danuutka
Junior Guinea Pig
I'm a bit worried about Lulu, and thought I'd be best off asking here, as I don't want to be bothering the vets if it's just normal choking etc.
Over the past week or so, Lulu has occasionally been doing the "silent choke" - the one where the body seems to jolt forward, but no noise comes out. A few of my pigs have done this before, so I wasn't worried - I just presumed that she had eaten something too quickly and watched her until it had resolved. However, in the past two days, she has twice done this jolt motion, but accompanied with shrieks (the type of shrieks that come out when Nelli nips her).
I picked her up, and it subsided, so I don't know what's wrong. However it did sound like pain shrieks, not her usually wheeking. Btw, she is on daily Metacam.
I've been trying to work out what is wrong, and have been doing some reading online - now wondering if it's some form of seizure or if there is something wrong with the back teeth.
The only way I can describe my way of thinking about it being a seizure, is that it isn't exactly like the silent choking that my other pigs did. Also rather than it being the whole body, it was mainly her head jolting forward. I also watched a couple of videos on youtube of pigs having a seizure, and it looked quite similar. Both times it happened when she was laid down. However, in the case of seizures neither of the videos showed a guinea pig shrieking.
On the other hand, when reading about dental issues with the back teeth, I noticed a few of these behaviours in Lulu. She struggles to eat her dry food nuggets and pea flakes - they seem to fall out of her mouth, and she struggles to actually get them to stay in. However, she is fine with eating hay, grass, veggies etc. She's also maintained the same weight for over a month, so she does seem to be getting enough in her.
I'm not sure if I'm just being overanalytical, because Lulu is already a special needs piggy, so I'm on hyperalert for anything to happen to her. I just don't want to waste the vets time (like I did once with Benio when he was hooting cos he choked on hay, I went into panic and the poor vet was looking at me like I was crazy).
Over the past week or so, Lulu has occasionally been doing the "silent choke" - the one where the body seems to jolt forward, but no noise comes out. A few of my pigs have done this before, so I wasn't worried - I just presumed that she had eaten something too quickly and watched her until it had resolved. However, in the past two days, she has twice done this jolt motion, but accompanied with shrieks (the type of shrieks that come out when Nelli nips her).
I picked her up, and it subsided, so I don't know what's wrong. However it did sound like pain shrieks, not her usually wheeking. Btw, she is on daily Metacam.
I've been trying to work out what is wrong, and have been doing some reading online - now wondering if it's some form of seizure or if there is something wrong with the back teeth.
The only way I can describe my way of thinking about it being a seizure, is that it isn't exactly like the silent choking that my other pigs did. Also rather than it being the whole body, it was mainly her head jolting forward. I also watched a couple of videos on youtube of pigs having a seizure, and it looked quite similar. Both times it happened when she was laid down. However, in the case of seizures neither of the videos showed a guinea pig shrieking.
On the other hand, when reading about dental issues with the back teeth, I noticed a few of these behaviours in Lulu. She struggles to eat her dry food nuggets and pea flakes - they seem to fall out of her mouth, and she struggles to actually get them to stay in. However, she is fine with eating hay, grass, veggies etc. She's also maintained the same weight for over a month, so she does seem to be getting enough in her.
I'm not sure if I'm just being overanalytical, because Lulu is already a special needs piggy, so I'm on hyperalert for anything to happen to her. I just don't want to waste the vets time (like I did once with Benio when he was hooting cos he choked on hay, I went into panic and the poor vet was looking at me like I was crazy).
