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Guinea Pig Sneezing

Julia Rafferty

Julia Rafferty

Junior Guinea Pig
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I have a New Guinea pig who’s cage mate died of an upper respiratory infection and one symptom is sneezing. My current piggie is also sneezing A LOT but four vets have said he is fine and that his lungs are clear. Is it the bedding? I use care fresh and have never had this problem before. I have no clue what is wrong but he is still eating and drinking. Do some guinea pigs just sneeze a lot?
 
hello, welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear you lost your piggy, when did they pass away? And then what was the time frame in which the other piggy started sneezing? When did you visit the vets? and finally how long has the sneezing been happening for?
 
Julia Rafferty said:
I have a New Guinea pig who’s cage mate died of an upper respiratory infection and one symptom is sneezing. My current piggie is also sneezing A LOT but four vets have said he is fine and that his lungs are clear. Is it the bedding? I use care fresh and have never had this problem before. I have no clue what is wrong but he is still eating and drinking. Do some guinea pigs just sneeze a lot?
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Hi and welcome

I am very sorry for your loss!

If four vets have found no issues, then there are most likely no issues to be found. Your piggy may have a problem with hay dust. Have you looked at this angle? Other avenues can be dry air (radiators or air conditioning), air fresheners and scent sticks, smoking, perfumes, pollen etc. Hay dust is the most common culprit. Perhaps you could see whether changing the hay brand makes a difference?

Of course it is something you want to have cleared before you are looking for a new companion.
 
sport_billy said:
hello, welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear you lost your piggy, when did they pass away? And then what was the time frame in which the other piggy started sneezing? When did you visit the vets? and finally how long has the sneezing been happening for?
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I have only actually had them for a week and the on the passed was sneezing since the first day. About two days later my current one started sneezing and hasn’t stopped. We visited the vet again yesterday and the same response. My other piggy passed at 12:03 on Christmas morning.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi and welcome

I am very sorry for your loss!

If four vets have found no issues, then there are most likely no issues to be found. Your piggy may have a problem with hay dust. Have you looked at this angle? Other avenues can be dry air (radiators or air conditioning), air fresheners and scent sticks, smoking, perfumes, pollen etc. Hay dust is the most common culprit. Perhaps you could see whether changing the hay brand makes a difference?

Of course it is something you want to have cleared before you are looking for a new companion.
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Ok thank you I am not sure if Timothy brand hay is good but we have a scent diffuser in the room he is in so I will deffinetly take that out
 
If four vets haven't found a problem, he may just be a sneezy pig. There may be an allergy to something or an irritant in the environment that you can't pinpoint if it's a new behavior in a pig who didn't have this issue before. Have there been any changes (new bag of hay, new laundry detergent in use, scented candles, live Christmas tree in the vicinity, etc?) If it's a new piggie who has always been sneezy, they may just be sneezy. If it's any consolation, one of my pigs, Leela, was very sneezy when we got her, so we got her vet checked and she was fine, just sneezy. Later on she developed an eye infection and we had that checked and I once again asked them to go over her respiratory tract because she still sneezes a lot, and again she was fine, just sneezy. I suspect she has some sort of allergy but can't pinpoint what it is (she does sneeze a lot outside in the summer and develops watery eyes in the lawn, so I think it may be some sort of grass/pollen allergy and since she lives on hay, it's hard to remove that from her environment!
 
Julia Rafferty said:
I have only actually had them for a week and the on the passed was sneezing since the first day. About two days later my current one started sneezing and hasn’t stopped. We visited the vet again yesterday and the same response. My other piggy passed at 12:03 on Christmas morning.
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:( sorry to hear that. Where abouts are you located? Did the vet take a listen to the chest with stethoscope? Any sign of discharge on the nose or gunky eyes? I would expect this with URI normally.

How regular are the sneezes? Are they happening out of the blue e.g when piggy lying down etc... rather than in the hay?

