URI?

[loopytheone]

My pig, Meg, was making a horrendous rattling noise when breathing on friday. We rushed her down to the vets and although she doesn't have a temperature and seems fine in herself, he thought she may have an URI. No discharge from the nose/eyes, no sneezing/coughing etc. Gave her baytril for 10 days and told me to come back if she doesn't improve.

The rattling stopped on its own a couple of hours after seeing the vet. But she is making a kind of low pitched noise now whenever she breathes out, and sometimes when she breathes in. It is a quiet noise, not too alarming in itself, and it is something I have heard her make before, but never constantly like this. Her whole body jumps a little with each breath which makes me think she is breathing hard. I don't weigh her as regularly as I should, but she is definitely a bit lighter than usual (normally 1100-1200 gs, now 1060gs). She still seems fine in herself, is wandering around, drinking, eating and pooping.

I am just not sure what is going on. I saw her eating puppy pads (we use it under the newspaper) just before the rattling started and I don't know if she somehow choked on some? Or maybe she is allergic to something? She is at my mum's with me for a couple of days right now rather than my flat to avoid the heat. She was lethargic and not eating much at my flat, which I think was the heat (very hot there!) and has perked up a lot since moving to my mum's cooler house, aside from the breathing trouble. My vet insists that guinea pigs aren't affected by temperature so it wouldn't have been the heat making her lethargic, but I think he's an idiot.

Anyway, any thought anyone? URI? Allergies? Something inhaled/stuck in her chest? I'm really worried and confused. Giving baytril twice a day for now and keeping a close eye on her.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Please start support syringe feeding as your piggy has lost a considerable amount; it means that her food intake (of which over 80% should be hay) is not sufficient. The need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat. Add to that the fact that antibiotics (and esepcially baytril) to not just act on the bad bacteria but also the ones necessary for the digestive process, guinea pigs with respiratory illness experience a double whammy.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

Please have your girl vet checked promptly in case it is not just a heat stroke or near heat stroke or a developing pneumonia due to the extra pressure of the heat on her body. A heat stroke affects the heart and should be vet checked promptly anyway.
Hot Weather Management And Heat Strokes

 

[DM030819]

It could be a URI as noisy, laboured breathing is a symptom.

But it could also be heat related. You say that your flat was too hot, did this start when she was still with you in your flat?

Pigs can't sweat and then don't pant like dogs so they do overheat when it's too warm.

Keep her cool with a frozen water bottle wrapped in an old sock in her cage for her to like against and keep the surrounding area as cool as possible.

 

[loopytheone]

Ah, I forgot to mention that I actually give her her baytril mixed with water and critical care. She is back to eating well now she is at my mum's place. She gets critical care twice a day at the moment anyway. I don't have to syringe feed it, I just make it into a paste and she eats it right up.

I don't think she had heat stroke, I've seen that before in piggies and it wasn't that severe. Nothing acute, just a sort of slight lethargy and not eating as much as usual and being more picky with her food. Those things have improved now she is in a cooler place.

She had the fan on constantly next to her in the flat, the windows open and she always had either a frozen water bottle or a frozen hot water bottle in the cage with her at my flat so I don't think there was anything I could have done in addition to make her cooler. I live on the top floor of a block of old flats and although I do all that and keep the curtains closed/out of the sun, it still gets so hot. Which is why we have abandoned flat and come to my mum's for the time being. Meg's room is the coolest room in my flat. It's honestly just her breathing that is concerning me. I can't tell if she has an URI or it is something else. Like I said, she seems fine in herself.

 

[loopytheone]

Update: Meg was breathing worse than ever this morning. We took her down to the vet. He decided to give her doxycycline as well as baytril and metacam to try and shift the infection from her lungs.

She is very up and down so it's hard to know if this will work. She was breathing so badly that I thought she was going to die this afternoon, but she also goes through phases of breathing almost normally. Standing outside with her seems to ease her wheezing when it is really bad, at least for a while, and having the ceiling fan on full means she breathes a lot easier than when the air is more still. I don't know what that means. I'm staying up all tonight with her until my mum gets up to take over.