A few days ago, while trying to syringe feed med to my pig, he choked. Took him to the vet and everything and he’s fine. Eating and active. But time to time he makes the choking sound and the vet said that it’s because the water is lodged in his throat and when he gets excited, he starts coughing. No problem in his lungs though. They are fine. Only problem is with the throat. How long will it take for the problem to go away? We can’t feed him any medicine because he refuses and don’t want to risk any more choking. Vet agrees. Will this go away on its own?
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Guinea pig choking
- Thread starter Wrii
- Start date
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
Can you pls give us a few more details? Eg. Are you in the UK? What was wrong with piggy that he was being syringe fed - had he lost weight? Or perhaps he was post-surgery...? and when was it the accident with the syringe happened?
He got an infection wherein his nipple is swollen. Was giving him meds for that. But since he refused the meds, we are now applying meds on the nipple. He had lost some weight because of the infection and horrible heat. But now he’s eating well and is pretty active. But he’s not making any sounds at all. No wheeking nothing. We aren’t in the UK
Siikibam
Forum Donator 2022/23
I am not sure whether the water would still be in the throat. What I would say is that you really do need to give him the medicine until the course is finished. You just have to be careful and syringe into the side of the mouth, a little at a time. There are some meds that they don’t like and it can be troublesome to give it to them. But you have to try.
A couple of questions. How old is he? What medicine was he prescribed before? What is the medicine you are now applying directly to his nipple?
Please can you also add your location to your profile. Country or state will do. It makes it easier when trying to give information.
A couple of questions. How old is he? What medicine was he prescribed before? What is the medicine you are now applying directly to his nipple?
Please can you also add your location to your profile. Country or state will do. It makes it easier when trying to give information.
I’m in India. He is 3 years old. The vet has strictly advised against orally feeding medicine. No matter whatever way I try to feed, this boy won’t take it. And I’m advised not to stress him out anymore.
Hi and welcome
How experienced is the vet you are seeing with guinea pigs?
Any water should have long cleared the throat but there may be something else stuck in it that may be causing the choking/coughing. Greedy guinea pigs will cough/make some rather upsetting noises from eating too fast because they swallow air. Are you sure that this is not what you are facing?
Please switch from weighing your piggy once weekly as part of the normal weight/health monitoring check to weighing daily at the same time.
Be aware that three quarters of the daily food intake should be hay and that soft veg and pellet feed only fill the supplementary role that wild forage would have had. If something is stuck in the throat it may likely result in a reduced intake of harder foods like hay. The kitchen scales should bring clarity on wether the coughing is a problem or not when it comes to eating.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely (videos)
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Below is our medicating guide with videos and pictures for both cooperative and uncooperative guinea pigs, piggy whispering and plenty of other little practical tips to help calm down and control your piggy without stressing them out too much.
Veterinary medication (apart from analgesics, i.e. painkillers and anti-inflammatories) is unflavoured and therefore mostly horrible tasting, so you won't meet many piggies queuing up for an antibiotic! You have to push past that barrier and give the medication in smaller amounts instead of all in one syringe plunger push whenever you are dealing with a piggy with swallowing issues.
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Is just the nipple enlarged or can you feel a swelling underneath the nipple? Is the nipple noticeably reddened (in paler skin) and hotter to the touch than its counterpart?
Could you please take a picture and use the Attach Files button under your post when you write to upload your picture. Other ways may not be supported as we are not part of social media. Boars can occasionally suffer from hormones and they can also develop mammary tumors (benign or malign) just as much as sows.
Please take the time to read the links; you will find them both helpful and informative.
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
Sometimes a lump on the nipple isn't an infection but if he had antibiotics most of them taste bitter and he won't like them. If it's not an infection it won't matter anyway. If he is taking a painkiller called metacam or loxicom (with active ingredient meloxicam) this tastes sweet and they usually love it and will try and grab the syringe! Sometimes pigs can develop a mammary tumour - but this isn't always cancer, it can be benign - but tumours can all grow and get very big. Sometimes it isn't a tumour but just a fatty lump which is alarming but might not cause piggy any trouble. It is always correct to get the vet to check it though. Unfortunately I don't know any more details as nipple lumps are one problem area my pigs have managed to avoid (goodness knows we've had almost everything else!)
Has your boy lost weight? Was it the medicine he choked on or syringe food - this is what caused my initial confusion. Sometimes pigs feel ill and lose some weight and people mush up the pellets (or get some powdered recovery food) and make a slurry to help them with their appetite as it's easier to eat and gain some strength to fight their illness. Sometimes a pig has had surgery or an anaesthetic for another reason and they are slow to recover - again feeding a thin mush of food with a syringe can help. So you can see I got a bit mixed up!
