• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Breathing

R

Rachel1990

New Born Pup
Joined
Oct 23, 2024
Messages
2
Reaction score
6
Points
55
Location
England
Hi, my guinea pig has laboured breathing. Although she is eating drink going toilet etc. she hasn’t put any weight on or lost any but she seems so much thinner than the other girl I have. I’ve taken her to the vets twice for this and they’ve given antibiotics and an ant-inflammatory but it’s still not clearing. They said her lungs, heart sound normal. I’ve noticed one nostril is smaller than the other. Going to ring vets again. She’s only about 3 months old. Just don’t know what could be causing this. I’ve changed the bedding from wood shavings to bath matts.
 
Poor piggy, she's only a baby too!
Where did you get her from?
Perhaps worth an x ray to see if there's anything going on in the lungs? Or perhaps a different antibiotic?
Either way it's good you're going to ring them back, I think she should be seen again.
One of our piggies at the rescue, Marcus (adopted by @CTWC), has something similar. Nothing was ever found and the vet thinks he will always be like that, but it doesn't sound as severe as your girl.
Best of luck 🤞
 
Rachel1990 said:
Hi, my guinea pig has laboured breathing. Although she is eating drink going toilet etc. she hasn’t put any weight on or lost any but she seems so much thinner than the other girl I have. I’ve taken her to the vets twice for this and they’ve given antibiotics and an ant-inflammatory but it’s still not clearing. They said her lungs, heart sound normal. I’ve noticed one nostril is smaller than the other. Going to ring vets again. She’s only about 3 months old. Just don’t know what could be causing this. I’ve changed the bedding from wood shavings to bath matts.
Click to expand...

All the best. It could be a genetic issue. We see this more in older piggies. Heart problems can actually be sometimes very difficult to diagnose.

Perhaps you may want to step in with top up feeding? It is worth discussing with your vet in view of her not putting on any weight when she is still at an age where she should still do so on a weekly basis. Something is definitely not right and a scan may be the next step.

You may perhaps want to discuss nebulising trial with your vet to see whether that helps to ease the breathing? It is not an all-help and can sometimes make things worse but your vet is much better placed to assess this.
 
Thank you for the replies. I phoned the vet and had an appointment in the afternoon. Just before then she became very unwell very sudden. She fainted 3 times in space of 3hours and looked completely out of it. She would come round but could only lay there and was gasping for breath. As soon as the vet seen her she said she didn’t look good for such a young age and she wouldn’t last the night. I made the hard decision to let her go and be out of pain.
 
Oh gosh what a shock, I'm so sorry! Poor piggy, at least she is no longer suffering.
RIP little one, over the Rainbow Bridge 🌈❤️
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top