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URI?

A

Adrienne

New Born Pup
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I believe that my piggie, Alice, is suffering from an upper respiratory infection.... but can’t seem to confirm it. The only symptom is a loud, congested breathing through her nose. There are no weepy eyes, no fatigue, no apparent loss of appetite (though she has lost .2 lbs in two weeks). She still eats, drinks, poops and gets up on her hind legs for her evening vegetable treat and vitamin c tablet and wanders around normally on floor time and in her cage. She is even taking her Critical Care and probiotics with no trouble at all. There was nothing really concerning on her x-ray, but she was on TMS for 8 days and when that made no difference, the vet has put her on Baytril. Aside from the loud, crunchy-sounding breathing, you wouldn’t know anything is wrong with her!
Has anyone else seen or experienced this before?
 
I believe that my piggie, Alice, is suffering from an upper respiratory infection.... but can’t seem to confirm it. The only symptom is a loud, congested breathing through her nose. There are no weepy eyes, no fatigue, no apparent loss of appetite (though she has lost .2 lbs in two weeks). She still eats, drinks, poops and gets up on her hind legs for her evening vegetable treat and vitamin c tablet and wanders around normally on floor time and in her cage. She is even taking her Critical Care and probiotics with no trouble at all. There was nothing really concerning on her x-ray, but she was on TMS for 8 days and when that made no difference, the vet has put her on Baytril. Aside from the loud, crunchy-sounding breathing, you wouldn’t know anything is wrong with her!
Has anyone else seen or experienced this before?
 
Adrienne said:
I believe that my piggie, Alice, is suffering from an upper respiratory infection.... but can’t seem to confirm it. The only symptom is a loud, congested breathing through her nose. There are no weepy eyes, no fatigue, no apparent loss of appetite (though she has lost .2 lbs in two weeks). She still eats, drinks, poops and gets up on her hind legs for her evening vegetable treat and vitamin c tablet and wanders around normally on floor time and in her cage. She is even taking her Critical Care and probiotics with no trouble at all. There was nothing really concerning on her x-ray, but she was on TMS for 8 days and when that made no difference, the vet has put her on Baytril. Aside from the loud, crunchy-sounding breathing, you wouldn’t know anything is wrong with her!
Has anyone else seen or experienced this before?
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome

Please finish the full course course of baytril and see your vet again if symptoms have not disappeared by the end of it.

It can take over a week until the breathing settles. If you have caught URI early on, you will thankfully never experience the more progressive symptoms of a settled in or advanced URI.
That doesn't mean that the bacteria in the system do not need to be dealt with, so they cannot cause long term damage. ;)

You can only start looking at other issues if URI has been safely ruled out, which can take up to two courses of different antibiotics, depending on which they react to.
 
If the sounds are nasal your vet could also give something to help clear the airways such as Bisolvon in addition to the antibiotic.
 
@Adrienne It can take a few weeks for an antibiotic to clear a URI. It could also be something else, like an allergy or a damaged respiratory system.
 
Is there any treatment at you’re aware of for those? I’m just worried that I’ll get to the end of the antibiotics with no change to her breathing and I’ll feel helpless to leave it untreated.... I just found another exotic vet in my area that may have the ability to do blood work on guinea pigs. If I can get that done, at least I’ll know that I’ve tried everything! X-rays, antibiotics and blood work. They’re calling me back to let me know. Fingers crossed!
 
Wiebke said:
Hi and welcome

Please finish the full course course of baytril and see your vet again if symptoms have not disappeared by the end of it.

It can take over a week until the breathing settles. If you have caught URI early on, you will thankfully never experience the more progressive symptoms of a settled in or advanced URI.
That doesn't mean that the bacteria in the system do not need to be dealt with, so they cannot cause long term damage. ;)

You can only start looking at other issues if URI has been safely ruled out, which can take up to two courses of different antibiotics, depending on which they react to.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the helpful tips! Yes, I caught it as early as possible. I got up in the morning, heard her breathing and within 19 minutes was at the vet with a baseball cap on and no makeup, lol! I waste no time with my angels... 😊
 
@Adrienne I have merged your posts as it could cause confusion having two threads about the same issue. Please can you keep to one thread if it is about the same issue? Many thanks
 
VickiA said:
@Adrienne I have merged your posts as it could cause confusion having two threads about the same issue. Please can you keep to one thread if it is about the same issue? Many thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, I accidentally posted in the wrong subject forum so I sent an email to “contact us” asking for it to be deleted and then I reposted to the proper forum.
 
@Adrienne I used a nebuliser with great success for one of my boars with damaged airways so there are more options to try if the vet rules out a URI.
 
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