You care so much for this little fellow and he must know how you are concerned for him
He must be feeling a bit poorly and the heat doesn't help. There is a guide on this forum which you may have found about hot weather and guinea pigs - here is a link Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike
Over here in the UK we only have short periods of very hot weather so a popular method for tackling this is to put water in a plastic bottle (only 2/3 full) and freeze it, them wrap in a towel in the piggy cage.
We don't syringe water in hot weather to cool them down as this doesn't really work, however, if we are worried our pigs are ill and might be drinking less than usual we sometimes soak lettuce in water for it to crisp right up before it is eaten. Or if you can get cucumber this is very popular and the soft middle especially will hydrate piggy. But we would advise against syringing water - I have made a mistake like this myself and my piggy inhaled it and would have possibly developed a lung infection except she was already on antibiotics for the thing that had stopped her eating! The medicine was only a small volume - something like 0.2ml antibiotic so this amount is not too much for piggy to handle. But a pig fighting the syringe will struggle with anything over 0.5ml at a time and sometimes even that seems too much for them - large syringes are hard to control I know. Now I make a slurry with the pellets but just make it thinner with more added water if I am worried about a piggy dehydrating...
Keep a close eye on this coughing because if it started when he was fighting against the medicine he might have inhaled some. So he will either get over that or he might risk a lung infection and that could need another vet visit. I'm not an expert but if he were mine I would watch carefully thinking that this could go either way in the next few days. You can perhaps count how many times his sides go in and out to count his breaths. I'm not sure there is an average - my nervous neutered boy breaths much faster than my confident girl - but if your little fellow's breathing gets faster, or he takes shorter breaths, or he starts to struggle with breathing and you see his sides heave with effort this can point to a developing lung infection and a vet visit with antibiotics are needed.
Good luck, little India piggy x
Has your boy lost weight? Was it the medicine he choked on or syringe food - this is what caused my initial confusion. Sometimes pigs feel ill and lose some weight and people mush up the pellets (or get some powdered recovery food) and make a slurry to help them with their appetite as it's easier to eat and gain some strength to fight their illness. Sometimes a pig has had surgery or an anaesthetic for another reason and they are slow to recover - again feeding a thin mush of food with a syringe can help. So you can see I got a bit mixed up!
You care so much for this little fellow and he must know how you are concerned for him
He must be feeling a bit poorly and the heat doesn't help. There is a guide on this forum which you may have found about hot weather and guinea pigs - here is a link Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike Over here in the UK we only have short periods of very hot weather so a popular method for tackling this is to put water in a plastic bottle (only 2/3 full) and freeze it, them wrap in a towel in the piggy cage.
We don't syringe water in hot weather to cool them down as this doesn't really work, however, if we are worried our pigs are ill and might be drinking less than usual we sometimes soak lettuce in water for it to crisp right up before it is eaten. Or if you can get cucumber this is very popular and the soft middle especially will hydrate piggy. But we would advise against syringing water - I have made a mistake like this myself and my piggy inhaled it and would have possibly developed a lung infection except she was already on antibiotics for the thing that had stopped her eating! The medicine was only a small volume - something like 0.2ml antibiotic so this amount is not too much for piggy to handle. But a pig fighting the syringe will struggle with anything over 0.5ml at a time and sometimes even that seems too much for them - large syringes are hard to control I know. Now I make a slurry with the pellets but just make it thinner with more added water if I am worried about a piggy dehydrating...
Keep a close eye on this coughing because if it started when he was fighting against the medicine he might have inhaled some. So he will either get over that or he might risk a lung infection and that could need another vet visit. I'm not an expert but if he were mine I would watch carefully thinking that this could go either way in the next few days. You can perhaps count how many times his sides go in and out to count his breaths. I'm not sure there is an average - my nervous neutered boy breaths much faster than my confident girl - but if your little fellow's breathing gets faster, or he takes shorter breaths, or he starts to struggle with breathing and you see his sides heave with effort this can point to a developing lung infection and a vet visit with antibiotics are needed.
Good luck, little India piggy x
Thank you so much for your replies. It’s not a tumor yet. Just a swelling from infection because they like to sit on their poop. No matter how many times I clean, they will first poop and then sit on it. The infection isn’t causing the coughing though. I had given them meloxicam. They hated it. Both the babies. They never drink water from bottles, so I give them cool watery veggies. They have sufficient supply of good quality hay, veggies, fruits, and pellets. I have made their room cooler and the heat isn’t a problem anymore. I’m only worried about why he is still coughing. It’s like once or twice a day ans especially when he gets excited about food even before eating. I have attached the nipple pic though. Right now it’s a concoction of homeopathy medicines that I’m applying on the area. It’s mastitis.
