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Winnie the guinea has been sneezing

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flyingpigs

Hello. My guinea, Winnie, is less than a year old. I got her in October of last year. A few months after purchasing her, I became aware that she sneezes quite frequently. She also had a very runny nose. Mucus builds up around her nostrils. Sometimes she sneezes out mucus. When she breathes, you can hear her snort from all the congestion. A few months ago I took her to the vet. The vet gave me medication to give her. I cannot remember what it was for. I do know that unfortunately the medicine didn't work. Winnie still sneezes and wheezes. Despite this problem, Winnie is a very happy, active pig. She runs, eats, drinks and still in the dominate pig. I feel that the sneezing problem doesn't affect any of these other activities. However, I'm afraid that she is suffering. I don't know if I should do something or just let it be. I also don't have any idea what is wrong with her. Any thoughts?
 
I'd suggest taking her back to the vets this probably should of been seen to after the medication didnt work, if your not happy with their diagnosis go to a different vets who may have more knowledge in guinea pigs. It sounds like a respiratory infection which guinea pigs are common too, also she may be allergic to the sawdust bedding if you use it.

I'd also highly suggest washing your hands before handling your piggie, and if you have a cold or chest infection yourself get a family member to do the cleaning and feeding until you are better as piggies can catch colds easily.

Keep your guinea pig free from drafts, as stress-free as possible, and feed it plenty of foods high in vitamin C, but most of all please see her to a vet :)

Hope it goes well at the vet and keep us updated on your little girl! Fingers crossed :)
 
What bedding do you use? If you give more details of her environment it may give some clues.

Suzy
 
We use Pine shavings for bedding. Her cage is located upstairs in the loft. It's a open area, no drafts.
 
It may be the shavings that she is allergic to. Maybe you could try fleece? Also make sure you use dust extracted hay.
 
Welcome to the forum. :)

Sorry to hear Winnie has these symptoms, what you describe sounds typical of an allergy and I would suggest that the bedding is a big problem - shavings are known to irritate the respiratory tracts of some guinea pigs.

I would recommend putting her on a different type of bedding to start off with - something like CareFresh, Megazorb, Aubiose, or a reusable fabric bedding like fleece or Vetbed. Give her a couple of weeks on the new bedding and see how she does, if no improvement then look further afield - is she living indoors, are aerosols, fragrances or air fresheners used in the same room she is in, whether you need to shake the hay before feeding to remove the dust (even with "dust extracted" hays this is needed).
 
thanks for all the input. i do think ill try some different bedding.
 
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