Senior guinea pig with long-term intermittent rattly breathing – looking for experiences/thoughts

[EllieR]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some input and shared experiences regarding my senior guinea pig.

She is 6 years and 3 months old and has been generally very well. When she was around 8 weeks old, she had early-onset pneumonia, which she recovered from and has lived a long, happy life since.

For the past year or so, she has had an intermittent rattly / crackly breathing sound. Some details:


The rattle comes and goes and is not constant

• It’s often noticeable while she’s eating, but can appear randomly at other times
• She is not in any visible distress
• No open-mouth breathing, head bobbing, or laboured breathing
• She is eating and drinking very well, maintaining weight, and behaving normally
• She’s bright, active, and essentially her usual self

She has been on antibiotics, which made no difference at all to the sound.

I’ve tried environmental changes:
She’s normally on shavings, but I trialled blankets/fleece, which made no difference

• Dust control and general husbandry are good
• No aerosols, sprays, or strong smells

Based on discussions I’ve had, it’s been suggested that this could be:

Chronic airway changes or scarring from her pneumonia as a baby

• A stable, non-progressive “baseline” breathing noise rather than active disease
• Possibly mild upper airway noise triggered by chewing
• Heart disease has been mentioned as something to keep in mind given her age, but she currently shows no other signs

Because she’s stable and happy, long-term medication hasn’t been recommended so far. I’m currently considering saline nebulisation (plain 0.9% saline only) as a gentle supportive option and would love to hear if anyone has experience using this for chronic rattly breathing rather than acute illness.


My main questions are:
Has anyone had a guinea pig with a long-term rattly or noisy breathing that remained stable for years?

• Did saline nebulisation help at all in similar cases?
• At what point would you consider further investigation (e.g. X-rays) if the pig is otherwise thriving?
• Any tips for managing comfort in older pigs with chronic respiratory quirks?

I’m not looking to “fix” something that may be permanent — just want to make sure I’m supporting her comfort and doing the right thing for a senior pig.

Thanks so much for any experiences or advice you’re willing to share.

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Hi EllieR,

Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I don't have an answer to any of your questions, so I'm just bumping your post in the hope that one of the mbrs who regularly check this part of the forum reads your post and responds.

 

[piggieminder]

I am not a Health and Illness expert but I do have some experience with this.
Brillo had pneumonia aged 4 and was on Abs for 2 months. About 2 years later he started with occasional rattly, noisy breathing when eating, over time the noisy sessions lasted longer and not necessarily when eating. He was at the vets frequently and we tried several Abs in case of infection, none worked and it was decided by the vets that it was not down to infection. Brillo had arthritis in his spine so was on daily Metacam anyway which would help with any inflammation in the airways. When he was making the noise I nebulised with F10 antiseptic (didn't try saline) which sometimes seemed to help and sometimes didn't. He never had any other signs of respiratory infection and never seemed to be bothered by the noisy breathing. Brillo was recently helped over the bridge due to the severity of his arthritis which developed in his knees and hips, resulting in bladder problems. He was over 7 years old.

I now have a 3 year old who has started making the noise when eating, knowing this can be a sign of respiratory infection I took him to the vet. There were no sounds in the upper airways or the lungs, to my knowledge he's never had a respiratory infection to cause scarring. The vet decided there was no need for Abs as there were no signs of infection. It has been left that if/when he does this again for longer than a few minutes I will give him Metacam, nebulise and monitor. If the session goes on for longer than 24hrs to return to the vet.

For anyone reading this who has a piggy making this noise when eating, please always get your piggy checked out by a piggy savvy vet. Please don't assume it's just a noise piggy makes when eating, by the time there are other symptoms it could be too late. The b/w aby in my avatar saw a supposed piggy savvy vet several times, she dismissed noisy eating as being a respiratory infection and by the time he saw a different vet it was too late.