Attachments
Thanks a lot! No there’s no shortness of breathing or struggle. His lungs have been thoroughly checked and there are no signs of any infection there. No respiratory issues. They are pooping and peeing well. Running around. And I have never syringed water or food. It was only for meds.Sometimes a lump on the nipple isn't an infection but if he had antibiotics most of them taste bitter and he won't like them. If it's not an infection it won't matter anyway. If he is taking a painkiller called metacam or loxicom (with active ingredient meloxicam) this tastes sweet and they usually love it and will try and grab the syringe! Sometimes pigs can develop a mammary tumour - but this isn't always cancer, it can be benign - but tumours can all grow and get very big. Sometimes it isn't a tumour but just a fatty lump which is alarming but might not cause piggy any trouble. It is always correct to get the vet to check it though. Unfortunately I don't know any more details as nipple lumps are one problem area my pigs have managed to avoid (goodness knows we've had almost everything else!)
Has your boy lost weight? Was it the medicine he choked on or syringe food - this is what caused my initial confusion. Sometimes pigs feel ill and lose some weight and people mush up the pellets (or get some powdered recovery food) and make a slurry to help them with their appetite as it's easier to eat and gain some strength to fight their illness. Sometimes a pig has had surgery or an anaesthetic for another reason and they are slow to recover - again feeding a thin mush of food with a syringe can help. So you can see I got a bit mixed up!
You care so much for this little fellow and he must know how you are concerned for him
Over here in the UK we only have short periods of very hot weather so a popular method for tackling this is to put water in a plastic bottle (only 2/3 full) and freeze it, them wrap in a towel in the piggy cage.
We don't syringe water in hot weather to cool them down as this doesn't really work, however, if we are worried our pigs are ill and might be drinking less than usual we sometimes soak lettuce in water for it to crisp right up before it is eaten. Or if you can get cucumber this is very popular and the soft middle especially will hydrate piggy. But we would advise against syringing water - I have made a mistake like this myself and my piggy inhaled it and would have possibly developed a lung infection except she was already on antibiotics for the thing that had stopped her eating! The medicine was only a small volume - something like 0.2ml antibiotic so this amount is not too much for piggy to handle. But a pig fighting the syringe will struggle with anything over 0.5ml at a time and sometimes even that seems too much for them - large syringes are hard to control I know. Now I make a slurry with the pellets but just make it thinner with more added water if I am worried about a piggy dehydrating...
Keep a close eye on this coughing because if it started when he was fighting against the medicine he might have inhaled some. So he will either get over that or he might risk a lung infection and that could need another vet visit. I'm not an expert but if he were mine I would watch carefully thinking that this could go either way in the next few days. You can perhaps count how many times his sides go in and out to count his breaths. I'm not sure there is an average - my nervous neutered boy breaths much faster than my confident girl - but if your little fellow's breathing gets faster, or he takes shorter breaths, or he starts to struggle with breathing and you see his sides heave with effort this can point to a developing lung infection and a vet visit with antibiotics are needed.
Good luck, little India piggy x
Hi
Thank you for the picture. It looks to me rather like the early stages of a mammary tumor, which may be the reason why any antibiotic is ineffective. It has nothing to do with your boys sitting in their poos, even if you 'poo patrol' daily.
In the link below is more information on mammary tumors with pictures for comparison. Please be aware that mammary tumors will not shrink or burst on their own. If left, they continue to grow and grow and grow until a piggy can longer have all four feet on the ground at the same time. The majority of them is benign; the problem and reason for their removal is as much the continuous growth as the risk of the tumor being malign.
Guinea Lynx :: Mammary TumorAs to the chocking/coughing, it sounds rather like a potential growth narrowing the esphagus inside or pushing onto the esophagus from the outside or something more solid stuck in the throat to me?
But it is not water stuck in there because that is a fluid - if your piggy is able to swallow the constantly produced saliva fluid without issues unless they are salivating very strongly ahead of a meal, then any faint gurgling your vet may have heard during the examination is much more likely saliva backing up from something else causing a narrowing/obstruction in the esophagus.
Please continue to check the weight. Cheap kitchen scales will suffice. It is not a matter of what you feed but what your boy eats. Eating too little hay is not good for him in the term.
