Sneezing Guinea Pig

[BubbleSqueak]

I bought 2 guinea pigs for my daughter from our local pet store about 2 months ago and she named them Bubble and Squeak. Bubble was sneezing occasionally for the first month but then the sneezing increased in frequency and she also had a runny nose sometimes too and was rubbing her nose a lot ( as if something was irritating her). I took her to our local vet about 4 weeks ago who said that it could be an allergy or it could be a respiratory infection. He advised me to take her off wood shavings ( I changed the bedding to care fresh) and also prescribed 0.1mg baytril twice a day because her chest sounded a bit rattly. The sneezing seemed to lessen after the first week but didn't go away completely so I was prescribed a 2nd week of 0.1 mg Baytril. Towards the end of the second week the sneezing seemed to get worse again and her nose was quite snotty. I took her back to the vets and saw a different vet who said she may have allergies and has possibly got a URI on top of this that she probably had when we got her from the pet shop. She upped the dose of baytril to 0.2 mg twice a day and also gave me some bisolvon powder to put on her food. Again there was some initial improvement but Bubble is still sneezing ( roughly between 10 and 20 times a day) and sometimes has a snotty nose. Both vets mentioned the possibility of putting Bubble under anaesthetic and flushing out her nasal passages but the second vet did say that this procedure was not always successful . This seems quite invasive to me and I don't know if it's necessary but I'm no expert!. Throughout all this Bubble has been eating and pooping normally and is active , playing with squeak and seems happy . My only other concern is that she has not grown as much as squeak even though she seems to eat as much. She weighed 0.5kg last week at the vets and is approx. 5 months old. We're new to owning guinea pigs but they've very quickly become part of our family and we want to do the best we can for Bubble. Does anyone have any advice that they can give me? Thanks in advance.

 

[helen105281]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Sadly it is not uncommon for pet shop pigs to arrive with a URI but like the vet says allergies should not be ruled out. However it does sound more like a URI to me especially as she is not gaining as much weight as she should. Has the vet considered a different antibiotic to Baytril? other possibiliites are Marbocyl (similar to Baytril), Septrin, Doxycycline and Zithromax. As only Baytril is actually licensed for pigs the vets usually want to try that first.

It is good that you have Bisolvon, as that was going to be one of my first suggestions.

If a change in antibiotic doesn't help it would be worth looking into allergies more but it is difficult a lot of the time to work out what is causing it, it could be dust from the Carefresh or the hay. Do they live inside or outside?

 

[BubbleSqueak]

They are indoor pigs, but I do put them outside in their run if the weather is fine. I did change the hay to excel Timothy hay which was recommended at the vets. I did wonder if the care fresh might be dusty because she does seem to sneeze quite a bit first thing on a morning after I've spot cleaned the cage.

 

[helen105281]

I have heard that Carefresh can be dusty. Have you considered bedding them on fleece or Vetbed? Vetbed especially is great for allergies, you just need something like newspaper or towels underneath to absorb the wee that wicks through. Another option if you prefer substrate is Fitch which I use for my hamsters and is recycled paper bedding and really soft, it is also much cheaper than Carefresh. www.fitchrecycling.co.uk

 

[BubbleSqueak]

Thanks Helen. I'll look into changing the bedding again. I'm going to call the vets tomorrow so hopefully they will change the antibiotic too.

 

[helen105281]

You may find they ask you to sign a disclaimer for a different antibiotic.