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I don't know what to do :(

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emiboo23

emiboo23

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone,

One of my piggies, Mags, has been suffering with URI's for around 2 years now. I don't know if I'm just feeling overly sensitive, but it's getting more and more frequent, and she was on 10 days worth of antibiotics a couple of weeks ago, but today the horrible loud breathing has come back, so I have to take her back again tomorrow if I can book her in.

The vet has said that a nebuliser may help, but of course won't get rid of it or stop her getting them, it may just stop them being as frequent.

I am really worried that the vet is going to start mentioning her being PTS as an option. I don't know what I would say, at the moment she is herself and eating well, but I don't know if it's fair on her to keep going through this, I don't know if she's suffering or in pain but I know it can't be nice for her. All I have to do is think about saying goodbye to her and I'm in floods of tears, but I know that day is going to come sooner or later and I don't know how I will cope. I will still have her sister, but I kind of feel so connected with Mags because I've nursed her through this sort of thing so many times.

Sorry everyone, I'm getting a bit emotional about this and just needed someone who will understand!
 
My piggy sometimes suffers the symptoms put with a URI but he is just very sensitive to dust. Could this be what your piggy has ? My piggy goes through phases of having more troubles with sneezing etc. some days than others.

What sort of bedding do you use ?
Have you tried changing hay to a brand that may be less dusty ?

Just a few ideas, hope everything gets better with your piggy though :)
 
I don't have any advice but I know how stressful it is to worry about a piggy who gets ill a lot. It's all part of what makes you a wonderful and caring piggy owner though, something we all share here. I hope she gets better. Do you have a good piggy savvy vet?
 
Thank you, she doesn't sneeze at all really, its the really blocked/snotty sounding breathing, it's pretty loud as I can hear it over the TV!

They're on fleece but it's getting to the stage where it needs changing, so maybe it's because it's getting a little damp or dusty and I need to change 3x a week instead of 2, that might help. She is on animal dreams and oxbow hay which doesn't make me sneeze so I don't think it's particularly dusty.

Thankfully I have got a vet who really knows their stuff with guinea pigs, they are open from 10-12 tomorrow so I will be ringing at 10 on the dot to try and get her in. What upsets me more is that she's completely fine in herself, it's just her awful loud breathing!
 
I see in your avatar, that you have a hay rack...are you using this for Mags (ironically, I have a pig called Maggie who has respiratory problems too!). When I was using hay racks, another one of my pigs, Jeffrey, had problems with his breathing. Since I got rid of the racks, and have been feeding hay from the floor, he's been absolutely fine. A similar thing is used for race horses - they are fed hay from the ground rather than a hay net so that the chance of dust etc. going into their airways is minimised.

Another thing that you could try, is rinsing the hay. Rinse it the night before under a running tap and then dry to feed the next day - I used to pop mine inside an old pillow case on top of a warm radiator to dry. This would also reduce any dust in the hay.
 
Thank you Amanda. Unbelievably, my mum nicknamed her Maggot (because she has a black bum and face, and white body) and I'm certain the poor thing has been jinxed by that. They haven't had the hayrack for a while, they have like a corner litter tray with some fleece in the bottom, and the hay goes in that. Although generally that does get bundled out so they can hide underneath it! I find that when she puts her face down to the floor it gets much worse, as if all the snot was going to the front of her nose. I was told previously that the mucus does build up after a URI, but I have a hard time differentiating between that and the crackly lung noise.

I am going to start cleaning them out 3x a week, it may be if the fleece gets a little damp it might make her a little more prone to it. There are no draughts around them so environment wise I think that's all it could be!

It's even got to the point where I accidently make her jump, and the next day she's snuffling again. It makes me feel so guilty!
 
emiboo23 said:
Thank you Amanda. Unbelievably, my mum nicknamed her Maggot (because she has a black bum and face, and white body) and I'm certain the poor thing has been jinxed by that. They haven't had the hayrack for a while, they have like a corner litter tray with some fleece in the bottom, and the hay goes in that. Although generally that does get bundled out so they can hide underneath it! I find that when she puts her face down to the floor it gets much worse, as if all the snot was going to the front of her nose. I was told previously that the mucus does build up after a URI, but I have a hard time differentiating between that and the crackly lung noise.

I am going to start cleaning them out 3x a week, it may be if the fleece gets a little damp it might make her a little more prone to it. There are no draughts around them so environment wise I think that's all it could be!

It's even got to the point where I accidently make her jump, and the next day she's snuffling again. It makes me feel so guilty!
Click to expand...

My Maggie's "real" name is Maggot! :))

Her symptoms sound much like my Maggie's strangely too....she snorts and snuffles out of nowhere when she gets stressed. She did have some investigations done and they found abscesses on the back of her throat, which were lanced and drained twice (£1600 later!) but she still gets the snuffly snorty noises months later...but they can literally clear again within hours.

I'm thinking of taking her to a third surgery for futher investigations when I get some money through (expensive vet - may be looking at having a CT scan and things...so I'm waiting for a cheque from some inheritance before I do that!) to see if we can find out once and for all, what is actually going on!
 
Hope Mags will be ok. It may be worth mentioning to your vet about a diuretic called furosemide it can help in conjunction with antibiotics in cases of particularly bad URI's to remove any fluid on the lungs.

It is positive news that Mags is eating well and seems herself. Piggies can be very worrying, hopefully some more antibiotics after the vets visit will have have feeling well again soon. Lots of healing vibes to your little girl.
 
I have no advice but wanted to wish Mags the best, hope she feels better soon
 
Thank you everyone :) Well when I got up she was only doing it really mildly. When it has been the crackling noise from her lungs it has been consistently bad, so I'm fairly certain it's just the mucus build up disappearing post antibiotics. I am going to give her a vitamin c tab once a day, and I have given her cage a deep clean and will now be cleaning out fully 3x a week as well as spot cleaning daily. I have a feeling it may have been brought on because she had been sitting on pee hay for a while :) I don't know. I will be probably take her for (another) check up in the week just to be on the safe side.
 
This sounds very much like my sprinkles, 1 month ago she had very noisy breathing, but it seemed to be her nose, not her chest, so took her vets, they gave her antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds, 3 days after she was having floor time and she kinda coughed/sneezed and she stopped breathing noisily. All was fine then for 3 weeks then she started again, but not as noisy this time, then it stopped again, this morning i have done my morning check and she noisy again, all the was through shes exactly the same in her self, eating all the same etc, she is on fleece bedding, veg every day, and i put her hay into a rack as before she used to dive into it a big pile of hay, so i thought she was breathing it in maybe, now I'm not sure, back to the vets again :( they sure do baffle us sometimes and have us worried x
 
jammybaby said:
This sounds very much like my sprinkles, 1 month ago she had very noisy breathing, but it seemed to be her nose, not her chest, so took her vets, they gave her antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds, 3 days after she was having floor time and she kinda coughed/sneezed and she stopped breathing noisily. All was fine then for 3 weeks then she started again, but not as noisy this time, then it stopped again, this morning i have done my morning check and she noisy again, all the was through shes exactly the same in her self, eating all the same etc, she is on fleece bedding, veg every day, and i put her hay into a rack as before she used to dive into it a big pile of hay, so i thought she was breathing it in maybe, now I'm not sure, back to the vets again :( they sure do baffle us sometimes and have us worried x
Click to expand...

I have noticed that she always seems to develop it intermittently on a weekend or bank holiday, and gets a full blown crackly lungs jobbie when its christmas or easter :P such a diva, I'm sure she must snort bits of hay deliberately to make sure the attention is on her :) she loves me worrying about her!
 
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