Guinea pig recurring throat infection

[Piggydreams]

One of my guinea pigs has been getting throat infection repetitively for a few months now. He's behaving normally, no mucus, wheezing/ sneezing or any trouble breathing, just makes this weird throaty sound like something is stuck in his throat and coughs sometimes (which clears it up for a while but the sound comes back again). My guinea pig sounds similar to this but it isn't this loud or intense:

Our vet prescribed him antibiotics twice for as long as 3-4 weeks, it went away but came back again after a week or so. Vet concluded that it might be because he's allergic to something in the cage. But here's the confusing part. We have another guinea pig who also started making this sound when we allowed them to play together. She made this throaty sound for a few days, we separated them and it went away on its own, she's completely fine now.

So is he really allergic or is it bacterial? These are the things we keep in his cage so please tell me if any of these could be triggering this: dry sheets (have used them for over a year but he seemed fine with it), food bowls, dry grass, cardboard boxes (he chews on it often, but has always been doing this), pellets... And that's about it. He also gets large amount of food stuck behind his front teeth which needs to be cleaned frequently, so could teeth problems be an issue?

Would really appreciate a response to this. It has been really stressful seeing him deal with this for months. We just can't figure out what's causing it.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Allergies are thankfully rare in guinea pigs but I would recommend that you try another variety of hay; some piggies are much more sensitive to hay dust than others. Symptoms could also be caused by other irritants in the home.

My Taffy suffered those symptoms when I changed my hay to a locally sourced one and had to remain on dust extracted pet shop hay for the rest of her life and live up on a table cage because otherwise the problem would return within a week; the same as after a course of antibiotics.

You may find these links here helpful:
Irritants to Avoid Around Guinea Pigs
A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)

 

[Piggydreams]

We don't have good quality hay available where we live so we feed them fresh grass. The ones available on Amazon were also very dusty so we never buy those. So I don't think dust could be a problem here, the grass they're fed is thoroughly washed and dried

Thank you for the links! We don't have any of those irritants present near them. Do you think food that gets stuck in his front teeth could somehow be causing it?

 

[Piggydreams]

Hi!

Allergies are thankfully rare in guinea pigs but I would recommend that you try another variety of hay; some piggies are much more sensitive to hay dust than others. Symptoms could also be caused by other irritants in the home.

My Taffy suffered those symptoms when I changed my hay to a locally sourced one and had to remain on dust extracted pet shop hay for the rest of her life and live up on a table cage because otherwise the problem would return within a week; the same as after a course of antibiotics.

You may find these links here helpful:
Irritants to Avoid Around Guinea Pigs
A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)

We don't have good quality hay available where we live so we feed them fresh grass. The ones available on Amazon were also very dusty so we never buy those. So I don't think dust could be a problem here, the grass they're fed is thoroughly washed and dried

Thank you for the links! We don't have any of those irritants present near them. Do you think food that gets stuck in his front teeth could somehow be causing it?