Guinea Pig Choking/Gagging Issue

[warren+harvey]

Having a weird medical/health issue with my 1 year old, Harvey. He's only been with us a month and is having a weird choking/gagging habit.

A week ago we noticed he was making a clicking noise and lost interest in food. I took him to the vet immediately worried about URI and noticed he was making a choking/cough noise. Vet ruled out a URI and said his lungs and heart sounded clear. They observed him for several hours without him making the noise so we brought him home. Of course, he started making the noise again and coughing like he was trying to get something up once we were back. He also would try to eat but then would act like he just couldn't and would give up. I noticed the hay that we had was particularly dry and coarse with many straws (bad bag). My other baby is so picky he picks through those whereas Harvey plows through his food and thought he might have had something lodged or scratched his throat which caused the irritation.

I called to update our Vet who prescribed anti-inflammatory medication and after giving them to Harvey and changing the hay he gained his energy back, increased and maintained his eating and drinking. That said, I notice he still chokes every now and then. I've seen it about 2x this week.

I'm going back to the vet if it gets worse or persists. Has anyone had experience with this? I'm trying to figure out if this is something dental related, or perhaps just happens with young pigs who don't know how to pace their eating.

I noticed he choked when he was on my lap this morning when he wasn't eating anything, but he was wrapped in a furry blanket that perhaps could have irritated something?

 

[Bill & Ted]

Hello and welcome to the forum
I am so sorry you are having issues with Harvey, it’s such a worry when you can’t get a firm diagnosis. One thing you should do is weigh him at the same time to see if he is getting enough to eat and keep a record, do this daily at the same time for two weeks

I had a dental piggie called Ted and he had a dental spur which grew into his cheek. he had to have cregular conscious dentals to keep it in check. I will list what his symptoms where below:

Trying to eat and then losing interest
Losing weight on a downward trend
Gagging or slight choking actions
Strange mouth movements (pulling a strange face when eating
Struggling to eat hay or hard foods
Pawing at his mouth when eating
Choosing softer foods

also piggies can drool (My Ted didn’t do that)

There may be a possibility a bit of hay has got stuck in his mouth and it’s irritating him, this may go of its own accord as it softens but a vet may need to look inside to the back of his mouth if it’s still continuing. You may need to step in a syringe feed him too if he is losing a lots of weight. Ask your vet to check his chest for any breathing issues too.

 

[warren+harvey]

Thank you for this! Yes sounds like some of what Harvey is experiencing. We've kept an eye on him and no dramatic weightloss just typical fluctuations.
He's back to eating, and we got him a dental exam at our local rescue without anything.

Hoping this is all a good sign and maybe he just had something stuck - but still keeping watch over him in case anything develops or worsens.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Good luck, hope Harvey gets a clean bill of health x