Not Eating And Loud Breathing

[Cookie&Cream93]

My guinea pig (Cookie) hasn't been eating much over the past few days and we noticed about 30g of weight loss a day since the weekend (she now weighs 1026g).

We took her to the vets today who said she can give lots of treatment but she isn't actually a specialist so she doesn't know what is wrong, we came home with a sachet of Critical Care.

I then spoke to a specialist on the phone who I can see over the next few days, but in the last 20 minutes Cookie has started to breathe like this and has been sneezing (of course she didn't do this at the vets!). The specialist recommended we use Vicks which has quietened her down but is not a long term solution.

Any ideas/experience of this with your own pigs is greatly appreciated!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

It sounds very much like your girl is coming down with a respiratory infection; Please have her seen again tomorrow; preferably by a piggy savvy vet! If she is deteriorating very quickly and especially if she is becoming apathetic, you will have to see an out-of-hours vet as an emergency.

In order to help ease the breathing until then, please place a bowl of steaming water next to the cage and keep it changed from time to time. Please do not use vicks; it contains ingredients that are harmful to guinea pigs - a one-off won't hurt, so please don't panic! If you really want to add something, use a couple of drops of olbas oil, but steaming water on its own will be perfectly fine.

The need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat. Please start supporting your guinea pig with syringe feeding and watering, as much as it will take. You need to feed the more often the less your piggy eats. In an acute crisis, you are aiming at coming as close as possible to 40-60 ml in either syringe feed or self-eaten solids to keep a guinea pig going. You will find the tips in our illustrated syringe guide helpful. It also contains tips for what you can do in an emergency with what you have got at home/easily available from a pharmacy.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

In order to boost the immune system, you can give a quarter of a human vitamin C tablet, if wished syringed in 1 ml of water to make sure that it all goes where it is supposed to.

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[Cookie&Cream93]

Thank you for your reply. The breathing is normal now and we have mangaged to feed her around 7ml of critical care. She has been licking it off the syringe instead of us forcing it in which is helpful as the vet gave us a 10ml syringe instead of a 1ml one and that would be dangerous to use forcefully.

We will try the steaming water trick if the loud breathing returns. You said we can give a quarter of a human vitamin C tablet, what is the mg of a whole tablet? I know they can be bought in a range of strengths so I'm wondering how much a quarter is.

Thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for your reply. The breathing is normal now and we have mangaged to feed her around 7ml of critical care. She has been licking it off the syringe instead of us forcing it in which is helpful as the vet gave us a 10ml syringe instead of a 1ml one and that would be dangerous to use forcefully.

We will try the steaming water trick if the loud breathing returns. You said we can give a quarter of a human vitamin C tablet, what is the mg of a whole tablet? I know they can be bought in a range of strengths so I'm wondering how much a quarter is.

Thank you

Get one of the lower strength tablets or give 1/8 of a high strength one.

It sounds like her airways are obstructed somewhere, at least temporarily. What is worrying me is the weight loss - it can or cannot be related to her breathing issues.

It is good that she is willing to eat from the syringe. Continue to offer feed as often as you can during the day and at least once or twice during the night when you check on her. If that is an option, you can take her into your bedroom in her carrier box, so you don't have to get up to do this.

 

[Flutterby]

Poor little one! Sending healing vibes, I hope she feels better soon.

 

[Cookie&Cream93]

Thank you for all your advice. Cookie spent her last days in a guinea pig hospital with an expert in Cambridge and received the best treatment. The poor girl fought as long as she could but she won't be coming back home now to find a new friend for Cream, her daughter and the pig in my picture. Poor little girls!

 

[Gem789]

Thank you for all your advice. Cookie spent her last days in a guinea pig hospital with an expert in Cambridge and received the best treatment. The poor girl fought as long as she could but she won't be coming back home now to find a new friend for Cream, her daughter and the pig in my picture. Poor little girls!

I'm so sorry to hear this xx

 

[Adelle]

I'm so sorry for your loss, sometimes these types of things are just too much for them to cope with. You tried your best and that's all we can ever do.

Here is some tips to looking after cream whilst she is alone:

Looking After A Bereaved Guinea Pig

Have you checked the rescue locator on the forum to find a rescue that could pair your sow up with another?