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Please help! My guinea pig is choking on hay?

M

mikkysaur

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Any ideas what’s going on with my piggie Ellen?

She is having difficulty eating. She pulls up the corners of her mouth like something is stuck in her mouth, and spits out food. Sometimes her eyes squint and her ears pull back. She’s not making choking or coughing noises. I thought maybe she had a piece of hay stuck in her mouth but I wasn’t able to open her mouth to look.

She has an appetite and tries to eat, but couldn’t get anything down. After 20 mins of putting veggies in front of her, she was finally able to chew and swallow. I monitored her until she started eating and swallowing again, but she still pulls the corners of her mouth back sometimes.

I will call the emergency vet first thing in the morning, and monitor her for now. It’s 2am, the vet doesn’t open until 9am. She’s able to eat full leaves now but I can’t help but worry about GI stasis.

Video attached of the issue being less severe. 20 mins before she couldn't even keep anything in her mouth. Even if the piece of hay is dislodged (if that even was the issue), I’m worried she’ll stop eating in the middle of the night
 
I couldn’t directly upload the video so I’ll link to it here

Watch unnamed | Streamable

Right now I haven’t seen her eat hay, pellets, or her favorite pea flakes. She tried eating them earlier and spit them out cuz she couldn’t chew them
 
Have you noticed any other problems while eating in the last few days? Has she lost any weight?
It would be best to see a cavy savy vet as soon as possible because there could be a problem with her molars. She could also have something stuck in her mouth.
Until you can see a vet, please step in with syringe feeding.
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
 
Sorry to hear this.

I’m not a medical expert so can’t offer advice but I hope someone with medical experience will come along soon.

Good for getting her booked into the vets quickly. I imagine the vets will check her for dental or mouth issues?

When people have pigs that are temporarily unable to chew and eat properly for whatever reason, sometimes recovery syringe food (or your usual pellets soaked in water and mushed up into a soft liquid) can be an option to help keep their guts moving. You could try gently offering it to her off a teaspoon or bowl and seeing if she takes any?

I wouldn’t force anything and I would take it gently, but if she is not eating this may help keep her guys moving while you wait for a vet.

She looks like she has an appetite which is good.

Other options may be pureed veg (just the usual veg you’d give her), if you have any kind of food processor or way of mushing it up? Or something very finely grated. She might find that a bit easier to manage if put in front of her?

These are just some of the things I’ve seen mentioned here when people have pigs that struggle to chew. As I say I’m not an expert by any means.

Hopefully someone with more experience will come along soon and may be able to advise further.

Good luck at the vets.
 
Just giving this a bump in case anyone has any further advice for you.
 
Please syringe feed her mushed pellets or a recovery feed. This is to keep her gut moving while she can’t eat hay for herself. You need to also weigh her every morning so you can ensure you syringe feed her enough per day to keep her weight stable - it’ll be at least 60ml day that is needed. She could need feeding every 2 hours

Do get her to a vet as soon as possible

I have added some emergency guide below to help further

Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
 
Thank you everyone! I was afraid of syringe feeding her because of worries about choking, but I’ll do it now until I can get her to the vet’s. It’s been about 4 hours and she’s still doing it, and it’s gotten a bit worse than the last time. She’s not really eating full leaves anymore but is still trying to.
 
It seems like her weight actually went up tonight (1029 grams to 1054 grams). This is the first time I’ve noticed her having this chewing problem, but she was recently adopted last Friday so we’ve only had her a week. I’ve reached out to the rescue to see if they can ask the foster mom if Ellen has d any dental issues in the past
 
Poor baby! I hope you figure it out. I have no advice that hasn’t already been given, but I’m wishing you and Ellen the best of luck at the vet and a speedy recovery! ❤️
 
Wishing you healing. I hope the vet can fix the problem without difficulty. Your piggy is lovely ❤️🙏
 
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. Ellen just finished her vet appointment and I will take her home. I hope she’ll recover well at home and go back to her happy self eating!

They sedated her and did dental work. Food is getting stuck in her lower left side, there's a pocket between first and second tooth. The Dr trimmed her teeth and removed a piece of hay that was stuck there!

I will keep an eye out for signs of this happening again when her teeth grow more, potentially 4-8 weeks

They also removed some calcification from her urethra so I will be giving her pain meds and reducing high-calcium veggies in her diet

Once again, thank you for all of your help and positivity. I’m still worried about how she will recover from the sedation but I’m very hopeful she will be ok!
 
I hope she is ok

Do note that more calcium comes into the diet via pellets (pellets contain more calcium than the highest calcium veg) and drinking water, so although you do need to look at the veggies you give, it’s vital to also check pellets and quantities and filter drinking water if you are in a hard water area

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
Great work by your vet. I hope little Ellen recovers quickly 🙏
 
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