For sure take out the diffuser that may cause an issue they can be quite strong, also never use the plug in ones in same room as piggies
 
Freela said:
If four vets haven't found a problem, he may just be a sneezy pig. There may be an allergy to something or an irritant in the environment that you can't pinpoint if it's a new behavior in a pig who didn't have this issue before. Have there been any changes (new bag of hay, new laundry detergent in use, scented candles, live Christmas tree in the vicinity, etc?) If it's a new piggie who has always been sneezy, they may just be sneezy. If it's any consolation, one of my pigs, Leela, was very sneezy when we got her, so we got her vet checked and she was fine, just sneezy. Later on she developed an eye infection and we had that checked and I once again asked them to go over her respiratory tract because she still sneezes a lot, and again she was fine, just sneezy. I suspect she has some sort of allergy but can't pinpoint what it is (she does sneeze a lot outside in the summer and develops watery eyes in the lawn, so I think it may be some sort of grass/pollen allergy and since she lives on hay, it's hard to remove that from her environment!
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Ok thank you I hope that’s what it is and we have decided to move him into the spare bedroom because there is nothing scented in there. This has been a great help.
 
sport_billy said:
:( sorry to hear that. Where abouts are you located? Did the vet take a listen to the chest with stethoscope? Any sign of discharge on the nose or gunky eyes? I would expect this with URI normally.

How regular are the sneezes? Are they happening out of the blue e.g when piggy lying down etc... rather than in the hay?

For sure take out the diffuser that may cause an issue they can be quite strong, also never use the plug in ones in same room as piggies
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The sneezes are pretty regular, I would say he sneezes a couple times every 30 mins. He has no dichrge from is nose or eyes and he never sneezes when he is sleeping but sometimes he does while eating hay. I am in New Jersey and the vet did listen to his chest with a stethoscope.
 
So US based okay. One of our girls always sneezed in the hay...... what do you bed them on?
 
Bedding should be okay. I would remove the diffuser and see how he goes, if the vet has checked a few times they are unlikely to change their mind unless another symptom arrives... You say they are eating and drinking okay, this is another good sign. Active and moving around also?
 
sport_billy said:
Bedding should be okay. I would remove the diffuser and see how he goes, if the vet has checked a few times they are unlikely to change their mind unless another symptom arrives... You say they are eating and drinking okay, this is another good sign. Active and moving around also?
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They are definitely very active and thank you we are actually moving him to a new room now
 
Julia Rafferty said:
They are definitely very active and thank you we are actually moving them to a new room now
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I would see how that goes, is the carefresh dusty? How much of the cage is it in?
 
Julia Rafferty said:
It is in about 2/3 of the cage and I when I clean the cage I do notice small mountains of dust on the bottom
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Maybe if the room switch doesn't work it may pay to try switch completey to fleece to see if that makes a difference, with allergies it can be trial and error in finding out what is setting them off. Could I ask you piggies name?
 
sport_billy said:
Maybe if the room switch doesn't work it may pay to try switch completey to fleece to see if that makes a difference, with allergies it can be trial and error in finding out what is setting them off. Could I ask you piggies name?
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Yes his name is Abraham and his brother was Lincoln. I will probably switch to all fleece because he seems to prefer it anyway
 
Abraham awwww bless, very cool name. Sorry about Lincoln, please feel free to leave a memorial post for Lincoln in our rainbow bridge section.

I hope you do enjoy being part of the forum here. We have a photos section if you ever wish to share photos of Abraham with us.

Hope the posts on the thread have helped
 
sport_billy said:
Abraham awwww bless, very cool name. Sorry about Lincoln, please feel free to leave a memorial post for Lincoln in our rainbow bridge section.

I hope you do enjoy being part of the forum here. We have a photos section if you ever wish to share photos of Abraham with us.

Hope the posts on the thread have helped
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Thank you they have helped very much and I am very glad that I joined the forum
 
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