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My Guinea Pig has Allergies? and neutering.

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PingandChipy

PingandChipy

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Hi,

I have a male pig, Ping, who is 6 months old. I've had him since he was 6 weeks old and ever since day one he sneezes quite frequently. He is very bright, alert, active (popcorning all the time), no nasal discharge or runny eyes. I realized early on that he was sneezing more when I changed the bedding. At the time I was using wood shavings. I assumed it was the dust that was bothering him and switched him to fleece, which seemed to help.

He is still sneezing especially when he is eating hay and I wonder could the dust in the hay be bothering him? He does like the sniff everything to excess. He is very silly.

I was thinking of trying a dose of sudafed decongestant to see if that cleared him up and if so then I would know it is allergies?

My other pig, Chipy, that lives with him doesn't sneeze.

On another note, They have been squabbling lately, and Ping is due to be neutered next Friday and I have a girl piggie that is going to move in with him and CHipy is going to live next door to them. Chipy is about 4 years old and I don't want to neuter him at this age. How long does Ping need to stay away from Lou-Lou May so she doesn't get pregannt?

Thanks!
Lynn

p.s. Ping is the little white pig in my avatar. That is when he was 8 wks old.
 
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Ok, first of all, totally off topic - I love your avatar. How cute is that picture!?

It sounds like he could be sensitive to dust, and hay (even those that claim to be dust-extracted) does hold a lot of dust. Shake each handful out in an empty cardboard box, it'll shift a lot of the dust, it does make a good difference.

As he is not congested, his sneezing is the only symptom, I wouldn't advise using Sudafed. I use the Expectorant when one of mine has persistent "grumbly" breathing brought on by allergy, but for sneezing Sudafed won't have any real effect.

I'm not sure if you can get it there, but Piriton Syrup can be used in guineas with persistent allergies. However, I would personally not use it unless he's affected by his sneezing i.e. he cannot go into his hay without sneezing repeatedly and affecting his appetite, or other allergy symptoms develop.

Ping needs to stay apart from sows until 6 weeks post-neuter, just to be sure that all the sperm have gone. He'll love have a lady to share his life with. :)
 
Hi Laura,

thanks so much for the information. He eats like a little piggie :) hehe. He is probably the funniest pig I have ever had. Last night I gave them a snugglesafe as the temperture dropped unexpectedly and I have made a fleece pillowslip for it. He was literally rolling around on the snugglesafe! I have never seen a pig do that. It was hilarious! At one point his feet pointed at the ceiling. Very strange!

p.s. thanks for the photo compliment :)

I'm going to hold off on the meds and I will shake the dust out of the hay before putting it in his hay rack and see if that helps. It doesn't help that he jams his nose into everything. Very curious little fellow.

Lynn
 
The recommendation for 100% safety is a 6 weeks wait. You are pretty safe after 4 weeks; however the odd "golden shot" has been known to have been fired five weeks after the op.

You may find that your boys may be very hostile through the mesh with a girl in the mix; it might be better if Chipy is either above or a little bit away from the pair.

PS: I love your avatar!
 
Thanks :)

I can house Chipy farther away from Ping and Lou-Lou that is no problem. I was wondering when I bring Ping back from neutering do you think Chipy will not accept him back for the interm until Ping can live with Lou-Lou?

Lynn
 
Ping will smell differently, so things could be dicey. You might be forced to do the whole formal re-introdcution with neutral space etc.(http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562), but you won't be able to bathe Ping so shortly after the op. If possible, keep them separated.
Could you borrow or get hold of a temporary second hand cage; it doesn't matter if it is a little bit smaller as it's only temp?

If you have got the space, you might ideally keep Ping next to Lou-Lou, so they can make friends through the bars while he is healing. The introduction after will be a lot smoother for your new couple that way.
 
Ahh good idea about putting Lou-Lou and Ping side by side until they can be together. That would work out fine. I do have a couple extra cages as well so I'm prepared no matter what. :)

I will use the largest cage and put a mesh divider in between for them.

Thanks!
 
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