escalation in symptoms and get prompt vet attention if you see any changes.

 

[Popcorn bby]

There are a lot of different URI bacteria out there, some of which are really quickly progressive and some of which are not. Hadley once had a URI that mainly manifested as wheezing on and off without a lot of other symptoms (incidentally, her exposed cagemate passed away during her treatment for the URI, but because she was quite elderly it was impossible to know if she had contracted the same bacteria and it just took a much harder toll on her due to her age and other chronic problems she had.) So having a fairly stable condition doesn't necessarily rule out a bacterial URI. It's also possible to take a course of antibiotics and not see symptoms fully resolve, usually because the antibiotic chosen is not a good match to the bacteria present. So you can't totally rule out a URI if not much improvement occurs on antibiotics. All you can really do is watch closely for any escalation in symptoms and get prompt vet attention if you see any changes.

Definitely makes sense! Wiebke suggested that just sneezing, and even crackling breathing sometimes can be a result of too much dust in their home. I'll keep an eye on her, and if I don't see any other symptoms than sneezing (crackly breathing is still a red flag for me, since she's never been that sensitive to dusty hay), and it isn't worsening, than I'll say it's the hay. But if notice anything more, back to the vet asap!