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She's struggling to breathe

Olivia Collier-Sadoski

Olivia Collier-Sadoski

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Ying is 6 year old female guinea pig with no mate, and turned down food and water this morning. Ying is making clicking noise when breathing, breathing hard and fast. Ying is no longer talking or squeaking. Slight skin peeling around eyes. Right nostril looks watery. I gave Ying syringe filled Vitamin c, and water. I also gave Ying 0.5 ml medicine that was prescribed before for her digestive tract and appetite. She is not walking or moving that much. She might have pneumonia. I can't get her in til weeks from now. What should I do?
 
I’m sorry to hear this.

Please urgently step in and syringe feed her mushed up pellets or a recovery feed if you have it (oxbow critical care for example).
Syringing water and vitamin c will not keep her gut functioning. It is essential she gets fibre rich feed to replace the hay she is not eating for herself.

Switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh her daily so you can ensure you are syringe feeding enough feed to her in each 24 hour period to keep her weight stable.
She may only be able to take small amounts of syringe feed at a time if she is struggling to breathe so you may need to feed very frequently - every 1-2 hours for example, and aiming for 60ml of syringe feed in each 24 hour period - but it all depends on what the weight checks tell you, she may need to be fed more than that to stop her from losing weight.

The guide I will link in below will explain syringe feeding further.

I know it’s not as easy to get a vet appointment in the US, but could you try another vet or call for an emergency vet. Her symptoms sound very concerning and this cannot wait a week to be seen - if she is struggling to breathe, then she needs to be seen right now.

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
 
Good luck. I hope you can get her seen soon and she’s soon on the road to recovery. 🤞
 
So I saw an emergency vet today, and they think she may have pneumonia or lung cancer. They gave me some antibiotics, but no food or recovery feed, I do not have mushed up pellets or pellets at all. What do I do to feed her?
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear this.

Please urgently step in and syringe feed her mushed up pellets or a recovery feed if you have it (oxbow critical care for example).
Syringing water and vitamin c will not keep her gut functioning. It is essential she gets fibre rich feed to replace the hay she is not eating for herself.

Switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh her daily so you can ensure you are syringe feeding enough feed to her in each 24 hour period to keep her weight stable.
She may only be able to take small amounts of syringe feed at a time if she is struggling to breathe so you may need to feed very frequently - every 1-2 hours for example, and aiming for 60ml of syringe feed in each 24 hour period - but it all depends on what the weight checks tell you, she may need to be fed more than that to stop her from losing weight.

The guide I will link in below will explain syringe feeding further.

I know it’s not as easy to get a vet appointment in the US, but could you try another vet or call for an emergency vet. Her symptoms sound very concerning and this cannot wait a week to be seen - if she is struggling to breathe, then she needs to be seen right now.

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Click to expand...
So I saw an emergency vet today, and they think she may have pneumonia or lung cancer. They gave me some antibiotics, but no food or recovery feed, I do not have mushed up pellets or pellets at all. What do I do to feed her?
 
Olivia Collier-Sadoski said:
So I saw an emergency vet today, and they think she may have pneumonia or lung cancer. They gave me some antibiotics, but no food or recovery feed, I do not have mushed up pellets or pellets at all. What do I do to feed her?
Click to expand...
What food does she normally eat? Does she have a food with pellets in it that's part of her standard diet? You can just mash that up in water and feed it through a syringe if the vet doesn't have Critical Care or another recovery food. All the best, I hope she pulls through for you!
 
Freela said:
What food does she normally eat? Does she have a food with pellets in it that's part of her standard diet? You can just mash that up in water and feed it through a syringe if the vet doesn't have Critical Care or another recovery food. All the best, I hope she pulls through for you!
Click to expand...
I have lettuce, carrots, and Timothy hay food for her. I don't know if mashing it up in water would work for the Timothy hay. It might work for the romaine lettuce and baby carrots, but I don't know
 
Olivia Collier-Sadoski said:
I have lettuce, carrots, and Timothy hay food for her. I don't know if mashing it up in water would work for the Timothy hay. It might work for the romaine lettuce and baby carrots, but I don't know
Click to expand...

You need to buy some recovery feed (oxbow critical care is one option but I’ve added a link below which will help) or some normal guinea pig pellets and mush them with water. A proper recovery feed is higher in fIbre. This needs to be done urgently if she already isn’t eating.
A piggy who isn’t eating for themselves needs the fibre intake replaced with syringe feeding to keep the gut functioning. It is just as important during any period of illness as providing medication. The medication can’t work if her gut isn’t functioning and if the guts shut down, they become very poorly.
You will not be able to mush hay properly. You can offer her strands of hay by hand to see if she will eat them but the syringe feeding still needs to be done as the main food intake while she is unwell.
Do make sure you do the daily weight checks also as it is your only guide to know that she s is getting enough food.
Lettuce and carrot alone has not got enough nutrients in it to be her normal veg diet in any event (she needs to be provided with more than just lettuce and carrot each day), but mushing them during a period of illness will not provide her with what she needs. Hay and fibre is the largest part of their food intake at 80% each day. Veg is only around 15% so mushing veg still means she isn’t getting enough food in general but it won’t be enough fibre.
The syringe feeding guide which is linked in explains that veg alone isn’t enough.

As she is on antibiotics it would also be a good idea to give her some probiotic to help stabilise her gut bacteria which can be wiped out by antibiotics (which can also reduce their appetite).

Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

When she is well again, do look to introduce a bit more variety into her diet. Lettuce isn’t high in enough in nutrients (they are a low vit c veg but piggies need a high vit c veg every day) carrots should not be in the diet regularly (they are too high in sugsr and should only be given as a small very amount as a very occasional treat or not in the diet at all).
Safe daily veggies which provide a good range of nutrition and the daily vitamin c guinea pigs need are coriander, bell pepper (both high in vit c), lettuce and cucumber can also be given daily.
It’s absolutely fine not to feed pellets but they do have the benefit of containing the essential vitamin c (along with bridging any other gaps in nutrition) so if she isn’t being given pellets you need to make sure that her nutrient and vit c needs are being provided with a good and wide variety of vegetables.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
(My profile pic is a photo of Ying in case any of you want to see what she looked like, she's the dark one to the far right)
 
So sorry for your loss.
You did everything possible for Ying.
Be gentle with yourself as you grieve
 
((HUGS)), I'm so sorry for your loss.
 
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