Guinea pig breathing problems

[Kat321]

My guinea pig is making grunting/hooting noises when he breathes. Eating is still ok. I took him to the vet two days ago and the xray showed some infiltrates in one lung. He’s been on antibiotics (chloropalm) twice a day and metacam once a day to treat for pneumonia. His breathing seemed to be getting better (no noise at all yesterday but breathing still seemed a bit laboured) but has worsened again tonight. My bf was in charge of giving meds while I was at work and said he didn’t get much of the metacam. I gave a third of a dosage just now. Does anyone know if I need to worry about overdosing on the anti inflammatory? It seemed to be what made the initial difference in his breathing so I can give a bit more, I’m just reluctant to give too much since I don’t know how much he actually got earlier today. It’s heading into a three day weekend here and my vet is closed so I’m panicking. The emergency vet by me will see exotics but they’re not awesome at knowing what they’re doing.



Thanks
Tracy

 

[Kat321]

Edit: he’s not a newborn. I’m not sure where that header came from and I can’t see how to edit on my phone. He’s an adult

 

[Claire W]

I'm sorry that your boy is unwell How much metacam has he been prescribed, is it cat metacam or dog metacam and is it once a day or twice a day? If once a day, I would phone your vet before they close for the weekend and ask if he can have it twice a day as guinea pigs have a fast metabolism so can have some medication, metacam being one of them twice a day

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m afraid we cannot comment on dosages. You do need to talk to the vet

The ‘newborn pup‘ title relates to you as a new forum member, not your piggy. It changes as you post more often

 

[Wiebke]

My guinea pig is making grunting/hooting noises when he breathes. Eating is still ok. I took him to the vet two days ago and the xray showed some infiltrates in one lung. He’s been on antibiotics (chloropalm) twice a day and metacam once a day to treat for pneumonia. His breathing seemed to be getting better (no noise at all yesterday but breathing still seemed a bit laboured) but has worsened again tonight. My bf was in charge of giving meds while I was at work and said he didn’t get much of the metacam. I gave a third of a dosage just now. Does anyone know if I need to worry about overdosing on the anti inflammatory? It seemed to be what made the initial difference in his breathing so I can give a bit more, I’m just reluctant to give too much since I don’t know how much he actually got earlier today. It’s heading into a three day weekend here and my vet is closed so I’m panicking. The emergency vet by me will see exotics but they’re not awesome at knowing what they’re doing.



Thanks
Tracy

Hi

If the breathing is deteriorating, please contact the vet clinic as soon as possible.

Metacam is an analgesic and not an antibiotic. Your vet has obviously described it because of the irritation from presence of some stuff in the lung that shouldn't be there.
It comes in two strengths, cat and three times stronger dog metacam; so in order to answer your question, we need to know how much of which strength he has been prescribed and what his weight is.

Please do not give more metacam within 12 hours; but you can give either the full dose every 24 hours or half the dose every 12 hours safely - the latter is generally recommended for guinea pigs as their metabolism is much faster than that of dogs and cats. Guinea pigs also tolerate it much better than than larger pets so I would not worry about overdosing.
But unless we have the exact prescription for the weight, we cannot comment. I hope that you can understand that?

All the best!

 

[Kat321]

Thanks everyone! The metacam dosage is 0.43ml of a 1.5mg/ml solution given every 24 hours. I’m not sure if that’s cat or dog metacam. It doesn’t say anywhere. It was supposed to be discontinued after 3 days. The chlorpalm is supposed to be given for 7 days so he’s on day 4 now.

His breathing did improve after the small “extra” dose (I say that in quotations because I don’t know if he actually received the full dose earlier). Yesterday should have been his last dose of the anti inflammatory Metacam but I think I’ll give at least another half dose today at the 24 hour mark and see how he does. So far this morning his breathing is still better and noise-free.

I’d love to confer with a vet but this all happened after their office closed for the long weekend. We brought another piggy to the emergency vet and the care he received was extremely poor in my estimation so I’m very reluctant to take another guinea pig there if I can manage this with some extra days of the anti inflammatory until he can see his regular vet.

I realize this forum isn’t a substitute for veterinary assessment and medical advice. I really appreciate the half dose twice a day suggestion- I was thinking of going that route since their metabolism is fast. I’m just mostly concerned about toxicity if I gave him a bit extra or if I continue it beyond the prescribed time. The vet did give me extra “in case we need to give it for longer” but again, I haven’t been able to confirm with them that that is what I should do. That makes it sound like it’s not unreasonable for me to do that though?

