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Snuffling After Eating

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NASH

NASH

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Does anyone else have a guinea pig who snuffles and squelches after eating? Fluffy is 6 very greedy, very skinny, and prone to bloat. A couple of weeks ago she started coughing after eating usually very wet food like watermelon or cucumber as she tends to hoover food up we at first thought greedy little piggy she needs to slow down a little, however, this happened a couple of times and she started making a snuffling noise as if she had the worst respiratory infection in the world. Obviously straight to the vets and he could hear her rasping but curiously and thankfully her chest was clear, her teeth are fine so its not a dental problem. She was started on baytril but unfortunately it affected her badly so was switched to septrim (which she hates!) She then started snuffling when eating her dried pellets but we found that soaking them first stopped that - we also found that soaking them has (touch wood) helped with her bloating problems. Strangely she doesn't always snuffle after eating and there is no common food that causes it. As i started writing this she sounded awful after eating her dinner and as i'm finishing it the squelchy snuffle has almost stopped and she is busy hooting away telling me she wants more food, she hoots rather than wheaks as over the last year she has lost her wheak and whistle now its more hoots and air hisses. Has anyone else come across this as we (with over 20 years of keeping guinea pigs) and our vet (who is guinea pig savvy) have not come across this before. Any help would be appreciated as whilst Fluffy doesn't seem overly bothered I'm suffering panic attacks and flapping around like a demented chicken each time she does it.
 
One of my boys eats far too fast and ends up sounding like he is choking but is otherwise fine. I am unsure if this is the same thing that your girl is experiencing. Hopefully someone else with a little more knowledge than me will be able to help :)
 
Can you upload a video of her doing this at all? I am wondering if she is actually inhaling dust from her dry food or water from her veggies, that can happen & my piggies sometimes get a snuffle afterwards.
 
Thank you theoretikos at first we thought she was coughing due to eating too quickly but its definitely not that and its not that horrible jerky movement that some piggies do - often mistaken for fits and very scary when first seen.

Thank you Poppy'sMum we will try and video her doing this, thankfully she doesn't do it all the time tonight was the first time in just under a week so it may take a while (hopefully). I also wondered if she was inhaling food or liquid as it does sound as if she needs a good blow of her nose.
 
When mine have this it sounds like bubbles more than chesty crackling & maybe something like Bisolvon from the vet will help :)
 
I agree that Bisolvon may help.

Can I just check though, does she ever follow it with a cough? I know the vet listened to her chest but has she been checked for a heart issue?
 
Thank you I will mention Bisolvan to the vet. Sometimes she follows with a cough but that doesn't get rid of it only time seems to. Today after coming back from hospital I walked in and she was rasping like she'd smoked a pack of bensons. A cuddle, some septrin and a drop of metacam cunningly disguised in a basil leaf and within an hour it abated. Her heart was checked. The vet gave her a good going over but other than this nothing seemed to be wrong. She has just eaten dinner and is making an awful noise again. I do not have a very good feeling about this.
 
No, she is very frail and wouldn't survive any form of sedation or an operation if anything was found. I'm more willing to take the chance than my husband is. She isnt showing signs of suffering the minute she does shes off to the vet. I'm going to take her into the bathroom for a little steam therapy to see if that helps.
 
Poor Fluffy was taken to emergency vets this morning (£220!) as her breathing was getting a little laboured, she was still fussing about having food though. She is on a nebuliser and will be given baytril injection which will hopefully help her. Vet will feed her later and see what happens then a decision will have to be made. We will do all that we can hence the £220 so far this morning but we will not allow any suffering at all, having seen a little boar suffer terribly with his breathing I will not allow Fluffy to go through it given her age and the fact that she has been the liveliest, fluffiest, greediest, noisiest, smelliest, grumpiest most loving little girl ever who most definitely does not deserve to go through this.
 
My pig Chester has a lot of this raspy breathing, and occasionally he can get really struggled breathing that gets really fast and then he just coughs and it stops and he's back to normal.
I've taken him to the vet but it's hard to say what it is when you can't get him to do it all the time.
I did get a recording though and i managed to show one of the vets i work with and she said it all sound normal to her, in the fact that without having any sort of reflex to shift mucus around they sometimes just need to cough it up the way Chester does, and he's never been bothered by it, like you said he's always more worried about eating and he's never stressed it's just be me that worries, my vet just said, it's probably a contribution of his weight because he's a bit of a heavy weight and just the dust from his food, he's always been very sensitive to dust and it's why we can't use shavings.
One thing i did find helped a little though was taking Chester to the shower, and leaving him in the bathroom with the windows shut, the vet recommended it and the steam did help him clear whatever it was he needed to clear.

Hope Fluffy recovers well!
 