Sadly, because we cannot know exactly what is going on and can only guess without a scan or access to your piggy, we cannot answer your question as to whether or how soon the problem will disappear.
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
What a beauty! And shiny eyes and great fur - and he snuggles into you so he must trust you very much because you are really looking after him 
Whatever the future is to bring he looks a happy boy for now. The best way to monitor how he is doing is to weigh every week. If he is losing weight week on week it is because he is not eating enough hay and over time this can cause teeth to overgrow as softer veggies do not grind the teeth down like hay does. Fresh grass can also grind down the teeth but you have to be careful not to get any that has been near a road or where dogs have peed as this is toxic for them. And if they have not had grass before start with only a little at a time. If you start to worry about his weight or condition switch to weighing every day at the same time - I usually do in the mornings as mine get veggies then and they are more compliant when they expect a bit of lettuce! The weight will go up and down a bit (within 30g each way is completely normal) but if he starts to drop more than that day on day there is some issue for him - but whether it is that nipple or something else I don't know. There are threads on here about guinea pigs (often age 5+) that have multiple problems just like older people, so sometimes it is just a matter of helping them to be comfortable rather than 'curing' everything.
They all sit in poop because they poop all the time - maybe it's because I'm female but I think the boys enjoy it more. I think they like the warmth! After 10 years of pigs we've never had an issue with this. Sometimes one gets a urinary infection and drips pee it causes a problem making the private areas and back feet red and sore but I don't think this is from sitting in poop. The girls rub their bits on the ground to scent mark and this makes them more likely to pick something up. One boy got a UTI because he had a bladder stone. My old boy George in the picture has had one urine infection in 5 years - this happened when he started to get impaction - but that was from the build up of poop inside him rather than anything outside - I know this because George is the worst for 'nesting' in his own poop! So I wouldn't be too worried about that. If he doesn't mind the homeopathic medicine being applied that's all the better.
Some pigs do drink less than others. Mine tend to use their bottles most when they eat pellets so I put the bottles near the bowls (I have 3 pigs and 4 bottles!) I had a shy girl once that I never saw drink at all. I hung a bottle right next to her favourite hidey and turned the spout to point inside. Then I started to hear the bottle being used... and especially in the night. Boy, she was a night-time drinker - it was so loud it would wake me up! I think she had been too shy and frightened to go to the bottle in the dark. But once she got used to the fact that she wasn't going to be eaten when she turned her back to drink she became quite a guzzler!
Take care x
Whatever the future is to bring he looks a happy boy for now. The best way to monitor how he is doing is to weigh every week. If he is losing weight week on week it is because he is not eating enough hay and over time this can cause teeth to overgrow as softer veggies do not grind the teeth down like hay does. Fresh grass can also grind down the teeth but you have to be careful not to get any that has been near a road or where dogs have peed as this is toxic for them. And if they have not had grass before start with only a little at a time. If you start to worry about his weight or condition switch to weighing every day at the same time - I usually do in the mornings as mine get veggies then and they are more compliant when they expect a bit of lettuce! The weight will go up and down a bit (within 30g each way is completely normal) but if he starts to drop more than that day on day there is some issue for him - but whether it is that nipple or something else I don't know. There are threads on here about guinea pigs (often age 5+) that have multiple problems just like older people, so sometimes it is just a matter of helping them to be comfortable rather than 'curing' everything.
They all sit in poop because they poop all the time - maybe it's because I'm female but I think the boys enjoy it more. I think they like the warmth! After 10 years of pigs we've never had an issue with this. Sometimes one gets a urinary infection and drips pee it causes a problem making the private areas and back feet red and sore but I don't think this is from sitting in poop. The girls rub their bits on the ground to scent mark and this makes them more likely to pick something up. One boy got a UTI because he had a bladder stone. My old boy George in the picture has had one urine infection in 5 years - this happened when he started to get impaction - but that was from the build up of poop inside him rather than anything outside - I know this because George is the worst for 'nesting' in his own poop! So I wouldn't be too worried about that. If he doesn't mind the homeopathic medicine being applied that's all the better.
Some pigs do drink less than others. Mine tend to use their bottles most when they eat pellets so I put the bottles near the bowls (I have 3 pigs and 4 bottles!) I had a shy girl once that I never saw drink at all. I hung a bottle right next to her favourite hidey and turned the spout to point inside. Then I started to hear the bottle being used... and especially in the night. Boy, she was a night-time drinker - it was so loud it would wake me up! I think she had been too shy and frightened to go to the bottle in the dark. But once she got used to the fact that she wasn't going to be eaten when she turned her back to drink she became quite a guzzler!
Take care x