Also thanks for pointing out the “newborn pup” refers to me, not him. I see that now and blame sleep deprivation and worry (it was about 3am when I posted the message. I’ve been sleeping out on the sofa so that I can monitor his breathing.

 

[Kat321]

Oh- he weighs roughly 1100 grams, give or take a few grams.

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks everyone! The metacam dosage is 0.43ml of a 1.5mg/ml solution given every 24 hours. I’m not sure if that’s cat or dog metacam. It doesn’t say anywhere. It was supposed to be discontinued after 3 days. The chlorpalm is supposed to be given for 7 days so he’s on day 4 now.

His breathing did improve after the small “extra” dose (I say that in quotations because I don’t know if he actually received the full dose earlier). Yesterday should have been his last dose of the anti inflammatory Metacam but I think I’ll give at least another half dose today at the 24 hour mark and see how he does. So far this morning his breathing is still better and noise-free.

I’d love to confer with a vet but this all happened after their office closed for the long weekend. We brought another piggy to the emergency vet and the care he received was extremely poor in my estimation so I’m very reluctant to take another guinea pig there if I can manage this with some extra days of the anti inflammatory until he can see his regular vet.

I realize this forum isn’t a substitute for veterinary assessment and medical advice. I really appreciate the half dose twice a day suggestion- I was thinking of going that route since their metabolism is fast. I’m just mostly concerned about toxicity if I gave him a bit extra or if I continue it beyond the prescribed time. The vet did give me extra “in case we need to give it for longer” but again, I haven’t been able to confirm with them that that is what I should do. That makes it sound like it’s not unreasonable for me to do that though?

Also thanks for pointing out the “newborn pup” refers to me, not him. I see that now and blame sleep deprivation and worry (it was about 3am when I posted the message. I’ve been sleeping out on the sofa so that I can monitor his breathing.

That is the stronger suspension (cat is 0.5 mg/ml). You can give safely 0.22 ml every 12 hours, which works generally better for guinea pigs. In great pain, double of that can be safely given to a 1 kg piggy so you need not worry about overdosing.

Night shifts with piggies can really take it out of you. Please make sure that you get your own sleeping hours in as much as possible and rather check just once in the night unless you are really with a piggy in a life/death emergency situation or are sitting up with a dying piggy. You are no use for the longer run if you are crashing while a piggy/pet/person you are looking after still depends you. It's one of these life lessons that you usually learn the hard way.

 

[Kat321]

That is the stronger suspension (cat is 0.5 mg/ml). You can give safely 0.22 ml every 12 hours, which works generally better for guinea pigs. In great pain, double of that can be safely given to a 1 kg piggy so you need not worry about overdosing.

Night shifts with piggies can really take it out of you. Please make sure that you get your own sleeping hours in as much as possible and rather check just once in the night unless you are really with a piggy in a life/death emergency situation or are sitting up with a dying piggy. You are no use for the longer run if you are crashing while a piggy/pet/person you are looking after still depends you. It's one of these life lessons that you usually learn the hard way.

Thank you . I’m just so worried about him.

And I hope people reading this believe I’m not being a negligent piggy mom with the emergency vet- they accepted our other piggy overnight from our regular vet who doesn’t have 24h staffing to give a medication that they said they had but didn’t. I didn’t even find out about that until the next morning. We weren’t allowed in to see him or talk to the vet in person because of covid rules, which, as we found out when picking up his body, don’t apply if your animal is a sick dog.

 

[Claire W]

Thank you . I’m just so worried about him.

And I hope people reading this believe I’m not being a negligent piggy mom with the emergency vet- they accepted our other piggy overnight from our regular vet who doesn’t have 24h staffing to give a medication that they said they had but didn’t. I didn’t even find out about that until the next morning. We weren’t allowed in to see him or talk to the vet in person because of covid rules, which, as we found out when picking up his body, don’t apply if your animal is a sick dog.

I am so sorry for the bad experience you had with the emergency vet It is clear how much of a dedicated owner you are, nobody is going to believe you're being negligent x

 

[Wiebke]

I am very sorry about your bad experience. it has been so tough for all vets to keep their services running.

Not your fault and nobody is blaming you for what has happened. You are a very caring piggy mother; just make sure that you look after yourself enough, too, to be able to keep going.