Thank you. We are still waiting for the vets to ring us but i've (obviously) been googling like mad and i'm pretty much convinced its her little heart. On youtube there is a clip of "guinea pig hooting" and it sounds exactly like Fluffy all the comments mention heart and looking through the heart symptom checker i think she ticks a lot of the boxes. Anyway we are now just waiting and should know more lunchtime.
 
NASH said:
Thank you. We are still waiting for the vets to ring us but i've (obviously) been googling like mad and i'm pretty much convinced its her little heart. On youtube there is a clip of "guinea pig hooting" and it sounds exactly like Fluffy all the comments mention heart and looking through the heart symptom checker i think she ticks a lot of the boxes. Anyway we are now just waiting and should know more lunchtime.
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Try not to worry yourself too much, although online information can be helpful, a large portion can just lead to over worrying. It's just best to see what the vet thinks and try to relax as much as possible, which i know is difficult, but if we all marked up our symptoms on online pages i think we'd all be convinced we were at deaths door!
Fingers crossed, thoughts are with you and your piggy, hopefully she gets better soon x
 
Oh I am sorry, I hope she pulls through. Big hugs for you, my oldest lived to 7 & they become part of the family x
 
Vet has rung, Fluffy is doing well but is still seriously ill, shes eating and drinking and her breathing in the nebuliser is better but when they examine her she gets worse very rapidly. They will speak to us later today and decided on the next course of action. Has anyone bought and used a nebuliser at home?
 
Any news on Fluffy? Lots of hugs and love to your little girl.
 
Thank you everyone for your concern. Fluffy is still at the vets, she has perked up and the vet said that although she is not out of danger we could bring her home and should she take a turn for the worse take her straight back but we decided that she should stay overnight as I would hate it if we were asleep and she started struggling. £49 for the overnight nursing gives us a little peace of mind. We will ring at 6.30am and hopefully bring her home at 7am - fingers crossed she makes it through the night and continues recovering. Fluffy is the little black and white piggy on the right in our avatar.
 
Thanks Helen105281 that thread was very informative. We've bought a nebuliser from Maplins only £20 if anyone else is looking for one, well worth the investment. When Fluffy comes home tomorrow I will feel a little less helpless should she have an attack.
 
Fluffy is home :) she is quieter than usual but her breathing is much better, she is pigging it eating hay, drinking water and curling up sleeping. We found a new way to give her her antibiotics this morning - we moistened her nuggets with a little water and septrin, she wolfed it down! Waiting to speak to our vets (Mark at Bridges) to decide what next. I truly don't know whether she will ever completely recover and it is still precarious but at least we have given her a fighting chance and whilst she is not distressed and still eating and drinking we will continue doing so. Both vets think that she has an overgrowth of normal bacteria that lives in their noses therefore causing URI problem and possibly inhaling some food as eating and breathing at the same time was difficult for her. We are grateful that she lives with us in the living room so we were able to spot is as soon as it happened, however, I'm now sat here running back and forward to her as we live near a wooded area and pigeons are hooting in the distance giving me a fright each time i hear them. Thank you everyone for your help and support.
 
Thanks for the updates, keeping Fluffy in my thoughts, you are doing an amazing job, she is so lucky to have such a wonderful piggy slave.
 
Up one minute down the next, after improving she slips back down, she is on a nebuliser as i write. Now on Zithromax. I'm waiting for a call to see if vet will prescribe Bisolvan. We are not deluding ourselves this is mainly palliative care which we will continue with until she loses her joy for living. Again thank you everyone for your help and support. I think piggies inspire a devotion that non pig owners can't understand.
 
Just a quick one to update everyone and to hopefully close this thread. Fluffy is still with us and isn't snuffling unless she eats too quickly.. She was on zithromax, metacam, bisolvan, probiotics, and was being nebulised twice a day. We were feeding her up as she is very skinny but last Friday she came down with bloat - lots of massage and tlc she came through that only to then start having diarrhea on Monday because of that she is now off antibiotics. Fluffy chokes and coughs when eating unless she is stretching up therefore we are hand feeding her. The important thing is that she is still happy and pigging around although her hearing and eyesight is going. We are glad we gave her every chance and hope that she continues being happy. Thank you everyone.
 
Glad to hear Fluffy is better.
You have my vibes sent, for all the best in the future for Fluffy.
xx
 
Oh bless her, she really has been through a lot lately. Keeping everything crossed for her.
 
Hello,
You commented recently on my thread which was basically the same thing.
It's sounds like the little one is getting better :-)
Only thing I've changed since Logan had his issue was the bedding to shredded paper.
Also very important don't bath her to soon. Logan has a little bath the other day and couldn't get warm by himself so had to hold him in a blanket (he's fine) but it can bring back the symptoms really quick from what I've read!
 
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